OLUSOLA FABIYI writes on the travails of the erstwhile National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, in the power tussle raging in the party
As soon as he walked into the Rivers State Governors Lodge and saw the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, the former Governor of Osun State, and until Monday, the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola smiled and shouted, “His Excellency.”
In response, Amaechi smiled, stretched out his hands to welcome his guest. He quickly asked four other governors to join in a private meeting he was going to have with Oyinlola upstairs. This happened at the emergency meeting the governors elected on the platform of the troubled Peoples Democratic Party had in Abuja last week.
Few seconds after Amaechi’s order to one of his aides, on those privileged governors that would join him at the upper room, the named governors were seen climbing the staircase. This was where strategies were discussed on the crisis rocking their party and how to outsmart the others in the tricky game.
Before the arrival of Oyinlola, the governors had demanded that the party’s National Executive Committee meeting must be convened immediately. Apart from this, they wondered why the party had refused to abide by its constitution, which says that “The NEC shall meet at least once in every quarter.” The NEC of the party met last on July 17, 2012.
The governors, in agreement with Oyinlola, it was gathered, were already exploring another provision of the party’s constitution, which says that two-third of NEC members could call for NEC meeting after notifying the “chairman at least seven days prior to the meeting.” The call for the NEC meeting by the governors is aimed at ironing out other constitutional problems facing the party. For example, the party does not have a disciplinary committee, which is against the spirit of the constitution. Section 21.3 of the constitution says “subject to the provision of this constitution, there shall be a disciplinary committee of the party at every level”.
The party at its NEC meeting in July last year had rejected the nomination of a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Femi Pedro as the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. Pedro’s nomination was rejected because he had not stayed long in the party. The governors are also not happy that members of the National Working Committee have started implementing the party’s new constitution even though it has not been fully accepted by the party. At its last meeting of July, NEC directed that the drafted copies of the constitution be given to members to study and correct the typographical errors. The communiqué of the meeting said, “NEC received draft copies of the 2012 amended Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party. The meeting resolved to allow members study the document carefully and make notes on typographical errors and omissions for final adoption at the next NEC meeting.”
However, the governors were sad that the NWC had started implementing the constitution, and had used it to dissolve the Adamawa State executive of the party. The action of the NWC, led by the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, irked the governors, who told President Goodluck Jonathan that Tukur must resign from his position.
Tukur was not the governors’ candidate during the party’s convention but was imposed on the party by the President. The President forced other eligible candidates for the office of the national chairman to resign, which enabled Tukur to emerge through consensus. But Oyinlola was the candidate of the governors.
Oyinlola was a key player among the 10 out of 12 members of the NWC that disowned the action of Tukur on the crisis rocking the Adamawa State chapter of the party. The NWC members led by the Deputy National Chairman of the party, Dr. Sam Jaja, in rescinding the decision on Adamawa State, said the local government and ward congresses in the state were not authorised by the NWC and therefore was null and void. They also restored the State Executive Committee of the party in the state, which was sacked by the NWC on October 17. Tukur is believed to have an interest in the crisis rocking the party in the state, where he hails from. He is alleged to be preparing one of his sons as the governor of the state in 2015. Jaja said the 10 NWC members were surprised at the congresses which were aimed at filling ward and local government executives, which he said were not dissolved at all.
He said, “Today, the 8th day of January 2013, the members of the NWC acting under Article 29(3), and with ten members present out of the twelve, held an emergency NWC on this burning subject. The emergency NWC decided to announce that the NWC in its 325th meeting of Wednesday, 12th December 2012, had rescinded the dissolution of the PDP Adamawa State Executive. The NWC had earlier dissolved the Adamawa State Executive under Article 29(2) (b) wherein we acted on behalf of Article 31(2)(e) powers of the NEC. But it is instructive to note that the Ward and local government executives of Adamawa State were never dissolved. In fact, at its 314th meeting of 29th August 2012, the NWC had upheld the March 2012 ward and local government executives except for one LGA which was later ratified. The NWC is therefore surprised, shocked and embarrassed to read in the newspapers of the purported ward, local government and state congresses said to be in Adamawa State. For the records, the NWC hereby dissociates the party leadership from the purported congresses which were neither authorised by the NWC nor monitored and/nor supervised by the National Secretariat. In the history of the PDP, only the National Secretariat of the PDP conducts state congresses. Based upon the above therefore the NWC hereby declare the purported congresses null, void and of no effect whatsoever.
“Consequently, we hereby declare that the only state executive committee constitutionally recognised by this Party is the Minjinyawa Kaugama Executive lawfully elected in March 2012 and endorsed by the National Convention.” The statement was signed by Jaja and the National Secretary of the party, Oyinlola.
Tukur was not at the meeting where the decision was taken. Tukur was instrumental to the dissolution of the Kaugama-led state executive committee meeting, which was accused of supporting the state Governor, Murtala Nyako. When this happened, the Governors sent a representative to the national headquarters of the party, to plead for the reversal of the action.
The governors were led by Amaechi. Tukur, however, refused to listen to their plea. After this, Nyako wrote a letter to his colleagues, asking them to brace up that Tukur could also dissolve all other state executives that he considers not favourable to him.
A day the group of 10 restored the Adamawa executive, Tukur released documents on the controversial congresses. The documents were released to fault the actions of 10 members of the NWC on the matter. In the first document, which was signed by the National Organising Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha, he (Mustapha) wrote a letter dated December 5, 2012 to Tukur detailing action plan by the caretaker committee of the party in the state for the party’s congress in the state.
The letter reads in part, “Please find attached a copy of the letter by our great party’s caretaker committee for Adamawa State dated December 3, 2012, and re-scheduling chapter congresses for the state.You may wish to give anticipatory approval pending the formal ratification by the National Working Committee.”
Mustapha went ahead to detail the activities to include ward congresses (December 27), Appeal on ward congresses (December 28), Local Government Congresses (January 3), Appeal on local government congresses (January 5), State congress (January 8) and Appeals on State Congress (January 10).
Tukur approved the Action Plan as submitted by Mustapha. The following day, Mustapha wrote a letter to the party’s caretaker chairman in the state, conveying the approval of the NWC to the holding of the congresses. He wrote, “I write to inform you that the National Working Committee of our great party has approved the timetable for the chapter congresses in Adamawa State. In adherence to the stipulations of Section 85 of the Electoral Act 2010, the Independent National Electoral Commission has accordingly been notified of these congresses.”
A copy of the letter was sent to the office of the national vice-chairman of the party in North-East. In his letter to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, dated December 5, Mustapha informed the electoral body about the dates of the congresses.
He said, “In keeping with the provisions of Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010, we write to inform the Independent National Electoral Commission that the National Working Committee of our great party has approved the conduct of the party’s congresses in Adamawa State, sequel to the coming party congresses in the state. Accordingly, INEC is hereby notified of these congresses.”
Now, Tukur has asked Oyinlola to vacate office following his sacking from office by an Abuja Federal High Court. Though the Prince of Okuku, Osun State has appealed against the ruling, Tukur has written a letter to Oyinlola’s deputy, Chief Solomon Oweh, asking him to take over with immediate effect.
For Oyinlola, he is twice unlucky. His second term in office as the Governor of Osun State was truncated by the judiciary. After that, he decided to take a shade under the umbrella of his party. Here again, the bees of the party have stung him. He hopes to recover soon and return to office, with the help of the same judiciary, which sacked him. Unfortunately, this is happening to Oyinlola few months after he was called to the bar.
Punch Nigeria
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