From Ismail Omipidan, Abuja
It is exactly 10 years since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost power at the centre. Since then, it has been making frantic efforts to return to power. Sadly, every effort is usually frustrated by its internal crisis. Interestingly, the party has been battling another crisis since 2023 and there appears to be no end in sight in the crisis of confidence rocking the opposition PDP.
The crisis, which has lingered on for two years now, portends great danger for the party and its future survival. One of the dangers of the current crisis rocking the party is its imminent fall at the 2027 presidential election, with a possibility of losing some of the states, currently under its control.
For 16 years, the party ruled Nigeria, managing its internal crises along the way. However, political observers believe that its defeat in 2015 exposed it as a party lacking in discipline, cohesion and organisation. And post 2015, it has been from one crisis to another.
The party, investigations reveal, is at the moment in crisis over who should be the National Chairman and National Secretary respectively. Daily Sun recalls that the PDP, had after the 2023 presidential election ran into crisis, following the removal of its National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, through the court.
During its 98th NEC meeting, held on April 18, 2024, party leaders approved the formation of a reconciliation and disciplinary committee, as well as the conduct of Ward and State Congresses. The North -Central Caucus of the party was also tasked to consult on the issue of replacing the acting national chairman with a permanent one.
However, the 99th NEC meeting, originally set for August 15, 2024, where some of the issues were expected to be looked into, was suddenly postponed to October 24, 2024, and then from that date, it was further rescheduled for November 28, 2024 and later postponed indefinitely.
After initially proposing February for the NEC meeting, the party again through the PDP governors, proposed March 13, 2025 for the meeting. But by March 9, a statement from one of those laying claim to the secretaryship of the party, Sunday Udeh-Okoye, suggested that the meeting would now hold May 15, 2025.
Daily Sun however gathered that even the proposed May meeting may not hold following the new twist in the party’s crisis over who is the authentic scribe of the party.
Following the contest for the position of the National Secretary of the party between Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Honourable Sunday Udeh-Okoye, the PDP BoT had before the latest Supreme Court judgement, recognised Ude-Okoye as National Secretary and directed the National Working Committee (NWC) to inaugurate him without any further delay.
Daily Sun gathered that the Wabara-led BoT reached the decision after adopting a report of its committee headed by former Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki, SAN, which mediated on claims by the two litigants.
The BoT, had at its meeting on January 29, constituted a panel headed by Turaki, SAN, to mediate between Anyanwu and Ude-Okoye, “study the situation” and report back to it.
The Turaki panel in its report stated that “after perusing and painstakingly going through all the court documents and processes given to me by the parties, that from the 22nd day of December, 2023, Hon. S.K.E Udeh Okoye is the authentic and Bonafide National Secretary of our party. That he has not been sworn in by the Acting National Chairman and allowed to perform the functions of that office as directed by the Enugu State High Court and affirmed by the Court of Appeal is immaterial.
“This is because Equity sees as done that which ought to have been done. In other words, in the eyes of the law, he is taken to have assumed office of the National Secretary of our party effective from the 22nd day of December,2023.”
The Turaki panel further noted that though Anyanwu has appealed to the Supreme Court, “in our jurisdiction, like in other common law countries, courts do not stay declaratory judgments, as in actual fact there’s nothing to stay in a declaratory order. The cause of confusion is what was the status quo ante bellum as at the 13th of January, 2025? With all due respect, the status quo ante bellum as at the 13th of January, 2025, as I have stated earlier on in my conclusions is one that has Hon. S.K.E.Udeh Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of our party.
“If the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division therefore says that the status quo ante bellum should be maintained, the plain meaning of the directive of the Court is that he should remain in office until the 27th, when the court will hear the application and determine whether his continued occupation of the office should be interfered with or not,” Turaki, SAN, said.
On his part, the PDP National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, in his legal opinion to the NWC on the tussle, said since the contending parties have submitted themselves to the intervention of the BoT, it behoves on them, as well as the party, to accept the position of the PDP elders, cautioning that any attempt to ignore the BoT resolution would hurt the opposition party, since according to him, by virtue of Article 32(5) (a) to (i) of the party’s constitution (as amended in 2017), the BoT remains the “conscience of the party.”
Expectedly, Senator Anyanwu, who appears to be enjoying the backing of powerful political stakeholders within and outside the party, did not yield to the position of the BoT. Instead, he insisted on waiting for the Supreme Court judgement, which finally came last Friday. Although, the judgment, indeed nullified the Appeal Court judgment that sacked Anyanwu, it did not however restored Anyanwu as the rightful occupant of the position either. What the Supreme Court simply said was that the issue of who is the rightful occupant of the position is purely a domestic affair of a political party and that no court has the statutory powers to meddle in such affair. Meaning, if PDP’s constitution is applied strictly, Anyanwu, should ordinarily have given way.
Article 47(5) of the PDP’s Constitution provides that any officer elected into the party’s Executive Committee at any level, must resign before running for any elective office. Furthermore, Article 47 (6) equally made provision for the appointment of someone from the same area or zone of such officer who by virtue of Article 47 (5) vacates office, to serve out the tenure of such officer. In the instance under reference, South-East Zone, followed the constitution and presented Udeh-Okoye as a replacement for Anyanwu. But till date, Anyanwu, after losing the governorship contest in Imo, appears to want to return through the back door, as scribe of the party, a development, majority of the party stakeholders are kicking against.
Ironically, Anyanwu is back in court, seeking to validate his stay as National Secretary of the party. And the court has equally given him seven days from Tuesday, March 25, 2025, to furnish it with details of the Supreme Court judgement, purportedly restoring him.
The Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, and presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo, gave the directive after Anyanwu’s lead counsel, Chief Ken Njamanze, SAN, drew his attention to the decision of the apex court, which he claim effectively decided the legal dispute surrounding the position of PDP’s National Secretary.
Chief Njamanze, SAN, took the position on the same day another court, a High Court, heard and fixed for judgment, a suit Anyanwu filed to stay the execution of concurrent judgements that sacked him from the position of PDP’s National Secretary, while recognising Udeh-Okoye as the rightful occupant of the position.
Daily Sun recalls that the Court of Appeal in Enugu had in a judgement it delivered in December, 2024, upheld the verdict of a High Court, sacking Anyanwu, while recognising Udeh-Okoye as the National Secretary of the party. The court held that Anyanwu’s continued stay in office as National Secretary was in breach of PDP’s Constitution, following his resignation to contest the party’s governorship primary, where he emerged as the party’s candidate in the Imo State Governorship election, held in 2024. After all the parties adopted their processes last Tuesday, Justice Ekwo adjourned the matter to April 28 for judgment.
Regardless, the PDP, is no doubt faced with what could be regarded as the “battle for survival,” the outcome of which may make or break it as it prepares for another round of elections in 2027.
But how the PDP conduct its affairs, going forward, beginning with the proposed NEC meeting, now slated for May 15, 2025, leading into its convention, which may likely come up next year, would determine whether or not the party has learnt any lesson from the series of crises that almost sent it into political oblivion.