Reps leadership brouhaha: PDP starting on wrong footing

The National Assembly which comprises the House of Representatives and the Senate remains an important factor in determining the unity of a party and its superiority. ABDULRAHMAN ZAKARIYAU in this report takes a look at recent happenings in the House of Representatives and its impact on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) fortunes.

Perhaps, because of the number of the members of the House of Representatives (360) and that of the Senate (109), and the level of influence of some of these lawmakers, their influence on party’s decisions cannot be overemphasised. They, to a large extent, determine how formidable an opposition will be in terms of a ruling party’s programmes and policies tabled before them. They also bring important issues forward, even as they can also break or mar their parties.

Recently, the emergence of President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the choice of the PDP, Senator Ali Ndume, and Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, against also of APC, against PDP-anointed candidate, Hon. Mohammed Bago, was a signal that the leading opposition party does not have control over its members in the National Assembly. But the recent announcement of principal officers in the Green Chamber has further compounded the issue.

Like 2015, like 2019

History indeed has a way of repeating itself; in 2015, the immediate past President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, did not just emerge against the party’s most preferred candidate, Ahmed Lawan, but also tactically gave the deputy Senate president position to PDP’s Ike Ekweremadu. As if this was not enough, Saraki announced Senator Ali Ndume as the majority leader, after the Presidency and the then leadership of the APC persuaded him to appoint Senator Ahmed Lawan. This was the beginning of the in-fighting in the APC at the time which later led to exit of many of the lawmakers prior to the last general elections.

Elumelu’s emergence, suspension

Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila who relied on House Order 7 Rule 8, which empowered members from minority parties to nominate those who should be their leaders announced member representing Aniocha/Oshimili federal constituency, Delta state, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu (PDP) as the minority leader.

PDP had in a letter dated June 26 and addressed to the speaker announced Kingsley Chinda as its leader in the House. The party also nominated Chukwuka Onyema as deputy minority leader, Yakubu Barde as minority whip and Muraina Ajibola as deputy minority whip. The letter sighted was signed by its national chairman, Uche Secondus, and its secretary, Umar Tsauri.

But the speaker read a letter signed by over 90 members of the minority parties and announced Ndudi Elumelu as minority leader; Toby Okechukwu as deputy minority leader; Gideon Gwani as minority whip, and Adesegun Adekoya as deputy minority whip.

This did not go well with Hon. Kingsley Chinda (Rivers state, PDP) who cited Order 6 Rule 1 of the House Standing Orders, stating that members of a minority party in the chamber shall choose from among themselves someone with experience to lead them. He argued that where the House Rule was not clear on the procedure, the lawmakers should follow precedence or a resolution of the house.

Like in the Senate in 2015, a similar anti-party directive manifested in the House of Representatives in 2019. In a swift reaction, the party summoned Ndudi Elumelu and five others to explain themselves. Consequently, they pleaded that most of them were out of Abuja when they received the letter and requested for another date. However, their plea fell on deaf ears as the party suspended them for a month, on the account that “it was evident that the roles played by the above-mentioned members, bordered on indiscipline, insubordination and disobedience of party directives contrary to Section 58 (1)(b)(c)(f)(h) of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017), which provides that: Subject to the provision of this Constitution, the Party shall have power to discipline any member who says or does anything likely to bring the party into disrepute, hatred or contempt; disobeys or neglects to carry out lawful directives of the party or any organ or officer of the party; engages in anti-party activities; or engages in any conduct likely to cause disaffection among members of the party or is likely to disrupt the peaceful, lawful and efficient conduct of the business of the party.”

Consequently, their suspension sparked protest among members of the PDP in the lower chamber, while it also set the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Working Committee (NWC) against each other with PDP governors and other organs of the party getting involved in cold war. However, the question running through the minds of many Nigerians is whether this in-fighting will consume the party or the party will consume it?

Investigations 

Blueprint Weekend gathered from sources within the party that some governors and members of the PDP BoT condemned the move by the party’s national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, for an attempt to manipulate the party and impose their brother on the party.

According to the source, the aggrieved members noted that politics is better when everyone is carried along and when the collective interest of all stakeholders and zones are taken into consideration.

Another source who does not want his name mentioned hinted that “there is serious infighting going on in PDP. The governors are divided, the legislatures are divided, BoT is divided and the national working committee (NWC) is also divided. Some of them are revolting against the domineering attitude of Rivers state governor, while others are fighting for their own interest.”

“Most of the principal officers announced in the House of Representatives have the support of their governors, just as many PDP governors worked for the emergence of Gbajabiamila and Lawan against the party’s interest.

“It appears the chairman of the party, is losing grip. He is loyal to Wike and doing his bidding, while some other members are also loyal to other governors. The suspension of Elumelu and others has further complicated matter, as some of these governors disagreed with the party’s NWC harsh decision and threatened to fight it to the end. If this is not properly managed, it will affect the party in many ways,” the source said.

Two committees, a sign of division?

Interestingly, the BoT of the PDP, on Tuesday, this week, set up a five-man committee to douse the tension generated by the emergence of Elumelu as the minority leader of the House.

PDP BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, who said the committee will submit their report in seven days, explained that “BoT as the conscience of the party will always work in harmony with the national working committee (NWC), cooperate and consult with them to avoid taking conflicting positions.”

He said, “We have decided to wade into the fracas in the House of Representatives as regards the minority leadership. To that effect, a committee has been formed under the Chairmanship of Chief Senator Iyorchia Ayu, Senator David Mark, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Senator Adolphus Wabara, and Hon. Austin Opara secretary of the Committee. They have been given a week to submit their reports to the BoT and National Working Committee thereafter, a decision would be taken”.

“So, I call on all our members to be law abiding and to ensure that our party keeps moving and to play the role of opposition. We have to be very careful and obey the party because the party is supreme. We congratulate the new leadership of the Senate for coming out with the leaders and the minority leaders.”

Surprisingly, barely 24 hours after the party’s BoT set up the committee, the NWC, also raised a 10-man committee to find out why its members and senators failed to abide by the decisions of the party during the National Assembly leadership elections.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Wednesday while unveiling members of the committee, PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, who was represented by deputy chairman, South, Elder Yomi Akinwumi, representing the chairman, boasted that the level of internal democracy in PDP is comparable with what is obtainable in other parties.

The members of the committee are former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara as chairman; former national secretary of PDP, Prof Wale Oladukpo as secretary. Others include Senator Ben Obi, Hon. Yohana Iliya, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Hon. Austin Okpala, Senator Stella Omu, Rt. Hon. Magreth Icheen, Hon. Hassan Hyatt and Senator Abdul Ningi.

Secondus said: “What we are doing is a display of internal democracy. This is the advantage PDP has over other political parties in Nigeria. This is what brought us to the level we are, respect for internal democracy. We solve issues by dialogue, by discussions, by looking at the two sides of the coin. This you will never find in other political parties in Nigeria.

“You will look at the governors, the governor’s forum, all the strata of the party so that you can go into the nitty-gritty of what happened and advise the party appropriately. You have done it before and we believe you will doubt again. The terms of reference have been well spelled out. You have three weeks to report your findings, your investigations to the NWC.”

The terms of reference of the committee include: To investigate and find out whether there is any involvement of the ruling party in the decision taken by the members involved. Where there are established reasons for taking the action by the members, the individual members should be identified so that the party creates mutual and political atmosphere for reasonable interaction with Honourable members. To find out and recommend ways to Checkmate such tendencies in the future and ensure that all members work together to defend the interest of the Party at all times and circumstances.

Blueprint Weekend further gathered from the party headquarters that the two committees are after different interests. An insider told our correspondent that “the BoT set up a committee to protect its position, while the NWC also set up its own committee to counter whatever the BoT’s committee will come up with if it’s against the NWC’s position or to also protect the NWC interest. Until the two committees submit their report and recommendations, this crisis is far from been over.”

Secondus insists on Chinda

Meanwhile, the national chairman of the party, Secondus, has re-affirmed that Hon. Kingsley Chinda (Rivers) remains the party’s choice for the House of Representatives minority leader and their stand on other positions remains the same.

He told Blueprint Weekend that, “The National Working Committee and the BoT represented by the chairman met and re-affirmed that the party is one, united and working hard to reclaim our mandate from the court.

“On the issue of the leadership of the house of representatives, the minority leadership, we want to reiterate that the party in consultation with all our members and other minority parties that Hon. Kingsley Chinda is our minority leader and all the other positions as we have earlier communicate to the speaker house of representatives remain the same.

“You are also aware that it was the same process, that we communicate to the Senate and the Senate has done a fine job, they announced of candidate without rancor. But it was surprising that the speaker had to generate his list, this is against the parliamentary rules.

 “We call on our teeming supporters that we must remain resolute, we must remain committed to the party and be loyal to the party. We are firm on it.”

House caucus’ take

 The PDP caucus in the House urged the party leadership to withdraw its suspension and support Elumelu as minority leader.

At a news briefing in Abuja, the caucus passed a vote of confidence on the minority leadership and Speaker Gbajabiamila and wondered why only seven members were affected while 111 were party to the process that threw up Elumelu and the others as the minority officers.

Addressing reporters in the company of his colleagues, Legor Idagbo (Cross River) said the caucus resolved to work with the party, but it should be emphasised that since 1999, the parliament has remained independent to date with no form of coercion from any quarters.

He said: “The parliament since 1999 till date remains independent and not coerced. We call on the National Working Committee (NWC) of our party to rescind its decision of suspending the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu and six others, who through no fault of theirs were nominated and elected by majority of members of minority parties.

 “Where an offense has been committed in this process, the perpetrators would be all 111 of us and not seven members as were suspended by our great party. We, the minority parties, hereby pass a vote of confidence on the newly constituted minority leadership because our decision to constitute the Minority leadership of the Ninth House of Representatives is in consonance with the House Standing Order; that is, Order 7, Rule 8, which is derivative of Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

“We stand by our decision. We stand by our leaders. We use this opportunity to sue for peace and to state that we are available for further discussions with the NWC of our party on how to resolve these issues and move our party forward We call on well-meaning party leaders, particularly those with legislative experience, to intervene in our behalf in order for this matter to be laid to rest so as not to affect the fortunes of our party in future.”

The group warned that “If the suspension is upheld with the issues remaining unresolved, the fortunes of the party in future are likely to be negatively affected.”

‘Party superior’

In a phone chat with Blueprint Weekend, a political analyst, Abubakar Muhammed, said though the party is superior, members also have rights which they are free to exercise.

He said, “In democracy, politicians that are members of any political party are expected to treat their party’s directive with almost respect. Because in Nigeria, we don’t vote candidate, we vote party. So, any directive given by party should be binding on all its concern members.

“On what played out in National Assembly, it is within the party’s right and superiority having consulted with the critical stakeholders and others to adopt candidates for a position. But it is also the constitutional right of the members to support a candidate of their choice. So, PDP acted right by adopting Hon. China,  but the members are also properly guided by writing and signing in support of Hon. Elumelu and others as their minority leader. What is left for the party and the members to do is to strike a balance between party’s directives, their rights and interest.”

On whether or not the speaker followed the right procedure, he said, “How did Senator Ali Ndume emerge as Senate majority leader in the 8th Assembly? Of course, in a similar way the immediate past Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, announced Ndume against the letter written by the APC adopting Senator Ahmed Lawan. You see, the rules clearly state that majority and minority leader will be chosen amongst members, not by parties. If the speaker made this announcement based on this House Rules, then there is nothing wrong with that.”

According to him, “though the position of principal officers has further made the division in PDP obvious, the earlier they resolve this and move forward the better for them as a party.”

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