Following the meeting of some South-East stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Enugu, demanding the region’s completion of its tenure of the party’s chairmanship, the presidency and the National Working Committee of the party may have considered allowing the region to continue its tenure till March 2012, thus completing it.
This is just as yet another splinter group from the South-East have said that except the PDP respects Articles 14 and 16 of the PDP’s constitution, it will head to court to enforce the party’s statutes. This, they argued, is the only way that the party would have fair representation, noting that as at today, there is no NWC member from the South-East geo-political zone.
The PDP had earlier zoned the chairmanship to the North-East following Jonathan’s emergence as president, in violation of Article 14 of the party’s constitution. The article states that, “Where a vacancy occurs in any of the offices of the party, the NEC shall appoint a substitute from the zone where the officer originated pending the conduct of election to fill the vacancy”.
The South-East was yet to complete the four-year tenure of the office. Chief Vincent Ogbulafor and Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, who both quit the office in controversial circumstances, are yet to be replaced by anyone from their region. Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed had taken over in acting capacity when Nwodo was axed from the office. Mohammed’s sudden choice as a ministerial nominee has not helped issues, as it has thrown contention between different zones for the office, with several names from the North-East being linked to the slot.
A source who confided in LEADERSHIP said that at last weekend’s meeting, which had the president, vice president, some PDP NWC members, Chief Tony Anenih and a few others in attendance, it was tacitly agreed that the South-East should run out its tenure. More so that following the ouster of Nwodo, there was no member of NWC that hailed from the region.
Meanwhile, a document by some stakeholders from the South-East exclusively acquired by LEADERSHIP, alleged what it termed the brazen abuse of the PDP constitution and overt sidelining of the South-East from the National Working Committee of the party, stressing that of the 12 NWC members, none was from the region; a total violation of the party’s constitution.
The letter reads in part: “As you are already aware, an emergency NEC meeting of our great party is about to be summoned in the days ahead, for the purpose of addressing crucial party matters, especially the appointment of an acting national chairman for our great party. In view of the sensitive nature of this great task and the urgent need to save our great party from its steady slide to the culture of illegality, abuse of due process/set down rules, internal crisis and destruction of our core values, the leadership of PDP Stakeholders Forum resolved to write the party NEC ahead of its meeting, to inform them on the legal and political issues which must first be considered before the appointment of the next acting national chairman, to help save the party from another round of fierce internal crisis and legal battle”.
The document, which LEADERSHIP gathered will be tabled before the NWC, NEC and the presidency, said it was the legal and constitutional right of the South-East, based on the PDP’s constitution, to continue to hold the office of the national chairman till March 2012 when a new NWC will be sworn in.
It alluded to the fact that the constitution of PDP in Article 14(5) had made provision that any vacancy in the NWC must be filled in acting capacity by the same zone that produced the former elected national officer and this was the same reason that made the PDP NEC to appoint Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo – who was later removed – as the acting national chairman of PDP, to replace Vincent Ogbulafor, who is equally from the South-East.
The issue of which zone that should produce the next acting national chairman of PDP, according to the protest letter, should not raise any controversy, because the PDP constitution had made express provision that the acting chairman must emerge from the South-East.
The party stakeholders adduced that “since the removal of the Chief Vincent Ogbulafor and Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo as national chairmen of the PDP, the South-East is the only zone in the country that has no single representation in the PDP 12-member NWC till today, as a result of the inability of the PDP NEC to appoint an acting chairman from the South-East to replace Nwodo because of electioneering campaigns and closeness of the 2011 general election then.
“This situation is illegal and unfair, that a whole region which massively voted for the PDP can be denied its legal and constitutional position in the PDP NWC, while a zone like North-East has been enjoying its three positions in the NWC uninterrupted since 2008 up till now.”
The present NWC consists of Bello Haliru Mohammed, acting national chairman (North-West); Alh. Kawu Baraje, national secretary (North Central); G. Ortom, national auditor (North Central), and Alhaji Babayo, deputy national secretary (North-East). Others include Prof Rufai Alkali, national publicity secretary (North-East); Hajiya Inna Ciroma, national women leader (North-East); Alh. Tukur Mani, national financial secretary (North-West); Chief Uche Secundus, national organising secretary (South-South); Mr. Makinde, national treasurer (South-South); Olusola Oke, national legal adviser (South West) and the late Muyiwa Collins, national youth leader (South-West). ?