Fayose And The Re-Emergence Of PDP In The South-West

By Sola Adetola

The appointment of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State as chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum is a good development. First, he earned it as the most senior state governor of the PDP extraction in the present dispensation. Secondly, according to Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, who announced the appointment, Fayose deserved it as a committed party man. No one can fault this claim.

*Gov Fayose 

The position gives Fayose the privilege to coordinate the activities of the Governors Forum and work with other party structures to uplift the party. It is a weighty responsibility thrust upon his shoulders at a time the party is struggling to overcome leadership challenges and the concomitant fractionalization and disorientation the crisis had plunged its members into in most parts of the country.

Fortunately, Fayose himself is not unfamiliar with the leadership tussle that has torn the party apart. He was part of the genesis of the crisis, being one of the principal actors who foisted ex-governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff on the party as acting national chairman, despite the fears raised by notable stakeholders, including the board of trustees of the party. Sadly, he and his collaborators in the scheme were unable to curb the man when he engineered a power play that became volatile. The resultant conflagration has defied political solution and the party now seeks refuge in a judicial resolution. Fayose should learn something from that to guide him in his new call to duty.

Another party issue that Fayose needs to draw lessons from was his alleged role in yet another contrivance to impose a relatively new member of the party and former governorship candidate in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje, as national chairman of the party in very controversial circumstances, at the botched national convention of the party in Port Harcourt, in August last year.

This move did not go down well with the stakeholders of the party from the South-West as they had already endorsed a consensus candidate at their meeting in Akure, Ondo State, in the person of Chief Olabode George. The subsequent disenfranchisement of most of the delegates from the zone, with the exception of Ekiti State delegates, at the convention ground left members feeling betrayed and convinced that Fayose was pursuing a separate agenda against the collective will of the majority in the zone.

Is South East Still In PDP?

Oguwike Nwachuku

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), once a political behemoth that loomed large in Nigeria which boasted as the largest party in Africa – but now in the opposition – is at it again.
It is working to recover from what hit it in last year’s presidential election when, surprisingly, it succumbed to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is now in the national leadership saddle, basking in the euphoria of change.
Last week, it released its new zoning arrangement ahead of the 2019 presidential election which its leaders have bragged they will win with ease.

It appears the PDP is yet to learn from its mistakes and from its new zoning formula, another fresh seed of crisis has been deliberately sowed or about to be sowed. And that is the thrust of my argument today.

Those who analysed the exchanges between Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and a chieftain of the PDP, Olabode George, on Politics Today on Channels Television last week will easily conclude that the PDP is still far from being cured of the disease that befell it in the build up to the 2015 general election.
The disease that afflicted the PDP in the past? Selfishness. Greed (Avarice). Inordinate ambition. Hatred. Ethnic and tribal bigotry. Godfatherism. Politics of imposition.
These and others were the problems the APC saw as a window of opportunity and leveraged on to sell the dummy of change to Nigerians.

It is said that a man who does not know when rain started to drench him may not know when it will stop.
Most PDP watchers are looking forward to the so-called zoning arrangement and by extension, the party’s ward, council and state congresses to see if what the leaders are saying about their preparedness to return to power is real or a fluke.
Feelers from across the nation on its recent congresses are hardly encouraging. The stories we hear are not different from the ones we used to hear before which are reminiscent of the characters that most PDP leaders exhibit during election.