Barely
24 hours after the announcement of a 30-man reconciliation committee, the
National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur,
is facing bitter criticisms over its membership.
Party
leaders are angry that Tukur and the Interim National Working Committee members
did not consult with key organs of the party on the reconciliation.
It was
also learnt that PDP governors and leaders are more at home with a recent
reconciliation mission undertaken by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees
(BOT), Chief Tony Anenih, than a fresh panel.
To the
former PDP governorship aspirant in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo, the
reconciliation committee is capable of destroying PDP’s electoral fortunes in
2015.
Ardo
said the committee was dead on arrival, unless Tukur reconsiders its
membership.
Members
of the committee are Governor Seriake Dickson (Chairman); ex-Governor Asheikh
Jarma(Deputy Chairman); Amb. Umar Damagun (Secretary); a former Deputy Senate
President Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu; Senator Umar Gada; Dr. I. A. Obuzor; Salisu
Suleiman; Senator Walid Jibrin; Senator Hope Uzodinma; Hon. Bello Mohammed Matawalle;
Mr. Niyi Fadimula; Chief Jerome Eke; AVM Chris O. Marizu(rtd); and Hon. Tijani
Ibrahim Kiyawa.
Others
are: Dr. Christy Silas; Mr. Jangwe Yusuf; Mrs. Ngozi Olejeme; Hon. Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi; Chief Onyema Ugochukwu; Yakubu Shehu; Mohammed Kuchazi; Mrs. Adedeji
Otiti Olanrewaju; Chief Dapo Sarumi; Prince Arthur Eze; Chief Emma Iwuagwu;
Chief Dosu Fatokun; Mr. Harold Eze; Hajiya Fati Sabo; Hon. Wakili Mohammed; and
Shittu Mohammed.
PDP
governors and leaders are said to be aggrieved that such organs, like the
National Executive Committee(NEC), the National Caucus and the Board of
Trustees, were not consulted before the constitution of the committee.
Tukur
did not table any reconciliation plan at the last NEC meeting of the party, it
was learnt.
A PDP
governor, who pleaded not to be named because of what he described as the
sensitivity of the matter, said: “With the magnitude of the crisis in the
party, do you think Governor Seriake Dickson can address it? Is there any
difference between Dickson and President Goodluck Jonathan? Is Dickson not a
party to the PDP crisis, going by the face-off between Bayelsa and Rivers on
oil wells.
“Some
of us are suspecting that the 30-man panel has a hidden mandate because some
apostles of third term tenure are members of the committee.
“Governors
have been going to statesmen and elders to intervene and save our democracy
from collapse but the PDP leadership is playing to the gallery.”
Another
governor said: “I think you should count some of us out of working with the
reconciliation committee. Those of us who are members of G-19 are uncomfortable
with the membership. They cannot broker peace at all in PDP.
“There
is no record to show that any of the organs of the party was consulted by
Tukur, not even the PDP Governors Forum or the 50-member Advisory Committee
(headed by ex-Vice-President Alex Ekwueme) but established by Tukur).
“Those
in charge of PDP now are managing the party as if there are no elders again.
“We
should ask Tukur: what is wrong with the reconciliation mission of the Chairman
of the BOT, Chief Tony Anenih, which was accepted by PDP governors? What of
Governor Ibrahim Shema’s reconciliation panel?
“Outside
Anenih’s committee, we will not work with Dickson’s committee at all. Some of
us told Anenih that were he not involved, we would not have granted him
audience.”
A
source in the PDP secretariat, however, defended the choice of Dickson as chair
of the committee and the membership.
He
said: “The Dickson committee is to painstakingly harmonise all the previous
peace committees. The PDP leadership believes in Governor Dickson’s persuasive
and consensus building skills which could help unite the PDP family.
“The
warring parties should give the Dickson Committee a chance to do justice to all
the previous peace committee reports.
To a
former member of the NWC, who also preferred anonymity, the list is “laughable”
because the crisis is deeper than “the cosmetic approach” adopted by Tukur.
“I am
aware that the NWC can take decision on behalf of NEC but the party is in a
mess and it cannot reconcile its members without the input of the BOT, the
National Caucus and NEC,” he said, adding:
“Maybe
Tukur should stay action and have a broader consultations or else he will end
up being reconciled himself.”
But a
party source said: Tukur consulted the President and some leaders of the party
on his plan to reconcile those aggrieved to put the party in a better shape for
the 2015 poll.
“Most
of those appointed are non-partisan, the source said, adding that they have not
been linked to any form of crisis in the party.
A
former PDP governorship aspirant in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo, said the
reconciliation committee could destroy PDP’s electoral fortunes in 2015.
Ardo
made his position known in a statement issued in Abuja.
He
urged Tukur: “to kindly reconsider the appointment of Governor Seriake Dickson
of Bayelsa State as Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee.”
“Other
than the fact that as a governor, Dickson would have little time to devote to
such an onerous and time-consuming task. I also think that he is eminently
unqualified to handle such an assignment,” Ardo said, adding: “In the first
place, Dickson lacks the national exposure and experience that such a task
requires. Secondly, Dickson himself is a subject of conflict within the party
apparatus and membership. The way and manner in which he was brought in as
governor, and the furore and controversy that it generated across the country,
drain him of all moral standing to undertake a reconciliatory mission.”
Dickson
is of the same state as the President, which to Ardo, will make him not to be
objective and fair in his judgment.
“Given
that one of the most central causes of the present disputes within the party is
the inordinate ambition of the President for 2015, I cannot see how Governor
Dickson can depart from this goal, should it be imperative for the Committee to
do so in the course of its assignment.
“In
fact, Dickson’s appointment will only be seen as an act of nepotism aimed at
satisfying the impulsive determination of the President to achieve his
aspiration. This perception will automatically estrange most aggrieved members
and stakeholders of the party. The committee will thus be dead on arrival.
“I
should have thought that such an important committee would be better handled by
more experienced hands, such as members of the Board of Trustees of the party
or by the eminent 50-member Advisory Committee constituted by Bamanga himself
last year when he came into office.
“If one
may respectfully ask, of what significance is this Advisory Committee headed by
no less a personality than Chief Alex Ekwueme, if it cannot handle issues of
this nature?
“For
the party to bypass such eminent personalities within its fold and go and pick
Dickson who is hardly known outside his governorship office is, to me, a clear
indication of how far alienated the PDP is in the national support reckoning.”
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