By Temidayo Akinsuyi
Some elders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have raised concerns over the manner governors elected on the party’s platform have completely hijacked the day-to-day activities of the national secretariat.
They also bemoaned the fact that Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s national chairman, may have technically abdicated his responsibility by taking instructions from the governors especially on issues relating to the 2023 general elections.
Ayu, a former Senate President, emerged as the national chairman of the PDP in October 2021 after a consensus arrangement midwifed by the governors of the party under the leadership of Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State.
However, according to one of the elders, a former member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) from the North-West, the fact that the governors helped Ayu shouldn’t mean he should totally surrender the party to them.
“When governors who are just party members become powerful than the national chairman, then it is very dangerous, especially for a national party like the PDP. The national chairman should be the one summoning governors but where you have a case when the governors are summoning the national chairman, then it doesn’t speak well”, he said.
“We know it used to be under NPN, Action Group, NPC in those days. Even in 1999, we know how it was in PDP. But now things have gone from bad to worse. That is my worry and that of some party elders”, another party elder told Daily Independent.
Also speaking, Senator Rufai Hanga, a former national chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), said the PDP governors are making a mistake if they think they can run the party affairs without consulting with the founding fathers.
Hanga, who accused Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, and few PDP governors of hijacking the party said the PDP cannot make any headway in 2023 if the governors fail to carry relevant stakeholders along.
He said, “PDP has not learnt its lessons at all. They think that because APC is misbehaving, then Nigerians will vote for them. But they are mistaken. Some governors that are there not because of their popularity but courtesy of arrangement but they are thinking that yes, they have arrived and can do and undo.
“I am talking of Governor Wike and few others. They came together and monopolised the party and anointed their boys and girls as leaders. They ostracised the true leaders and gatekeepers of the country and they are bragging that they are now the leaders and the party belongs to them.
“They can’t go anywhere. You can’t be in PDP and say Obasanjo is irrelevant. The same with Babangida, Aliyu Gusau, Danjuma, Atiku or Kwankwaso. You cannot make all these people irrelevant because they are the true shakers and movers of the party. In all they did at the convention, all these leaders I mentioned were not carried along. The governors just feel they can do it and get away with it. They are just daydreaming.
“Until they make amends, they are going nowhere. If they can sit down and do the right thing, PDP will win. But right now, I don’t think PDP can get anywhere. They are thinking of bringing this man or that man as presidential candidate. Nigerians will not just vote for anybody. They will vote for somebody they know”.
Chief Olabode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, said Ayu is a tested and highly experienced leader who cannot be pushed around.
While pleading with party members to be patient with the new NWC, George said the governors took over the party affairs after the presidential candidate of the party in the last election was nowhere to be found.
“Ayu is one of the nine people that started this party and he is not a pushover character. He is a very deft politician who is highly experienced. For those who are complaining about the governors, are they also not members of the party? They can’t be governors in perpetuity. If he listens to them, it doesn’t mean he will just take their advice hook, line and sinker.
“He will listen to what they say but he will think it through and examine it before taking a decision. The beauty of democracy is that we must have robust debate before any decision is taken.
“There is no organisation that does not have one crisis or the other. But the ability of the managers to go through serious discussion, lobby, which are all part of democracy, determine their strength. At the centre of such serious discussion is the truth which they must tell themselves.
“I want to tell our people to just hold on a little bit. I really don’t know where these fireworks are coming from. To me, the man is committed and abidingly loyal to the cause of the PDP. Like I said, he was one of the nine people who started PDP here in Lagos.
“He knows the culture and workings of the party. The moment we had a presidential candidate, automatically, the presidential candidate becomes the leader of the party. But because there was a lacuna, the period of absence of the former vice president who was our presidential candidate created a vacuum in the hierarchy. The governors then felt they can’t leave the headship vacant.
“So, they got into it and they are now telling us that they now own the party. It’s like a competition and a chunky part of the party. Have you ever seen anybody who is governor who will one day not leave his position? The position is not a perpetual one.
“So, to me, I will say let them still give the new NWC time. They are just settling down because the former NWC that just left were really ‘National Wacking Committee’. They never consulted anybody but were just firing on all cylinders and did so many things that we knew one day will almost bring this party down.
“They just started. They have Ekiti and Osun governorship elections ahead of them to manage. These are things that could have been better managed. They are going back to the grassroots now to re-establish the party which is highly commendable.
“I have no doubt in my mind that they will do their best with the support and help of other elders and stakeholders who are loyal to the party. All they need from us is our cooperation. We must join hands with them to ensure they succeed”.
Temidayo Akinsuyi is a journalist,he writes from Lagos
