Edo Guber: Controversies, protests dog parties’ preparations for primaries

From Tony Osauzo, Benin

Controversies and protests have dogged the processes leading to, and the conduct of party primaries of the three leading political parties ahead of the September governorship election in Edo State.

The parties, the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP), are battling to keep and maintain the ranks of their members arising from the internal disagreement, the fall-out of the poor handling of the processes have caused.

Currently, the PDP which has been grappling with the problem of factionalization, now has the added problem of majority of its governorship aspirants rejecting the conduct of the party’s ward and local government congresses to elect delegates that will nominate the party’s governorship candidate during its primary scheduled for the 22nd of this month.

Trouble started with the publication of three conflicting lists of party officials and venues for the conduct of the ward delegates congress said to have been made by the party’s National Organizing Secretary. One of the lists reportedly contained names of serving appointees in the Godwin Obaseki government and others from Delta State.

Nine of the party’s governorship aspirants on noticing this, protested in a petition to Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, who the party appointed Chairman of a three-man ward delegates Congress Committee. Makinde in reaction to the petition was said to have referred the matter to the party leadership to resolve it but resolution did not come until the date of the ward delegates Congress, forcing Makinde to withdraw from the exercise as Chairman.

Consequently, the governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, took charge as Chairman and proceeded to conduct the ward delegates Congress, which governor Obaseki and the State Chairman of the party, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, adjudged as one of the freest and best ward delegates Congress conducted by the party.

The outcome of the exercise has led to altercations and disagreement between Aziegbemi and the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Ogie Vasco, who condemned it and called on the National leadership of the party to do the right thing, even as the nine aggrieved governorship aspirants appealed the matter to the Congress Appeal Panel headed by Senator Seriake Dickson, threatening legal action if the party failed to right the wrongs.

Unfortunately, the party has proceeded to conduct the local government delegates congress with the Senator Dickson Appeal Panel confirming shortcomings in the conduct of the party’s ward delegates congress, but proposed a political solution to the crisis as the party cannot order a repeat of the ward delegates congress because of the tightness of the election timetable.

Clearly, the last is yet to be heard on this matter as electoral danger looms ahead for the PDP if it fails to take steps to address the grievances of the nine governorship aspirants satisfactorily.

Similarly, things are not rosy for the APC which has scheduled the conduct of its governorship primary election for Saturday, February 17.

There have been internal rumblings in the state chapter of the party over its move to prune its governorship aspirants to a manageable number. This has caused distrust in the minds of some of the aspirants who suspect that the leadership of the party has a preferred aspirant in mind.

Following the large number of aspirants who indicated interest in the governorship on its platform, the state leadership of the party in consultation with the national leadership, set up a committee to look at ways to prune the number. In doing this, the party called a stakeholders meeting of the aspirants and party leaders to Abuja where the parameters for the exercise were set. Some of them were winning their units, ward and local government area during the last general elections to make aspirants qualify for the governorship race. 

At the end of the exercise, the Committee headed by Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, a member of the House of Representatives, came up with 10 names which were later reduced to six and finally four. This led to protests by those aspirants who lost out. Some of them started sponsoring campaign of calumny against some leaders of the party and the National Leadership of the party, seeing the dimension things were going, directed that those with governorship ambition were free to procure Interest and Nomination Forms.

The party had announced a direct mode of primary election to nominate the governorship candidate. This presupposes that all bonafide members of the party are expected to vote for their preferred aspirants at their various wards. But the Acting State Chairman of the party, Jaret Tenebe, told journalists in Benin on Monday that 960 delegates  which were elected at ward congress of the party that day, would ratify the party’s governorship candidate. This development has caused confusion among party members who are seeking clarification.

From all indications, there appears to be desperation on the part of some aspirants of the party who have developed a feeling of entitlement to the ticket ahead of the governorship primaries. The party’s leadership, the aspirants and their supporters need to put this in check so that the bitterness that may  arise from their failure to win the ticket would not work against the party at the main election.

The Labour Party (LP), is also not immune to the crisis of confidence the PDP and APC are grappling with. On Sunday, February 4, members of the party protested to the party secretariat in Benin where the party leadership, including the National Chairman, Julius Abure, were meeting. They accused the leadership of holding clandestine meetings with the state government allegedly with a view to cut deals to the detriment of the party ahead of the governorship election.

Besides, the crisis of confidence has forced the party to go back on how its delegates would emerge. Originally, party executives were to form part of the delegates. That has now changed, fuelling speculations that the party leadership have something they want to achieve, especially as party faithful are not sure how delegates would emerge.

The LP which many consider as an alternative, needs to put its house in order and conduct a transparent primary if it wishes to be taken seriously by the electorate.

Perhaps, it is safe to say that with what is going on within the political parties, nothing is sure until the final outcome of their governorship primary election.