Issues as Supreme Court sits on PDP crisis
Pundits say the convention may hit the rocks if contentious issues relating to the unity of the party were not thrashed out. They also emphasised the pending appeal at the Supreme Court.
The outcome of the judgement unarguably means a lot to the survival of the PDP.
If Makarfi wins, it means Sheriff and his supporters would either succumb or move to another party or even form a new one. The situation is the same with Makarfi and those supporting his course.
Either way, a lot must be done to revamp the PDP and pundits believe that the big one is the national convention, considering that some of the impediments which led to the ineffectiveness of the party's two previous conventions are yet to be resolved.
Party chieftains have pointed out that the obstacles were likely to still play out no matter the outcome of the Supreme Court judgement.
The decision of the Sheriff-led NWC to organise the convention is premised on the report of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee headed by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, which recommended recently, among other things, that the convention be held not later than June 30.
While political solution to the tensed leadership tussle between Sheriff and Makarfi was also recommended by the Dickson committee, the deputy national chairman of the party, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, told newsmen that the National Executive Committee (NEC), the second highest decision-making body of the party would meet on May 3, just a day to the continuation of the case at the Supreme Court.
Before now, with high expectations of favourable judgement reminiscent of what transpired at the Court of Appeal, Ojougboh had asked the leadership of all the state chapters of the PDP to send list of statutory delegates to the convention on or before April 27.
Highly placed sources within the party told Daily Trust that the NEC meeting was originally meant to discuss the convention date as well as who to played what role and other issues relating to the party’s future.
It was, however, gathered that beside the major court case, the May 3 NEC meeting may not hold due to other hurdles confronting the Sheriff-led NWC and other key players.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that while various organs of the party such as the PDP governors, Board of Trustees (BoT), National Assembly caucus, NWC, states chairmen and other key stakeholders are expected at the NEC meeting, it would be awkward to put them under one roof all at the same time.
It was gathered that consultations have been going on within the party since the appeal court judgement which gave Sheriff legitimacy, but stakeholders have consistently differed on serious party matters such as the convention and how to proffer political solution to the issues that brought the party to its knees.
It was further learnt that while Sheriff has penetrated the good books of some stakeholders who initially opposed him as PDP chairman, others are still defiant.
The fears
A harvest of ideologies from PDP bigwigs revealed that no matter what, the planned convention in June might end up a charade if not properly handled.
This, analysts say, is because of the delicate nature of the issues and divisions in the party in which only few would be addressed by the Supreme Court based on the papers filed by the contending forces.
Though Sheriff has said he will not be contesting for the office of chairman at the convention, many believe that he would likely manipulate or highjack the process by planting his allies into top party offices in order for him to secure the party’s presidential ticket for the 2019 general elections.
Responding to a question during a press conference recently at Wadata Plaza on whether his decision not to contest the chairmanship was to pave way for him to secure the 2019 presidential ticket of the PDP, Sheriff said “God will determine my fate.”
The PDP has zoned its presidential ticket to the North where Sheriff hails from.
“Every position I made in life, God made it possible for me. I believe in the will of God. I told you that I won’t contest the office of chairman at the convention but the rest, I will leave it to God to decide,” he said.
He, however, said every other member of the party’s NWC has the right, as a Nigerian, to contest any office at the convention, stressing that they have not offended anybody.
“The convention committee will be constituted after our consultations. For now, we are consulting to get inputs from the various organs of the party on how the convention should be organised.
“We want our party back in power. So, we are carrying everybody along. But anybody who does not believe in political solution and wants to destroy the party is on his own,” Sheriff said.
Another fear is that in the event the Makarfi faction wins at the Supreme Court, it would start afresh, anything that has to do with the convention and if they got defeated at the court, and still feel they could remain in the PDP, the group or any other member of the party could walk into the court once again and obtain an order restraining Sheriff from organising the convention.
This could be the same scenario that played out during the May 21 botched convention, last year, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Justice I.N. Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, on May 20, a day to the Port Harcourt convention, restrained the PDP from conducting elections into the offices of the national chairman, national secretary and national auditor of the party.
The same court also restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from monitoring the conduct of any election into the affected offices.
Similarly, a Federal High Court in Abuja had stopped the scheduled national convention of the party slated for August 17, 2016.
Justice Okon Abang said he gave the ruling to serve as a “judicial deterrent” for what he described as the “excesses of parties.”
Some big wigs within the party, however, ended up extending the tenure earlier given to the Makarfi-led caretaker committee by 12 months, as there was no election into various offices at the convention ground.
Makarfi has consistently said that before the PDP could go into convention, all legal issues must be thrashed out in order for the party to have a leeway in 2019.
He expressed fear that anything short of that would entangle the party in another round of legal battle.
The spokesman of the Makarfi-led caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, recently said that there won't be any convention until the pending appeal at the Supreme Court are trashed out.
But the PDP national legal adviser, Barrister Bashir Maidugu, told Daily Trust that any PDP believer who wanted the national convention to be held should key into the recommendations of the Dickson committee, adding that no other report would be considered by the party.
“The Jonathan committee has no relevance. We would not recognise it,” Maidugu said.
POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE
DATE:04/30/2017
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