By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The leadership tussle currently rocking the two leading opposition parties, the People Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), after the just concluded general elections is not in any way abating.
This is because the forces of change and those of the status quo are not ready for any concession. Symptomatic of the post-election trauma that usually follows an unimpressive outing in a fierce power contest as the one just witnessed, the agitated groups from both sides of the divide stoking the simmering crisis of confidence arising from the backlash of the defeat of their respective candidates in the presidential and National Assembly polls won by the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are up in arm against their embattled chairmen as the first political casualties.
Although the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declaring Tinubu as the President-elect, is being challenged in court by the candidates of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and his counterpart in the LP, Peter Obi, neither of the two parties is pursuing the case with a united front and the attention it deserves. Thus, unless there is last minute settlement of the ongoing power squabbles, the fate of the embattled National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, and his counterpart in the Labour Party, Julius Abure, may have been sealed with the subsisting court orders stopping them from parading themselves as chairmen of their respective parties.
For the PDP, this is its familiar terrain. Since 2015 when former President Goodluck Jonathan lost power to the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari, it has become a pattern for the party to relapse into crisis after each cycle of elections due to the inability of the leadership to manage the post-election trauma.
The ability of the National Working Committee (NWC) to pull back the party from the brink of collapse is once again on trial. Ayu is the 12th National Chairman.
In the same way, Adamu Muazu was pushed out of office after the woeful defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 for his alleged anti-party activities, Ayu is also on his way out of the party for the same old reason.
Under Muazu’s watch, it was alleged, the party lost most of its controlled states in the North to the All Progressives Congress (APC). For instance, the PDP lost in Bauchi State, Muazu’s home state, and the minister for the Federal Capital Territory. The APC also won the majority number of seats in the two chambers of the National Assembly. Consequently, the NWC members were asked to resign their positions for leading the party to its most disastrous outing since 1998. They accused Mu’azu of helping the opposition to win the elections.
For the current crisis, Ayu’s suspension was carried out by the Ward Executive of the party in his Igyorov Ward of Gboko Local Government Area, of Benue State. Addressing the media on behalf of Kashi Philip, the Ward Chairman, the Ward Secretary, Mr Vangeryina Dooyum explained that Dr Ayu was suspended by the executive for alleged anti-party activities. Among other reasons, he explained that the decision to place the suspension order on him (Ayu) was reached after the leadership reviewed his anti-party activities at the end of the just concluded general elections.
His words: “We observed with utmost dismay that Dr Iyorchia Ayu who is the national chairman of the PDP worked against the success of the party in Igyorov Council Ward.
“It is on record that he has also failed to pay his Annual Subscription Fees as provided under Section 8 (9) of the constitution of the PDP 2017 (As Amended).
“Further investigation also revealed that he did not vote during the governorship and state assembly elections held on March 18, 2023.
“It was also discovered that most of his closest allies worked for the opposition party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, and hence, the abysmal performance of the PDP in Igyorov Ward.
“In view of the foregoing, we hereby pass a vote of no confidence on Dr Iyorchia Ayu and suspend him as a member of our party with immediate effect. The suspension takes effect from March 24, 2023.”
It was to this effect that a High Court in Makurdi, Benue State, recently issued an interim injunction restraining Dr Iyorchia Ayu from parading himself as the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The presiding judge, Justice W.I. Kpochi, gave the interim order following a case filed at the court by Terhide Utaan with Ayu and the PDP as defendants.
The court statement reads in part: “Upon hearing Mr M. T. Assoh of Learned Counsel ably move the application and upon a dispassionate consideration of the facts placed before me in the pool of the affidavit evidence, and again, upon the consideration of the issues distilled in the written address by M. T. Assoh of Learned Counsel, it is my candid view that this is a proper case to grant the interim injunction as craved.
“Consequently, this application is hereby granted in terms of the reliefs captured in the motion papers as herein before reproduced. It is so ordered.”
Some political pundits had predicted that what happened to the PDP after the 2015 presidential election would repeat itself if the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, failed to reconcile with the aggrieved G-5 Governors led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
The G-5 who based their opposition to Ayu on the principle of fairness, equity, justice, and balance of power, had insisted that it was wrong for the North to hold on to the presidential candidate and chairmanship of the party.
So, Atiku jeopardized his chances by his refusal to mend fences with the G-5 Governors. In a similar scenario, five governors of the PDP had joined forces with the All Progressives Congress (APC) against Jonathan. This time around, however, the G-5 did not leave the party; they stayed within and fought against injustice.
Moving forward, there is speculation that the party has resolved to appoint Iliya Umar Damagum from Yobe State as acting chairman after the court had barred Ayu from parading himself as the national chairman.
However, Governor Wike in his usual recalcitrant attitude has declared the planned appointment of an acting national chairman as irrelevant. He stated this during a media chat with some journalists in Port Harcourt, blaming the party’s poor showing in the 2023 presidential election on Ayu-led leadership.
He said: “You can see that he (Ayu) has nothing to offer to the party. We won here which means we have something to offer to the party. Ayu has nothing to offer to the party.
“We are happy that Ayu did not go that time because if he had gone, they would have been saying that it was because he left that is why we lost (the presidential election).”
He dismissed the appointment of an acting national chairman for the party as inconsequential.
Also, the crisis in the Labour Party is not ebbing either. For similar reasons, the Edo State ward executives, led by the Ward’s Chairman, Martins Osigbemhe, had in a recent press conference in Abuja announced the suspension of the national chairman, Julius Abure, over allegations of scandals, forgery, perjury, mismanagement of funds, anti-party activities, among others.
Osigbemhe pointed out that the decision to suspend the national chairman was reached after the leadership of the ward thoroughly reviewed Abure’s conduct at the end of the just-concluded general elections. Specifically, he accused Abure of making clandestine moves to install former Edo State House of Assembly Speaker, Uyinmwen Ativie as the party’s House of Representatives candidate for Uhunmwode/Orhionmwon Edo State with forged Court documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said: “Be it known to all men that it is hereby stated that the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure submitted forged court documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in his move to make a former Edo State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt Hon. Uyinmwen Ativie, the party’s House of Representatives candidate for Uhunmwode/Orhionmwon Federal Constituency in Edo State.
“Abure’s forgery and perjury against authentic Labour Party candidates through illegal substitution of their names without their voluntary withdrawal etc, and subject to the evidence of non-applicability of the Police Report of indictment and Court Warrant of arrest against Barr. Julius Abure and some other National Working Committee members.
“Abure’s indulgence in gross anti-party activities with the opposition APC & PDP that led to the failure of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential and some national and states elections through unlawful association and proclamations against Labour Party candidates.
Following the suspension, a Federal Capital Territory High Court ordered Julius Abure to desist from parading himself as the national chairman of the Labour Party.
The presiding Judge, Hamza Muazu, on an ex-parte application also ordered some named individuals to stop parading themselves as national officers of the party.
Those affected include the National Secretary of the party, Farouk Ibrahim; National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu; and National Treasurer, Oluchi Opara.
With the raging crisis, there is skepticism that LP may not survive beyond the current election cycle.
Though the 36 states of the federation are equally shared among the APC, PDP, and LP by the outcome of the presidential election, some political watchers believe that the Obi Movement which is largely seen as an emerging Third Force may fizzle out with time if Peter Obi loses his court case challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President-elect.
The renowned Union activist, Chief Frank Kokori, speaking with Sunday Sun, described the Obi Movement as the greatest phenomenon, but expressed reservation on the possibility of sustaining the momentum beyond the current election cycle. He said: “The only problem is that Nigerians can’t survive without patronage. All those you see shouting Obi are thinking of getting positions. And Obi doesn’t give money. When those expectations are no longer forthcoming, they will shift back to the government. In no time, the Obi Movement will fizzle out gradually because there is no money.”
Also, the founding National Chairman of APGA, Chief Chekwas Okorie, added his voice, saying “the issue of structure remains important in future elections.
“I do believe that if the party can sustain and consolidate its gains, by the next election, he will have the structure he doesn’t have now.”
Meanwhile, the 36 states chairmen of the Labour Party have raised the alarm that the crisis currently rocking the party was aimed at frustrating its presidential candidate, Obi, from emerging victorious at the presidential election tribunal.
Notwithstanding the emergence of Lamidi Apapa as the acting national chairman, they pledged support for the Abure-led NWC.
The Nasarawa State Chairman of the Labour Party, Alexander Ombugu, who spoke on behalf of all the 36 states chairmen in the country, said in spite of the challenges that Abure was facing, they would continue to remain loyal and committed to his leadership.
“We are aware that the present crisis in the Labour Party is being sponsored by other political parties to spoil the chances of our party in the ongoing presidential election tribunal so that Mr Peter Obi will lose focus in continuing with the case.
“But we want to let them know today, that no matter what they do, we will continue to remain loyal to our National Chairman, Mr Julius Abure, and give him the needed support to take our party to greater heights,” he said.