Headline2023: Political Parties in Crises

2023: Political Parties in Crises

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Indication of how the Labour Party has transformed from being one of the smaller parties came to the fore last Friday as its leaders thrice postponed its National Working Committee meeting. The meeting, which was initially scheduled to take place at 2pm, was moved to 8pm and eventually held at 10 pm on that day.

Although the ratification of the Presidential Campaign Council list was the main agenda, chaos ensued after the public presentation of the PCC on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 generated protests from some stakeholders that LP leaders had to hold marathon meetings with the party’s allies all through Thursday, October 12, a day after the party unveiled its 1,234- member PPC in Abuja.

The party’s national headquarters in Abuja became a beehive of activities for aggrieved groups that kicked against the PCC list. As at Saturday morning, the party was still battling with the fallout of the event, THEWILL gathered.

Aggrieved groups like the National Consultative Forum (NCF) on the platform of the Third Force and many support groups were furious that those they label as “PDP and APC politicians,” have hijacked the party and put their friends in the list.

On Friday night, after the previous day’s fence mending meeting with aggrieved groups, which stormed the Abuja office of Labour Party, the National Chairman, Julius Abure, party officials and union leaders had an interactive session with Peter Obi/Datti support groups at Barcelona Hotel, Wuse 11, Abuja.

THEWILL learnt that the occasion was well attended by support groups under the aegis of Conveners For New Nigeria (CNN). Present at the event was Barr. Emeka Nwani, deputy National Coordinator, Movement For Change Worldwide (MFCW). Other dignitaries present at the meeting were Abure, DG presidential campaign Council; Dr Doyin Okukpe, Chairman, Campaign Council; Labour Party National Youth Leader, Comrade Anslem Eragbe; Barr Kenneth Okonkwo, Hilda Dokubo, Fred Amata and many others.

National Chairman of the Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure, thanked the support groups for their sustained commitment to the movement. He also apologised for any shortcomings that may have been experienced so far, especially with the released campaign list, and promised to rectify any anomaly.

He also tasked the support groups to double their efforts since the electioneering campaign has begun.

Thereafter, the National Working Committee (NCW) of the party went into a ‘stormy session,’ according to a dependable party source.

On the agenda for discussion, according to the source, was the move by the NCF to pass a vote of no confidence on the Campaign Director-General for “populating the PCC list with his political friends, excluding members of the party, the Obi/Datti movement and other groups.” On the other hand, many chairmen of state chapters of the party vowed not to accept state coordinators, considered “foreign to the party.”

Again, members of the NCW felt that except for the National Vice-Chairman of the party, who was made Zonal Coordinator South-South, no other member of the committee was accommodated in the list.”

They threatened not to support the PCC in their respective states if they were not accommodated, said the source.

At the event, the NCW had to postpone the meeting to allow tempers to cool down. The members who reconvened on Friday night at 10pm to ratify the PCC list to accommodate all shades of interest argued and compared notes until far into early Saturday morning.

Contacted by THEWILL, the Chief Spokesperson, Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Yunusa Tanko, simply forwarded a short statement.

He said, “The Campaign Council in synergy with the Labour Party has noted all the issues raised on the Obi-Datti Campaign Council list released on October 12, 2022. We assure you that we will do the needful and an updated list will be released soon.”

Accordingly, Abure, after the NCW first session on Thursday announced the removal of the names of NLC president, Ayuba Waba and his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo, from the list and announced the party’s readiness to accommodate NCF, support groups in the lists before the inauguration of the council.

This story really sounds familiar if what has been happening in the two other major parties, APC and PDP, is taken into consideration.

Like LP, after the governing APC announced its 422-member PCC list, it was greeted by storm. The National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, faulted the composition and accused presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of running a one-man show.

To address the problem, Tinubu agreed to expand the PCC membership to 2,000. A recent meeting held to address the issue fell short of being a rescue mission. And because of that, the party has postponed the take-off of its campaign.

In addition, the party, according to sources, is jittery about the court ruling that nullified the candidacy of Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State in the recent poll on the grounds that his name was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the Governor Mai Buni-led Caretaker Committee which is unknown to the Constitution. If the Appeal Court and Supreme Court uphold the lower court’s ruling, all other candidates on the party’s ticket may well see their ambition stuck.

For the PDP, the fallout of the party’s presidential convention in June, 2022, its power sharing and zoning formula has plunged it into crisis, with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State leading four out of 14 governors on its platform as they remain adamant with their call for the resignation of National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, for peace to reign.

Ordinarily the LP, by name, manifesto and composition is populist. Obi’s entry into the party at the auspicious time of public desire for an alternative party has boosted its image, regardless of his mixed economic views. The PDP, which roots for a market run economy with strong private sector participation, is rightist, while APC with a similar platform modified by its social intervention programmes, is centre-left.

SAME OF THE SAME

The crises within these parties appear to be self-inflicted, which makes them look similar in a way that prompts the question whether they offer different choices to the voter.

A Nigerian professor of journalism at Kennesaw State University in the United States, Farooq Kperogi, does not think so. He reacted immediately when the LP unveiled its PCC list.

According to him, the recent Campaign Council list of the Labour Party is evidence that “the party’s candidate, Peter Obi, is no different from his counterparts, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (APC) and Atiku Abubakar (PDP).”

He said the LP candidate was just another establishment Nigerian politician, “who has neither the willingness nor the capacity to be the different and transformational leader that his supporters think he will be.”

Kperogi stated further: “He’s merely riding on the crest of the wave of mass discontent with the status quo. The list isn’t just inexcusably insular (Igbo men are even state coordinators for Sokoto and Lagos!), it is also riddled with the type of embarrassing clerical errors and oversights that we’ve become accustomed to from Nigerian governments.

“He failed in that elementary duty–much like Buhari. That’s why former Defence spokesperson, John Enenche, who said two years ago that “videos of shootings in Lekki tollgate were photoshopped” was appointed to Obi’s presidential campaign council.

“The inclusion of Enenche on Obi’s campaign list is significant because the core of Obi’s youthful supporters who’re engaged because they’re enraged are drawn from #EndSARS agitators for whom the cover-up of the massacre of protesters in Lekki is a sore point.

“To put a denier of the mass massacre of their comrades in the campaign council of a candidate they support and campaign for, is both insensitive and disrespectful.

“And why does a campaign that is fueled by a desire for difference need nearly 1,300 people to sit in a council? That’s unwieldy. How is it different from APC and PDP?

“In fact, APC and PDP are better. APC’s initial list was just 422 and PDP’s was 520. If Obi’s presidential campaign council was going to be worse than APC’s and PDP’s, why did it take him so long to unveil it?”

A University of Nigeria, Nsukka Political Science Professor Emeritus, Uzodinma Nwala, disagrees with Kperogi. He told THEWILL that it is too early to categorise and assess the party and its candidate soon after the composition of its PCC.

“Labour is populist and the APC and PDP are elitist. And in today’s Nigeria, it is better to have a populist than an elitist party. We who are patriots and observers should allow the party to correct its mistakes. It does not mean they are perfect.”

He said the socio-political and economic crisis facing the country in the forms of insecurity, poverty, corruption and ethnic mistrust was traceable to the policy choices of both parties, adding that Nigerians are now looking for a viable alternative to the PDP and APC during their tenure in office.

Dr Okupe failed to answer repeated calls to his phone on Friday.

Expectedly, Kola Ologbondiyan, member of the PDP presidential council thinks the perception of the crisis in the party is uninformed, saying it is the only party that has remained in existence among several others that were established at the same time.

Speaking with THEWILL, he said that all other parties that were formed at the same time with the PDP were either delisted by INEC or have merged with others under a new name.

“So it has the mechanism to resolve any crisis affecting it. The crisis in the party generated by the Wike led group would soon be resolved before the election next year,” he said.

The National Publicity Secretary of APC, Mr Felix Morka, failed to answer calls put to his phone.

One of the presidential council spokespersons of the party’s presidential campaign council and Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, SAN, who once warned his party about the legal implications of the Buni-led exco’s approval of party candidates for elections, however, stated that the party has nothing to fear about the court ruling on the candidacy of Governor Oyetola.

He said that apart from being status barred, the suit violates sections of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022. The party, he said, had faced a bigger crisis than the current one and resolved it amicably.

LIGHT AT END OF THE TUNNEL?

Partly fuelling the crises in the political parties is what a Professor of Government and Politics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State, Ayo Olukotun, refers to as the winner-takes-it-all mentality in Nigerian politics. Because of this reality, any member left out in the scheme of things would always protest, he told this newspaper in an interview. Therefore, the parties must at all times embrace inclusion in as democratic a manner as possible or else anything different would be seen as a job for the boys.

As agents of mobilisation, enlightenment and representation of the interests of their members and followers at the centre of power, they must also realise that they impact the larger society through democratic and value orientation, Prof Nwala said. With the crises ravaging them currently, the parties appear to be far from this ideal of civic responsibility.

For the PDP, there is yet to be light at the end of the tunnel as Wike, at a media parley in Port Harcourt on Friday, insisted that Ayu must go for peace to return to the party. How far the party would go to meet that demand is yet to be seen as its electioneering campaign team has since kicked off as planned.

Meanwhile, the party’s BoT has taken a middle ground position on the crisis in the party. On Friday, its Chairman, Adolphus Wabara reported on the outcome of the fence mending meeting it had with aggrieved members of the party, including the five governors. In its report, it stated that Ayu should agree to resign after the 2023 general election, asked members to desist from making further public statements against the party and urged the Chairman of the party’s Governors Forum to convene a meeting of the forum and brief members.

Responding to allegations of bribery made against him by Wike, Ayu denied collecting N1 billion from any presidential candidate but admitted that N100 million was donated to the party by a governor for the renovation of the party’s democratic institutes, adding that in December the party would release its audited account to show the money was judiciously used for the purpose.

A dependable party source said the party may ignore the Rivers governor if sufficient feedback shows that his threat and that of his team are sound and fury signifying nothing. This partly explains why Rivers State is on the campaign schedule as one of the last states to visit, in fact, in February 2023, the month of the election.

The permutation is that among the feuding five state governors, only Wike is not running for any post. And he is free to apply no brakes in his fight. Last week, he appointed about 50, 000 advisers and 359 liaison officers after which he signed an Executive Order that mandates political parties to pay the sum of N5 million before embarking on any campaign activity in the state.

For other members of his team, the game at home is different and therefore engages their attention. For instance, Samuel Ortom of Benue State is contesting as a senatorial candidate, just like his Enugu and Abia counterparts, Governor Ifeany Ugwuanyi and Okezie Ikpeazu, respectively.

Notably, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state is running for a second term. All four have no option than to campaign on the same ticket for their party in their respective states.

In the South-West, for example, the chairmen and secretaries of the PDP state chapters have since parted ways with Makinde on the ‘Ayu must go’ stand.

THEWILL also learnt that party campaign strategists are considering offering direct moral and financial support to all contestants on the platform of the party. That way, they think, the candidates would be well motivated to work for their success in the long run and safeguard the interest of the party. How that would work out is yet to be seen, meaning that there is no possible end to the crisis in the PDP.

For the APC, everything appears to be in a total lockdown. No definite time has been given for the release of the reworked PCC list. LP’s major headache for now is the interest groups reactions to the composition of its PCC. The LP crisis may linger until the party inaugurates the revised PCC members as ratified at its NCW vigil meeting at the weekend.

About the Author

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Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.

Amos Esele, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.

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