From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
To many critical observers, the year 2024 may likely go down in the annals of Nigeria’s history as one almost all the major political parties in the country are enmeshed in one crisis or the other.
From the main opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to even the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the situation appears the same. It has been a tale of internal conflicts and each is like a house divided against itself.
All through this year, according to pundits, rather than concentrate on strategic programmes to win the confidence of many Nigerians, the leadership crises bedevilling the political parties dominated their activities.
While the PDP umbrella, perforated by conflicts, has continued getting weaker from providing temporary and or permanent shelters for Nigerians, the leaders of the very promising LP is grappling with unending legal battles to install the rightful leader of the party’s number one seat.
It has been an endless attrition in the LP throughout this year between the national chairman, Julius Abure, and members of his National Working Committee (NWC) over the alleged mismanagement of the party’s fund and the legality of his re-election during the controversial elective National Executive Committee (NEC) held in Anambra State.
In its state of confusion and the escalating controversy, the leaders of the party, led by its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi and only sitting governor, Alex Otti of Abia State among many others, had nominated and endorsed former lawmaker, Nenadi Esther Usman, to take charge of the party as a Caretaker national chairman.
However, instead of the decision restoring sanity in the troubled party, it rather brought more confusion and controversy, especially with the recent law court judgment favouring and retaining Abure as the substantive chairman and his surprise recognition by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who hitherto inflamed the crisis, rejecting the Anambra State convention, claiming that it did not monitor it.
Reacting to the quagmire and confusion, Obi had assured constantly that there is no cause for worry, dismissing the insinuations that he was planning to dumb the party to join any emerging new political order reportedly spearheaded by many of the disgruntled heavyweight politicians across the political parties.
Aware of the implications of the further escalation of the crisis, the embattled Abure, recently appealed to Obi, Abia State governor, Otti, and other aggrieved bigwigs to return to the party.
Abure said: “There is no more crisis in the party. The court has said there is only one leader in LP. And if there is a dispute in the country or anywhere, the only place you can go for reprieve is the court. It was said that our national convention didn’t follow due process. That was why people went to court.
“INEC said we didn’t follow due process, and we went to court. The court said the convention was in line with the party constitution, the Electoral Act, and the constitution of the land. INEC has since obeyed it and we are working very closely with the commission.
“All those who feel offended should come back to the party. We have forgiven all those who perceived they had done us one thing or the other. I am not angry. We have put it behind us and LP is one big family.”
Today, however, there is no doubt that the LP is lying prostrate over the rightful legal national leadership between the Abure and Usman-led chairmanship.
The crisis situation is even more precarious and threatening in the PDP where the leaders have consistently been at daggers-drawn over who is actually in charge of the party’s structure. Analysts believe the ensuing battle is between Atiku Abubakar and Nyesom Wike-led factions and loyalists.
The leadership crisis took a worsening dimension last week when the party cancelled, for the umpteenth time, its proposed elective national convention earlier postponed to late November, over the flimsy reason that it coincided with the burial of the wife of the governor of Akwa-Ibom State.
Surprisingly, the reason for the cancellation of the convention did not raise dust or curiosity than the statement credited to the national leadership of the main opposition party that it was an indefinite postponement as no new date was fixed to hold the crucial NEC meeting.
In a concise remark by the party’s National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, the PDP leadership had confirmed the postponement of its 99th NEC meeting hinging it on the funeral of late Akwa-Ibom State First Lady, Patience Umo Eno.
Announcing the indefinite postponement, Anyanwu said: “Distinguished members of NEC may recall that the NEC meeting scheduled for Thursday, October 24, this year, was rescheduled by one month to hold on Thursday, November 28, after an extensive meeting of the leaders, critical stakeholders and relevant organs of the party.
“However, at its meeting of Wednesday, November 20, the attention of the NWC was drawn to the programme of events of the funeral ceremony of the late First Lady of Akwa-Ibom State, which coincided with the scheduled dates of activities for the 99th NEC meeting.
“After due consideration, the NWC, recognising the need for party leaders to commiserate with Governor Umo Eno and participate in the funeral, hereby wishes to notify distinguished members of NEC of our party that the 99th NEC meeting, earlier scheduled for Thursday, November 28, will now be held on a date that will be communicated to members in due course.”
However, critical observers believe the postponement was a facade genuinely hinged on the funeral and was a deliberate strategy to buy more time.
From all indications, the PDP crisis may likely remain insoluble at least till the end of this year as some members of the party’s Governors Forum, poised for a showdown with the Wike-led faction, are battle-ready just as the party’s North Central stakeholders had insisted on the adherence to the established succession plan outlined in Section 47 (6) of the PDP Constitution (2017 Amendment).
Weighing in on the crisis, its former National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, had warned that anything other than respecting the party’s constitution would result in all the resolution mechanisms ending up as an exercise in futility.
Ologbondiyan noted that: “leaders must look at the bigger picture and address the truth of the exercise wherever it is required. We must tell those who have undertaken to either kill the PDP or render it comatose that the party is not a one-man organisation.
“The founders named it the PDP. It is, therefore, owned by the people of Nigeria and not any individual, no matter how well placed in the society.”
The intraparty conflicts even appear worse in the NNPP and APGA where the relentless battle rocking the parties has actually resulted in things falling apart with the centre no longer able to hold again.
Believed to be under the clutches of the manipulation of the APC, the NNPP never enjoyed any respite since its victory to take charge in Kano State, apparently due to the unending conflicts and cold war between the godfathers of Kano politics, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, national chairman of APC.
It became that bad, fuelling speculations at different times that both Kwankwaso and the incumbent governor, Abba Yusuf, contemplated dumping the party, due to the rampant crisis, to seek comfort and refuge in another party.
To underscore the magnitude of the conflicts, Kwankwaso, who relied on a favourable court ruling to disentangle himself from the suspension clamped on him, had constantly declined comment on the issue.
“I don’t want to talk. Don’t drag me into what I am not supposed to be dragged into. The chairman of the party has spoken and has been speaking, reach out to him,” he replied to newsmen pestering him for reactions on the NNPP crisis.
Like in the PDP, LP, and NNPP, the confusion is almost the same, if not worse, in APGA, involved in one week, one trouble, in a desperate search to resolve its endless leadership crisis until the pronouncement by the Supreme Court finally laid the conflicts to a rest last week.
In retrospect, the ceaseless conflicts and legal battle between Edozie Njoku and the Victor Oye-led national leadership on one side and most recently the Sly Ezeokenwa-led leadership, which have lasted many years now, finally ended with the recent Supreme Court judgment.
In accepting the verdict of the apex court, Njoku, a dogged fighter, while flying the white flag, however, promised to sheath the sword, promising that; “we will do everything within our powers to make sure that there is peace in this country.
“But one thing I promise you is that you can never muffle the voice of the people. The people of Anambra State, in the next election, will speak, and it will be so resounding.”
Njoku, however, argued that there would be anarchy in the states and the country if citizens decided to choose the judgments to obey or not to obey, submitting: “All said and done, the Supreme Court has spoken and I truly believe in the Chief Justice of Nigeria who had made it clear in so many fora that she must bring sanity to the judiciary.
“I will not and I cannot be a clog in the hog. I cannot and I will not add to the pressure of those who are putting in relentless efforts to ensure that the judiciary survives a very telling time.”
Ironically, the ruling party, APC, is surprisingly not immune to the internal strife ravaging almost all the major political parties in the country, as the cold war, bitterness, and animosity within the party, especially over the controversial zoning arrangement adopted by the party which produced its current chairman, Ganduje, has contributed in widening the crack within the party.
The animosity has apparently resulted in the spate of protests by aggrieved party stakeholders from the North Central geopolitical zone, threatening a showdown should the leadership fail to grant their request to occupy the top echelon of the ruling party as stipulated in the constitution.
Curiously, the situation has equally contributed in disrupting the several attempts made by both the party’s national leadership and allegedly the presidency to organise its statutory and constitutional quarterly NEC and National Caucus meetings, for fear of uncertainty even though they have hinged the reason on the unavailability of President Bola Tinubu to physically attend as the reason for shift the meeting.
According to many pundits, there could not have been a better confirmation of the crises in almost all the registered political parties in Nigeria than the failure of the ruling party to perform the simplest task of organising NEC and Caucus meetings in the past year for fear of the future of its chairman whose faith has been hanging perilously in the balance.
While claiming that the situation in the ruling party calls for serious concern, its former national vice chairman North West, Salihu Moh Lukman, described APC as a house apparently divided against itself.
Lukman had derogatorily tagged APC as a mere legal entity, lamenting that the ruling party is nothing more than a tool for winning elections. And recalling that the party was created to be a different and robust alternative to the PDP, Lukman, passing a damning verdict, quipped: “As it is today, the party is only a legal entity.
“The function it is supposed to exercise as a political party by way of aggregating interests and opinions has been sacrificed completely. This is part of my pain. Our vision is that it should represent a stronger capacity for governments elected to respond to the challenges and problems of the nation. Unfortunately, what we have is practically business as usual.”
Perhaps due to the biting economic hardship, many of the registered political parties have apparently returned to their old ways of depending largely on endorsing candidates of the major political parties for their continued survival, existence, and relevance.
The blind and deaf could confirm that the old method of defecting during political campaigns effectively played out during the off-cycle governorship elections conducted this year in Edo and Ondo States.
It is still fresh in the minds of many Nigerians that a certain number of political parties and their candidates surprisingly endorsed and stepped down for both the candidates of the APC and PDP during the build-up to the contentious governorship elections
A political leader who preferred anonymity told Daily Sun that the intra-party crises witnessed this year will surely be a child’s play next year when the real build up for the 2027 presidential election will gather momentum.
“I want to advise those expressing discomfort over the crises within the political parties to be ready for the real deal next year when the strategy and scheming for the 2027 presidential election will degenerate into a dangerous dimension.
“Mark my words, the situation will be worse because the APC and the presidency, knowing that Nigerians are angry over the harsh economic state of the country, may be left with the slim option of fuelling further disintegration of the leadership of the opposition parties to ensure that they won’t field strong candidates to contest against the incumbent president, Tinubu,” the political leader argued.
