By Godswill Eketabubu

The above caption appears strange given the well advertised succession of political problems that have afflicted the PDP since 2015; problems that became exacerbated during the 2023 presidential election cycle. Yet, as grave as these political maladies appear they currently pale into relative insignificance in relation to the complex legal challenge the party is facing. My theory of the case is thus very simple: tackle and resolve this knotty legal challenge and the party’s political pathologies will begin to disappear rapidly but ignore it, throw it under the bus or attend to it half heartedly the envisaged political solution canvassed for will only bring temporary relief.

PDP’s 2023 Political Wahala

The enormity of the crippling political crises that the PDP faced during the 2023 presidential election season are very well known. From the party’s ambiguous decision over the zoning of the presidential ticket, the refusal of Dr Iyorcha Ayu then National Chairman of the party to resign and the open rebellion mounted by the Nyesom Wike led G-5 Governors the party’s fate and fortune was quickly sealed. Its perennial candidate, Atiku Abubakar, lost the presidential election, Wike landed the top job as President Bola Tinubu’s minister of the FCT, and a vicious political war was levied at the heart of the party’s functioning as a coherent political apparatus. Those angry about the party’s behaviour in 2023 were then resolved to get their pound of flesh and to achieve this the party must be taught a lesson and made to suffer so much so that it would have broken into many pieces before 2027- thus paving the way for President Tinubu’s leisurely reentey into office.

At this stage the driving force in the party’s persistent crises was political contestation – who will control the party’s institutional machinery, determine its direction and to what use it will be put to. There are three forces engaged in this political rofo- rofo: those who insist that the party must remain an autonomous political entity, free from external control so that it can wage and possibly win the political war of 2027; those who want the party to be tied to the apron strings of President Tinubu and the ruling APC; and those who neither want the party to be strong, firm and united because “they have no portion in it again” nor want Tinubu to have anything to do with it. Without a shadow of a doubt the Governor of Bauchi state and Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum Sen Bala Mohammed best exemplifies the first tendency. He has of late been joined in that space by the Ag National Chairman of the party Amb Illiya Damagun whose loyalty to the party was initially perceived to be questionable.

PDP Lands Itself in a Legal Quagmire

The noise over these political challenges was so loud and heavy that scant attention was paid to the legal challenge that sneaked into the party’s core: what has now become the epic battle over the National Secretary position. Why this struggle is existential to the party is not merely the perception of institutional disorder but that unless it is resolved the future of the party will be in grave danger. The matter is fairly straightforward. There are three claimants to that throne- the elected National Secretary, Sen SamDaddy Anyanwu; Comrade Ude Okoye who the South East Caucus of the party nominated to takeover the position when Sen Anyanwu contested for the Governorship of Imo state; and Setonji Kosheodo, the Deputy National Secretary who emerged as the Ag National Secretary to resolve the fight between two brothers.

Any member or leader of the party who fails to recognize the centrality of this legal tussle to the future survival of the party is either being mischievous or is downright clueless and politically idiotic. If this tussle is resolved speedily the party will be able to hold a valid and legally sound NEC, ratify the appointment of valid and legally tenable convention and zoning of elective positions committees, hold a valid and legally sound National Convention where it will elect a new NWC, and thereafter in 2026 hold presidential primaries that will produce its Presidential Candidate for the 2927 general elections. If the party does the wrong thing with regard to the National Secretary position, retain the wrong person and proceed to unleash the processes I enumerated above thereof the fate that befell APC in Zamfara state in 2019 will befall it. This will not only be with regard to all PDP candidates in off season elections but indeed all its governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections in 2027. Period.

INEC Holds the Ace in Resolving PDP’s Legal Problem

There is a loud noise out there that it is unbecoming of the party to call upon INEC to help resolve its problems, that INEC has no business interfering in its affairs or summoning its leaders to a meeting, that the June 30th NEC meeting is sacrosanct and must hold and that Sen SamDaddy Anyanwu can never return as its National Secretary. While it may be necessary to let off steam and hold onto this kind of outlandish immature political reasoning approaching and tackling the reality on ground must be done devoid of this kind of emotion and sentiment. Only by such a deliberate, rational and logical mode of reasoning and acting will the party come out this mess and solve its problem.

In Nigerian Constitutional democracy and with regard to multiparty political practices INEC is the Alpha and Omega. As awful as this sounds it is the truth. As a regulator INEC has powers that few people comprehend. INEC’s legal team is deep and formidable because of the nature of its work and the legal challenges it faces on a daily basis. I will rather go with INEC’s interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling on the question of who is the National Secretary of the party than that of 100 SANs combined! On this matter INEC has spoken and as regrettable and odious as it may sound to many people this stance is FINAL. If the PDP does otherwise trust me, it will be the end of the party, not today but after the 2027 elections – especially if it succeeds in dethroning President Bola Tinubu.

What is this INEC position? Simply put and devoid of sentiment it is this: that the 30th June NEC meeting was illegally convened and thus cannot hold; that the National Secretary ought to have co-singed the notice with the Ag National Chairman; that Sen Anyanwu remains the party’s National Secretary till its next elective convention; and that anything to the contrary will spell legal doom for the party down the road. This picture is stark and clear whether INEC has said so directly or not. A visit to INEC secretariat and a perusal of its records will attest to this loud and clear.

Gov Bala Mohammed’s Rescue Mission

The Governor of Bauchi state and the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum appears to have recognized this fact given his tenacity, relentless drive and immense sacrifices in hosting countless meetings of the various organs of the party in the search for solution to this problem. He appears to have recognized that Sen Anyanwu’s moral conduct in refusing to resign when he became the party’s flag bearer in the Imo governorship election or the kind of friends he keeps are irrelevant in the task of saving the party. His embrace of Sen Anyanwu is thus a logic of common sense and wisdom that emotions and sentiments don’t win legal arguments. The Ag National Chairman appears to have embraced this position given his stance on the postponement of the 30th June NEC and Sen Anyanwu’s restoration as the party’s National Secretary. Sen Bukola Saraki, the Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee appointed by the Gov Bala Mohammed led PDPGF and other stakeholders appears to be working towards this sound outcome.

My charge to all members of the party, sympathizers like myself and indeed all lovers of multiparty democracy which is under severe pressure by a frightened APC and its vauntingly ambitious Presidency is to rally round those working day and night to salvage it. If the likes of Gov Bala Mohammed is to turn his back on the party as this point in time one wonders what it’s fate will be. Rather than being vilified and called names patriotic party faithful will gain more by chipping in their bit in the urgent task of rescuing the party from the jaws of APC sharks.

Plea to South East Party Leaders

My plea to the South East leaders of the party, particularly to the dynamic, high performing Gov Peter Mbah of Enugu state and Sen Adolphus Wabara who is the Chairman of the party’s BOT, as a neighbour from the South South and a long time PDP sympathizer, is to calm down, rise above your righteous anger over Sen Anyanwu’s apparent betrayal of trust and unethical conduct and allow peace to reign. You cannot destroy that which you created. You cannot win this case in the eyes of INEC and the eyes of INEC is ultimately the eyes of the law in this regard. This may sound harsh and defeatist but it is the truth. Trust me. Unless you have some other reason why you want to leave the party which you formed that will be fine. It cannot be because of Sen Anyanwu, whose tenure will lapse in November of this year. What will it profit you to ruin it all because you cannot stomach your anger for three or four months and demand that the party re-zones the position to the South East at the next convention so that you can finally get your person in for four years.

The South East leaders of the PDP has everything to gain by working with the likes of Ag Chairman Damagun and Gov Bala Mohammed to rest, once and for all, the vexatious issue of the National Secretary, abandon the delusion of a NEC meeting on 30th June 2025 and see that gathering as an Expanded National Caucus during which the party can resolve the date of the next NEC and the upcoming National Convention. To do otherwise is to play into the hands of the enemies of the party and partake in it’s ultimate ruination.

• Dr Eketbubu wrote from Port Harcourt Rivers state