Convention shocker: PDP Splits!

Exactly 15 years after its formal launch, the lingering crisis in the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, degenerated, yesterday, when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven governors broke away, formed  a faction and named  new national officers for it.

The governors are: Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Musa Kwankwaso of Kano, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Abdulfatah Ahmed   of Kwara, and Babangida Aliyu of Niger.

The governors and their teeming supporters had earlier stormed out of the Eagle Square, venue of the PDP Special Convention, after they alleged  that the list of delegates for the election  of national officers of the party, scheduled to be conducted at the convention, and the contestants had been manipulated by the leadership to usher in their preferred candidates.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the PDP incurred the wrath of the governors when it also became clear that the party was not ready to adhere to the guidelines released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the conduct of the convention and remove the impediments that led to the cancellation of the previous convention.

Agenda

The embittered governors,  some senators and House of Representatives members as well as other statutory delegates from their respective states later converged at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, where they unfolded the agenda and the names of the national officers of their faction. Some former national officers of the party made the list of new officers of the new PDP. They were, Abubakar Baraje, who was named the new National Chairman, Olagunsoye Oyinyola, National Secretary and Sam Sam Jaja, who emerged the New Deputy National Chairman of the faction.

Shortly after being proclaimed the new National Chairman of the party, Baraje said he was ready to make the PDP the party that would give adequate attention to all members and give them a level -playing field to achieve their political ambitions.

Baraje said the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP had destroyed the core values, which the founding 

fathers of the PDP bequeathed to Nigeria and frustrated many key members out of the 

party, while those who knew nothing about the philosophy of the party were now the leading 

lights. He also denounced the tendency by the Tukur administration to breathe down on the 

neck of members, who do not do the bidding of the Presidency and its lackeys, saying that 

such a practice was undemocratic and retrogressive. 

Violations

“Not only has the Constitution of the party been serially violated by Alhaji Tukur and fellow travellers, but all the organs of the party have been rendered virtually ineffectual by a few people who act as though they  are above the law. “Unfortunately, it is obvious that that they get encouragement from the Presidency whose   calculations are geared towards shutting out any real or imagined opposition ahead of the party’s presidential primaries for the 2015 elections.

“As leaders of our great party, we consider it a sacred responsibility to save the PDP from the antics of a few desperadoes, who have no democratic temperament and are therefore bent on hijacking the party for selfish ends. While the list of their violations of the tenets of our great party is long, we will highlight just a few:

*The National Executive Committee of the PDP, at its belated meeting of 20 June 2013, approved 20 July2013 for the conduct of a Special National Convention. However, that date was changed to August 31 without reverting to NEC (the only authority vested with such powers) by a few people, apparently acting on the authority of the Presidency.

*Notwithstanding the fact that INEC had noted that the PDP congresses in  nine states were not properly conducted, the illegal delegates from such states are being paraded at the so-called convention being held today in a cynical attempt to circumvent the law and further bring the name of the party to disrepute

*In gross violation of the PDP constitution, which stipulates that the NEC meeting must hold at least once in a quarter, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and a few people have been running the party like a personal fiefdom without recourse to that important decision-making organ of the party.

‘Party brought down’

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in his remarks, lamented that the PDP,   which started in 1998, had been brought down by those who knew nothing about it. “Let us see how we can reform PDP for those lofty goals to be achieved. They can never be achieved by the Presidency and the current PDP leadership,” Atiku said. “I’m sad to see this. I will, therefore, want to appeal to the rest of our members who are still sitting on the fence to join the new PDP. I want to assure you the new party will restore the fading values of the founding fathers of the party. By the grace of God and with your support the change will come.”