From Ismail Omipidan, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is no doubt faced with what could be regarded as the battle for its soul, the outcome of which may make or break it as it prepares for its 100th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, slated for June 30th, 2025.
Before the 99th NEC meeting, the party had some back and forth over the status of Senator Samuel Anyanwu, as the National Secretary of the party. Anyanwu and his backers are relying on the Supreme Court judgement which merely set aside the Appeal Court judgement sacking Anyanwu, on the basis that the matter was an internal affair of the party, as such the court had no business dabbling into it.
The court did not however take judicial notice of the fact that the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party had waded in and decided the matter in favour of the former national youth leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye, as a replacement for Anyanwu, a decision Anyanwu and his backers did not take kindly.
Anyanwu had resigned his position as National Secretary of the PDP to contest the Imo State Governorship election, only for him to return and behaved as if nothing had happened, as he insist on continuing from where he stopped. It is this decision that the South-East PDP, where the position is originally zoned to, is kicking against.
The refusal by Anyanwu and his backers to let go made it difficult for the party to hold any NEC meeting since last year, until a breakthrough came recently, when the NEC held. The NEC held on the condition that the South-East will formally present its letter of petition, denouncing Anyanwu and presenting Ude-Okoye as the rightful occupant of the position.
In preparation for the June 30th meeting, Daily Sun gathered that, sensing that Anyanwu is not likely to want to sign the notice of the meeting where he would be formally shown the way out, the PDP decided to black him out. However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it would not honour the letter because the National Secretary (Anyanwu) that is known to the commission did not append his signature on the notice of the proposed NEC meeting.
The acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, while acting on the last resolution of the party, wrote a letter to INEC, titled ‘Notice of 100th National Executive Committee Meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party,’ intimating the electoral body about its NEC meeting.
“We write to formally inform and invite INEC that the leadership of our great party, PDP has scheduled our 100th NEC meeting to hold on Monday, June 30, 2025 at the National Secretariat of our party, Wadata Plaza, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.
“This is for the commission’s information and necessary action, please. While thanking you for your usual cooperation, kindly acknowledge receipt of this letter and please accept the assurances of our highest regards,” the letter reads in part.
But INEC responded, saying “The Commission draws your attention that the notice is not in compliance with the requirements of part 2(12)3 of Regulations and Guidelines for political parties, 2022, that provides ‘the national chairman and national secretary of the party shall jointly sign the notice of convention, congress, conference or meeting, and submit same to the Commission.’ Be guided.”
With the above development, it is left to be seen how the PDP would wriggle out of what looked like a Catch-22 situation for the party.
Daily Sun recalls that the PDP emerged as a strong political platform in the build up to 1999 elections, parading prominent personalities like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, late former Vice President, Alex Ekwueme, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, late Chief Solomon Lar, former Military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, former Jigawa Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, and former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired General Aliyu Gusau among others.
For 16 years, the party ruled Nigeria, managing its internal crises along the way. However, analysts believe that its defeat in 2015 exposed it as a party lacking in discipline, cohesion and organisation. And post 2015, it has been from one crisis to another.
After the 2015 polls that saw to the exit of the party’s erstwhile National Chairman, the “Game Changer,” Alhaji Adamu Muazu, the party went for former Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, otherwise known as SAS, to lead it to the 2019 general elections.He was appointed National Chairman in February 2016, to complete the tenure of Muazu. According to one of the NEC members, who spoke to Daily Sun in confidence, on the day NEC voted Sheriff as the acting chairman, he (NEC member), had no idea that Sheriff was in the race. “It was when we got to the hall, that we were told that the former Borno State Governor was in the race,” he added. And with 69 votes, beating four other aspirants, Sheriff emerged acting National Chairman, amid protest from other party stakeholders, who were opposed to his emergence.
Following Sheriff’s refusal to step down, the party went through series of legal tussles, culminating in the appointment of Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the National Caretaker Chairman. In the end however, the apex court sacked Sheriff and described him as a politician who “displayed infantile desperation to cling to office at all cost.”
Sheriff’s sack paved the way for the emergence of Uche Secondus as the elected National Chairman of the party in October 2017, at a national convention of the party. But like most of his predecessors, Secondus, who hails from Rivers, was forced out of office in August 2021, a few weeks to the expiration of his tenure, after falling out with the forces that brought him into the office in the first instance.
Once Secondus was out of the way, one of the foundation members of the party and a former minister, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, from Benue State, emerged National Chairman of the party. Again, like Secondus, Ayu was also eased out after falling out of favour with the forces that made him the National Chairman.
After the sack of Ayu, the North-Central caucus of the party were initially pushing hard for Damagun to give way for a replacement from the zone. But sensing that the forces behind Damagun are the same forces behind Anyanwu, the party leaders were said to have decided to choose their battles, after reaching a compromise with Damagun. Since then, leaders of the party no longer talk about when Damagun will give way. They are now preoccupied with how to send Anyanwu packing. From all indications, the gladiators in the PDP are spoiling for another showdown. But one thing is however certain, and that is, how the party manages the current crisis will go a long way to determining the party’s fortune in 2027 General Elections. And unless the party put its house in order, the fate that will befall it, would certainly be worse than what it suffered in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
