The leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have taken a new dimension as the chairman of the party’s Reconciliation committee and Bayelsa state governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, has taken on the chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, accusing of frustrating peace efforts.
This is as the National Chairman of the embattled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has assured that he was not prepared to abandon the ship presently passing through troubled waters.
Dickson said Senator Makarfi is trying to act as an undertaker working on how to decimate the opposition.
Senator Makarfi had earlier accused Dickson going against the resolution reached between ex-president Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP governors by joining Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to push for national convention in June.
The former Kaduna governor while stating his case against Governor Dickson said he had agreed with him that the report of the reconciliation committee be tabled before the governor’s and other organs of the party for consideration before making it public but that Dickson reneged and went ahead to proclaim the June date for convention.
However, while responding, Dickson who spoke on a national radio programme said what Senator Makarfi and others with him were trying to do was to ensure that the PDP was dismembered so that they take many of the membership to form a new party.
He advised that Makarfi should accept the verdict of the Appeal Court and work with the leaders of the party to bring about lasting peace.
A group in the party, the Northern Elders Forum had last Thursday canvassed for a genuine reconciliation process to be initiated, with appropriate representations from each of the recognised Organs and Forum in the Party”.
The group said that those that are to be on the peace panel should include, the Forum of Founders/Elders, Board of Trustees, Current Governors Forum, National Assembly Caucus and Former Governors Forum
Others are Former Ministers’ Forum, Former National Assembly Members, Current State Chairman Forum, Zonal Committees, Former Deputy Governors Forum, Former State Speakers/State Assembly Members, Women’s Wing, Youth Wing, Former National Officers Forum and Former Ambassadors/Board Chairmen.
Sheriff said Friday in Agbor, Delta State, when he made a brief stopover at the country home of the Acting National Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, that he would not abandon the party in its trying times.
The party chairman said that he was on his way from Owerri, Imo State, to attend the funeral of the former governor of Midwest (later Bendel), Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, and decided to stop over at Ojuogboh’s residence to share a meal with him.
Fielding questions from newsmen, Sheriff dismissed any suggestion that he should resign or step aside as national chairman of the party in the interest of peace and reconciliation.
He likened such suggestion to asking a pilot of an aircraft to jump out of the airplane while there was trouble or asking a captain to come out of a ship wading through troubled wasters, saying that would be tantamount to calling for a definite shipwreck.
On suggestion that he stepped down as party chairman, the two-term governor of Borno State said, “There is no aircraft without a captain; there is no ship without a party. Anybody that tells the captain of a ship to go down wants the ship to capsize. We don’t want PDP to capsize. PDP will always get their leaders through a democratic electioneering process.
“I want the PDP to be at peace, the very man who is talking of resignation today, even if I resign will not so that he can destroy the PDP.
He noted that he was working in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the leaders of the party and in line with the dreams for the party of PDP founding fathers.
He however stressed that the process of reconciliation within the party was a collective one, noting that some destructive elements appeared to be fanning the embers of unity and undermining the entire process.
Sheriff said, “You know, even as we are standing here everybody has his own mind to do whatever he or she wishes. Political parties are voluntary. Majority of our party men around the country felt the need for us to come together to be reunited back to the ideals of 1999. So, we set up a National Executive Council (NEC) to review our situation before the party went to the Port-Harcourt convention.
“It was the NEC of the party that set up the National Working Committee (NWC). If it can set up committee under my leadership and if the NEC makes a recommendation to bring solution to our party, why should I reject it? And, the working committee of my party totally accepted the road maps that Bayelsa State Governor, His Excellency Seriake Dickson took. I am there to bring solution to the party’s problems; I am not there to destroy the party.
“Anybody you see kicking against that are agents of distraction and destruction, they have an agenda which they are now let Nigerians know. The agenda is not to build, it is something different. This party belongs to us. I was in Imo. All I told my Deputy, Hon. Cairo Ejugbo was that I will take breakfast in his house in Agbor since it is on my way to Benin. Now look at the crowd of people here to breakfast with us.”
He said that he was pleasantly surprised at the large turnout of party faithful at Ojougboh’s house even though he had only given his host a short notice of his intention to have breakfast with him before proceeding to Benin-City.
“Nobody forced anybody here; as you can see, this large crowd of people came voluntarily because they believe in the unity of the PDP. They believe PDP is the only party they should belong to. However, one wonders when people go out, sent by others to destroy the party. Gradually, their true colour will show and it is up to Nigerians to make up their minds who are the real people; who are the people who want PDP to grow and who are the people who want the party destroyed.”
On anti-party allegations, he stated, “Ali Modu Sheriff never brought himself to power. Governors and leaders of the party asked me to lead. So, if there is any allegation as such exists, then it means those that invited me are the moles. It is certainly not me. I am doing my job to keep the party together.
“We have the PDP structure in every ward and local government in Nigeria. Why the PDP lost the election to APC at the central is because of the impunity that I am fighting today. I am working to cancel impunity from the party. We want the people’s choices to man the offices not the candidates brought by Ali Modu Sheriff. We must allow the party to have their way. Democracy is government of the people by the people and for the people and not somebody who want to plant a governor in Borno, in Lagos; No. Then it is no longer government of the people.”
Also speaking, Ojougboh dismissed claims in certain quarters that he (Ojougboh) was merely parading himself as the acting PDP national deputy chairman which he was not.
Describing the claim as laughable, he said that he was duly appointed to the position, saying that at the time of his appointment, he was the highest ranking PDP official from the South-South geo-political zone.
