Trouble in the House

Culled from TELL Magazine.

Aggrieved aspirants and their supporters in the People Democratic Party express sentiments that may threaten the party’s unity

It appeared that everywhere they went there was a bump. Though they carried a lot of air around them as they went about campaigning, leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, know that there is crisis in their home. What tells that more than the fact that President Olusegun Obasanjo, the chief campaigner, has had to hurry out of two major campaigns in the last two weeks? In Akure, Ondo State, at the South-west zonal campaign, he, along with other chieftains literally retreated to avoid being pelted. At least, two people were reported dead there.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the President gave an excuse for the absence of Delta, Edo and Bayelsa delegates who had been barred from the rally by people believed to be supporters of Rotimi Amechi, speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly. Amechi was dropped as PDP candidate for governor because, according to Obasanjo, his case had “a little k-leg”.
At the rally, the party ratified the tickets of Emmanuel Uduaghan, Osaremien Osunbor, Timipere Sylva and Godswill Akpabio for Delta, Edo, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states respectively. That of Uduaghan, former secretary to the state government, had generated controversies as people lobbied against his choice because of alleged closeness to Governor James Ibori.
Uduaghan is, however, luckier than his compatriot who contested for Delta North Senatorial seat. Ned Nwoko, as at last week, was fighting to regain the ticket he lost to a woman who did not even participate in the party primary in his senatorial district. Marian, wife of Ahmadu Ali, national chairman of the party, was not a candidate at the primary held last December. Nwoko smelt a rat when, after the exercise conducted through option A4, Raymos Gwanah, the returning officer, who is also a special adviser to Ibori, refused to announce the result. It took the intervention of the director of the State Security Service, SSS, in the state and a threat from Nwoko for him to release the results.  Nwoko won with 581  votes to Osakwe’s 281 at the Asaba centre, while he also scored 775 votes to Osakwe’s 52 at the centre.
However, the winner could not celebrate his victory as he was arrested by the police for alleged illegal possession of firearms despite his claim that his guns were licensed. The police confiscated the guns and held the politician for two days. Curiously, before he was released, Osakwe was, at the Government House in Asaba, declared winner of the Delta North Senatorial primary. Even that fellow later lost to superior manoeuvres. The national headquarters of the party declared Marian the candidate for the senatorial district. Nwoko told the magazine in Abuja last week that Marian’s emergence is not only a brazen and illegal imposition on the people but came about through results forged to justify her emergence and give the impression that she partook in and got votes at the primary. According to Nwoko, he and other contestants would have accepted the outcome if they had been told that she was the party’s consensus candidate. He added that “ to pretend that she took part in and won the primary is a great rape on all democratic and moral norms”.
But Nwoko is still hopeful that the National Assembly Primaries Appeal Committee, which he petitioned last December, will answer his prayer by declaring him winner. However, there are fears that Ali may disregard a favourable verdict from the committee with impunity. This is because even Obasanjo may have given up on attempt to persuade the chairman against imposing his wife on the district. Ali reportedly justified his insistence by pointing out to Obasanjo that his daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, is vying for a seat in the Senate from Ogun State just as the wife of Bode George is also vying for a seat in the House of Representatives from Lagos State.  Obasanjo has since distanced himself from the matter. The party leaders may, however, have reasoned that tinkering with the candidature of Uduaghan will amount to overstretching the tense political atmosphere in the state. On the eve of the rallies, there were wild speculations that Uduaghan, Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State and Adebayo Alao-Akala, deputy governor of Oyo State, among others, would be dropped from the party’s list. The speculation turned out to be false, though some of them were not totally without foundation. For instance, opponents of the Delta governorship candidate had hoped that the party leadership would grant their request by dropping Uduaghan as candidate. Edwin Clark, Ijaw leader and  arrowhead of that opposition, told the magazine last week that “we went to see Mr. President and he gave us an assurance that the matter (the alleged manipulated primary) will be investigated. The following day, they went ahead to give him a flag”.
In Oyo State, the party, according to speculations, was to replace Alao-Akala with Governor Rashidi Ladoja whose controversial impeachment was recently quashed by the court. That speculation piqued the camp of Lamidi Adedibu, chieftain of PDP, who has since reviewed his relationship as a godfather to Ladoja in favour of Alao-Akala. The conflict between the two camps was the cause of the tragic incident in Akure. In Akwa Ibom, the contest created so much bickering that the party is seriously polarised. There are fears in most of the states that the aggrieved aspirants may ditch the party. If they do, they will be following in the footsteps of Hilda Williams, wife of slain Funso Williams, until his death a front-runner in the race for PDP governorship ticket in Lagos State. The woman simply took her husband’s formidable political machinery to the opposition Action Congress, AC.  That is not good news for the camp of the PDP candidate, Musiliu Obanikoro, who has reportedly started the move towards reconciliation.
From the North and the South, the crack in the party is giving leaders concern. The magazine learnt that efforts are being made to troubleshoot in some of the states in the North. The party leaders  may also have to think of a way to douse the tension in Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Oyo and Bauchi states for instance, if the electoral victory of the party is not to be traded away in those places.
Additional reports by
WOLA ADEYEMO,
ADEKUNBI ERO,
ANAYOCHUKWU AGBO and
KLEM OFUOKWU