It has become glaringly clear that what the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP needs now; both at the National and Imo State levels to make peace is dialogue. This has become necessary following the hard stance of Senator Modu Sheriff, the erstwhile Acting National Chairman, who has refused to accept that his three months tenure handed him by the party hierarchy has expired.
Modu Sheriff is an arch member of opposition politics, who was Governor of Bornu State for eight years, and Senator under the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, until he joined others to form the All Progressive Congress, APC.
However, one thing led to another, and he decided to pitch tent with a more conservative and moderate Peoples Democratic Party in 2014, following persuasions from former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was desperate to retain his office and in search of a strong politician that could hold the North East zone for him. That was how Sheriff who was one of the financiers of APC joined PDP.
When the office of Chief Uche Secondus as the Acting National Chairman could not be condoned anymore by the North whose turn it is to produce the National Chairman, State Governors led by Chief Nyesom Wike, the Governor of Rivers State, quickly approached Sheriff to occupy the vacant position.
It was learnt that they went for Sheriff because he has a mind of his own, seems neutral, has deep pocket, and therefore can use his personal fund to rebuild the party.
But Governors Wike, Fayose, Mimiko and others forgot that every politician is ambitious and hardly misses any opportunity. From the first day in office, Modu Sheriff began getting opposition from the core PDP chieftains of Northern extraction, who questioned his appointment by the Governors, who appealed that the Kanuri born Sheriff be allowed to reinvigorate the PDP.
However, the situation changed when the same Governors who brought in Sheriff became the same people calling for his removal after his three month interim mandate had expired.
Reason given was that Sheriff who promised to step down after organizing a transparent National Convention was allegedly now muting the idea of not only contesting as substantive National Chairman, but may transmute into a Presidential Candidate in 2019. Therefore, when an opportunity called for a National Convention in PortHarcourt, Rivers State, last May, the Governors planned to humiliate Sheriff, who had already believed that he would be endorsed as the new substantive National Chairman without opposition.
However at the event, it downed on Sheriff that his former sponsors, the Governors, have pulled the rug off his feet, and he therefore brandished Court summons, saying that the Convention after all needed not to have held in the first place.
But before then, Sheriff had purchased the form and followed all the regulations of the Convention until the table was turned against him. In anger, the former Governor flew out of PortHarcourt.
This did not stop the Convention, which as an authority, had dissolved the Modu Sheriff committee and appointed another Senator and former Governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi as Chairman of a Caretaker Committee to take charge of PDP affairs for three months, which would climax with a National Convention that would produce a new National Chairman.
Meanwhile, Sheriff did not go back home to Bornu State to face his personal Business. Instead the rich and highly connected business mogul said he was not going down without fighting, and therefore headed to the Courts.
Since then, Sheriff has held the PDP in the jugular, through various litigations which unfortunately in the process has slowed down activities in the party and divided it into Makarfi followers and Sheriff apologists.
In other to put the party back to life, every effort have been engaged by the party Elders to speak to both camps so that PDP can move on. But unfortunately there seems to be no ray of hope, as Senator Sheriff gives stringent conditions on how he could sheath his swords, while the other group refused such posture.
As the three months mandate handed to Makarfi approaches to an end, PDP hierarchy doubled their efforts to settle the matter, so that the National Convention billed for PortHarcourt on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 could hold. But while Sheriff refused to budge, brandishing a court ruling in that effect, the party which ought to be supreme thought that Sheriff would cave in as a good party man and as obtainable in PDP of yore, which saw everything as a family affair. But they never reckoned that Sheriff does not care whose ox was cored, as he was fighting for his political life and reputation, even though from the point of view of the tight corner he found himself.
Therefore, still believing that Sheriff cannot muster the courage to fight the entire PDP top shots and Founders who are rallying behind Makarfi, Governor Wike went on and spent Billions of Naira to stage a National Convention again in PortHarcourt.
But if the first one gulped fortunes and had delegates inside the venue, this time PDP Chieftains were shocked as security men had taken over PortHarcourt Stadium, venue of the Convention, as early as 6am. Even the Government House was cordoned off.
The police said they were obeying a Court order from a Federal High Court in Abuja, given by Justice Okon Abang.
Seeing that the game was over again, and that Sheriff has once again delt another blow on PDP, an action which no single individual has been able to wrought on the party since its formation in 1998, the entire Delegates retreated to PDP office in PortHarcourt, while the leaders went to Government House to brain storm.
In the end, the Makarfi Committee was given a longer tenure of twelve months to remain office, at which period the party can face the legions of litigations against it, seek for peace and resolve its problems.
But the million Naira questions here are; can PDP be the same again? Is there any way core PDP members will ever work with Sheriff despite what he did to them, by making the party look vulnerable and stupid? Can the old members and founders be comfortable with Sheriff in their midst after “disobeying” the party?
Can Sheriff ever trust these PDP top shots who brought him out and abandoned him on the road? Can Sheriff remain in PDP after those he trusted fought him to finish? Can he remain in the party after stretching it to the limit?
These are the pertinent questions that need urgent answers. And very unfortunately, in Imo State, the situation is gradually degenerating to the level that Hon Emeka Ihedioha is being insulted and abused every day in the Social Media by followers of Senator Hope Uzodinma, while those of Ihedioha also fire back at Uzodinma’s Boys. It is very disgusting.
And these followers blindingly think that it is only Uzodinma and Ihedioha that exist in Imo politics and PDP, therefore subtly ostracizing other members of the party, by indirectly telling them that if they do not belong to Ihedioha or Uzodinma Camp you are no longer a PDP member. Very absurd.
The problem will even escalate, as Uzodinma Group beats their chest in jubilation that they have won, by the botched Convention, as they strongly believe that holding the Convention would have given upper hand to Ihedioha Camp.
On the other hand, the Ihedioha Camp rejoices that even though the Convention could not hold, it still holds the ace in Imo, since Makarfi remains in office for the next one year.
Under this scenario, there still exists wide crevices in the wall of Imo PDP as the gulf between the Leaders continue to grow wider by the day, and in the process affecting dangerously the psyche of their followers and other members of the party in the State.
What remained of Imo PDP now can be retrieved through dialogue, only if the warring Leaders can agree to a round table discussion. Since the history of Imo PDP, the party has never split into such shreds like this before. What we usually had was “Abuja” and “Imo” Groups, not along individual line as we have it today. That is the reason the situation is dicey and needs urgent resolution.
But unfortunately, peace and dialogue can come to Imo PDP only when the big masquerades in Abuja have resolved their own matters.
The reason is that the Hope Uzodinma PDP Executive led by Chief Nnamdi Anyaehie, derives its own power from Sheriff.
That headed by Chief Charles Ezekwem and backed by Ihedioha breaths from Makarfi. In other words, until the Courts proffer the final solution to PDP mess at the National level, Imo PDP will always continue to live in crisis or suspended peace.
But as it stands now, it is yet to be seen how the Charles Ezekwem Executive, whose life can at least be guaranteed as long as Makarfi remains in office, be allowed to function by the Anyaehie Group, who have taken over the PDP official head office in Owerri.
Last week, the situation in Imo PDP crisis went closer to open confrontation, when some youths stormed the party office to flush out the Anyaehie people. Police was called in to calm the situation.
But there has been a lull because of the PortHarcourt Convention which took every body’s attention to Rivers State. Now that the Convention ended in chaos again, are we expecting more fireworks at Imo PDP office, as all the antagonists return home to resume the hostilities?
It is quite unpredictable how the entire drama will pan out in Imo. But certainly, it will not finally go without causing a deep friction within the party, as some people may suddenly pull out if they did not win the battle of wits. The crisis has even produced its first casualty in the person of Chief Ikedi Ohakim, a former Governor of Imo State who said recently that he has got tired of PDP trouble and wants to head on political sabbatical leave for now.
At least, the Hope Uzodinma Camp has lost one of its strongest Pillars, because Ohakim was working with the Senator in the fight for Imo PDP structure, and held the Okigwe axis for the Sheriff Camp.
And of course, if Ezekwem gets the nod of Abuja to take charge of Imo PDP what will happen to Anyaehie? Will those propelling him accept to remain in PDP? Will they not demand for conditions? If they present these conditions would they be met?
Can Hope Uzodinma accept that Ezekwem replaces Anyaehie, his prodigee? Can Ezekwem agree to work under the leadership supervision of Hope Uzodinma after Emeka Ihedioha made him?
Will Ihedioha succumb to Abuja directive to work with Anyaehie as State Chairman, when it is under contention that Anyaehie did not emerge through a Congress? Can Ihedioha trust that Anyaehie will do his biddings, as would Ezekwem? Can Ihedioha forgive easily what he went through in the hand of the same Executive led by Anyaehie during the campaigns in 2015?
The fact remains that politics is all about war, but without guns. That is why politics abhors war, war, but loves jaw, jaw. That is the reason politics is played on negotiation and dialogue tables. With conditions and compromises. That is why politics is a game. You lose some, you win some. Even as a loser, you are expected to show some smiles, because tomorrow could be your own day. That is why everybody in Imo PDP is optimistic that one day, sooner than later, the entire crisis would be over. And that is why everybody is watching to see when and how it will end.
