Last weekend, the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio as the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum spoke to newsmen in Abuja after the Jonah Jang faction of NGF meeting on the challenge before PDP in winning back Anambra State.
He expressed optimism that the party will coast home to victory at the November 16 gubernatorial election in the south east state. Judging by the reality on ground, such optimism expressed by Governor Akpabio, which is also in line with the leadership of the party may be difficult to come true.
For the PDP chieftains, the ego of the party has been deflated by its persistent electoral failure to get back the state.
As a demonstration of its readiness to win back the state, the party at a meeting presided by the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur released its timetable in Abuja. It announced that the sale and return of the Expression of Interest (EoI) Form would take place between August 1 and 5. The price is N10 million each. Then, the state congress to pick the party’s candidate will hold on August 24. The submission of the candidate’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is on Friday, August 30.
Over 20 people have indicated interests to contest on PDP platform.
The intractable crisis that has bedeviled the party in the last ten years reared its head again last Monday during wards congresses of the party, which are prelude to the gubernatorial primaries, where the standard flag bearer would emerge.
Confusion and controversies trailed the wards congresses as two factions – Chief Ken Emeakayi and Chief Ejike Oguebego claiming leadership of the party held parallel elections.
This time, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is pitched against PDP.
While INEC is recognising Chief Oguebego as the state chairman of the party, PDP does not want to hear of this and is dealing with Chief Emeakayi as its chairman.
All seemed to be going on well until August 11, 2013 when INEC wrote Alhaji Tukur, rejecting Emeakayi as the Anambra chairman of the party.
According to a letter signed by Mr. U.F. Usman on behalf of INEC Secretary, Mrs. Augusta Ogakwu, to PDP national chairman, dated August 11, 2013; the Commission said it “did not monitor the processes that brought Emeakayi to power.”
The letter says, “The Commission found that whereas it monitored the state congress of the PDP in Anambra State in 2010 at which Chief Emma Nweze emerged as the state chairman of the party, it has no record of how Emeakayi suddenly became the chairman of the party in the state.”
The Commission having considered all the cases on the Anambra PDP crises, said it was not bound by the judgment of the FCT High Court, which nullified the congress at which Ogbuebego was elected.
The Commission stated that in March 2012, the PDP conducted another congress in Anambra State in which Ogbuebego was elected the state chairman, adding that both INEC and PDP had recognised Ogbuebego as chairman, until the Commission received a letter on July 31, 2013.
It was the same factionalization of the party and various contending interest groups that held the party by its jugular that led it to loose the governorship seat that was at its finger tip.
A former leader of the party surreptitiously working for one of the gubernatorial aspirants told Saturday Sun over the phone that the fate of the party in Anambra hangs on cliff. According to him, the same contending forces that led the party to loose the 2010 gubernatorial election are at play again.
He noted that, these people are more ferocious than they were four years ago and this portends grave danger and the party is already bidding goodbye to victory.
In 2010, it started with controversies at wards congresses, which trailed the party to the primaries, with parallel primaries conducted.
The aspirants included, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, who had the backing of the presidency; Senator Annie Okonkwo, who was declared winner by the Joseph Waku led PDP organising committee; Dr Andy Uba, Nicholas Ukachukwu and others.
At the end of the day, Soludo was picked as the party standard bearer for the election.
From there, things fell apart for the party in the state as the other aspirants declared war against the party and the candidate. Some of them declared openly that they were going to play spoilers roles by contesting on the platforms of other parties knowing that they were far from winning the election. Their grouse was the manner the candidate emerged as they said they were not given level playing field.
While Okonkwo went to Accord Party (AP) and easily picked the party’s ticket, Uba went to Labour Party (LP) and did the same. Ukachuwku went to another party and equally picked its ticket. By all standards, these three aspirants who declared war on the PDP candidate were no pushovers. They had the financial muscles to prosecute their cases and large clout and followership in the state.
As a result, Governor Peter Obi of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) was able to win the election.
Soludo came second in the election, while former governor Chris Ngige of Action Congress of Nigerian (ACN) came third, with Uba, Okonkwo and Ukachukwu following.
Without the crisis, the combined votes of Soludo and any of the three breakaway aspirants could have swayed the tide in favour of PDP.
It seems PDP does not have sense of history as it takes on the same path that has made the governorship seat of Anambra very elusive to it.
While it had only APGA as the main contender, this time around, there are many contenders to the seat.
APGA is there, having navigated through its own internal crisis and putting its house in order for the battle. There is also All Progressives Congress (APC), a party that was given berth last month, following the merging of major opposition parties.
Labour Party, which has already settled with billionaire oil magnate, Ifeanyi Ubah is already unsettling other parties in the contest.
While Uba and Ukachukwu retuned, Okonkwo pitched his tent with APGA and later APC.
A PDP chieftain in the state, Chief Nnamdi Ubabuko told Saturday Sun that what they have on their hands are more than they could chew. He expressed cautious optimism on their winning the election.
According to him, the leadership of the party had thought the outrageous N10 million for the expression of interest form would scare many but they were proved wrong. Last four years, it was about N250, 000.
“If we are going to make any headway and avoid what happened in 2010, it is high time the leadership of the party at Abuja and other stakeholders nipped in the bud the impending doom by bringing together all these contending forces and make them realise that the party is supreme and greater than any of them.
“ After they truncated the victory of the party in 2010 by jumping to other parties they all returned to the same party and were accepted. Because the party didn’t wield the big stick that is why the same scenario is going to play out again if care is not taken. This time, the party had to quickly deal with the situation, once they discover that some people were bent on causing mischief”, he stated.
The die is cast, the Oguebego faction held its congresses at wards on Monday with INEC officials as observers, while the Emeakayi with officials of PDP National Working Committee (NWC) postponing the exercise to a later date.
If the ruling party again fails to put its house in order, the Anambra Government House will also elude it on November 16.
No comments:
Post a Comment
KINDLY LEAVE YOUR COMMENT BELOW