Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s intervention for a peaceful
resolution of the lingering crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
may have suffered a major setback as the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led
National Caretaker Committee is already at the Supreme Court to
challenge the recent Court of Appeal judgment in favour of the Senator
Ali Modu Sheriff leadership.
Jonathan had accepted to assist in
resolving the crisis in the party, a decision believed to have brought
some relief and renewed confidence to stakeholders, who believed that a
political solution to the crisis was possible after all.
But the
excitement arising from this was cut short the moment the Makarfi group
headed for the Supreme Court to appeal the judgment that conceded the
PDP leadership to the Sheriff group.
It was gathered at the weekend that Sheriff has been served with the notice of appeal at the Supreme Court.
A
top member of the Sheriff-led leadership and spokesman, Mr. Daniel
Mikko, said last night that the notice of appeal signified the
resumption of legal fireworks by both parties.
By implication,
Mikko added that the latest move might have put the reconciliatory talks
in jeopardy. He said this was so because nobody would be going into
such discussions with confidence.
“Nobody will be comfortable continuing with the peace talks once there is a Sword of Damocles dangling over his head”, he said.
Although
the Makarfi-led caretaker committee has vowed to proceed with the
appeal to the Supreme Court, spokesman of the group, Chief Dayo Adeyeye,
said his group had nothing against the move by Jonathan to broker peace
in the party.
“The former president has made good effort; let him
continue. We have nothing against it but the understanding we had with
the former president is that we shall continue with peace efforts
without prejudice to the ongoing court process. So, the court process
will go on and if there is any political solution, that will be okay. We
cannot wait for the political solution before going back to the court,”
he said.
Adeyeye explained that there was every reason for them
to insist on seeing the appeal through to the Supreme Court in order to
put the party in a strong position for negotiation.
However, with
regards to the Jonathan peace moves and the renewed effort by the PDP
standing committee on reconciliation headed by the Bayelsa State
Governor, Henry Dickson, and Senator Ibrahim Mantu, the two sides said
they would support the initiative.
Mikko said that the Dickson
committee would complement efforts of the former president in settling
most of the animosities amongst members.
“Looking at the
grievances that are being heard across board, I think this is the best
time for him to look into the grievances held by party members with a
view to resolving them. We feel the Dickson committee will serve to
complement what former President Jonathan is dong. They are not working
at cross-purposes but complementing each other,” he said.
On
factors responsible for the failure of previous peace efforts, Mikko
said before the latest Court of Appeal judgment, there was a proposal
canvassed by Sheriff to the effect that both sides should select six
persons each as acting members of the National Working Committee pending
a new national convention.
“Part of the proposal that we put out
was that both parties should appoint six persons each to serve as acting
members of the NWC, who would make presentations to the NEC meeting
after which we will go for a national convention on September 25. But
Makarfi did not get back to us on its position, instead they opted for
the botched convention on August 17.
“After
that they insisted that they were going to get favorable judgment from
the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Now that the case
has been won and lost, what we are saying is that let everyone join
hands to plan for a unity convention. We are not saying that we won but
let everybody come together and let’s set an agenda for a national
convention.”
But in spite of the appeal court judgment, one issue
that has not been resolved outside of the judicial pronouncement is who
controls the apparatus of the party and leads the rest of party members
to organise a convention.
While Sheriff believes that his victory
at the appeal court automatically confers on him the powers to assume
leadership and organise a national convention, the Makarfi group sees
such as a temporary advantage which is going to be upturned soon at the
Supreme Court.
Makarfi and other leaders who have refused to
recognise the Sheriff leadership feel they have the support of a
majority of the mainstream members of the party.
Mikko, however,
thinks differently. According to him, “There are no two ways to it:
Sheriff is the national chairman of the PDP. The court has said so and
the convention is going to be presided over by the chairman. It is
stated in the party’s constitution and no other person should preside”.
It
is against this backdrop that Dickson has appealed to leaders of the
party to be ready to make sacrifices for the overall success of the
ongoing peace initiatives.
The Bayelsa State governor said his
committee had started to embark on a wide consultation with party
leaders and critical stakeholders across board with a view to building
consensus and confidence in the party before holding an all-inclusive
unity national convention to save the party from imminent
disintegration.
He said his committee’s preliminary findings
indicated that the consultations are already yielding dividends as
stakeholders have begun to meet as well as seek a way forward to an
all-inclusive national convention, which he reckoned was in the interest
of the nation’s fledgling democracy.
A statement signed by
Dickson’s Special Adviser on Media Relations, Francis Agbo, quoted the
governor as having made the remarks shortly after a meeting of his
committee in Abuja last week.
According to the governor, party
leaders all over the world make sacrifices to consolidate the political
system, adding that the PDP leaders could not do otherwise. He therefore
asked party leaders to urgently burry their differences and work for
the rediscovery of the PDP.
Contending that the PDP is the only
political party capable of accommodating all shades of interests in the
country, Dickson posited that a political party is like a horse that
could go to war only when it is strong.
“I am appealing to all
party leaders, critical stakeholders and members across the country to
close ranks in the overall interest of our great party. Let the revival
of our great party be of paramount interest to all and sundry, for we
can only further our political interests in a strong political platform.
We have the potential to revive the party but we can only do this if we
subsume our divergent interests under the umbrella.”
Dickson said
Nigerians were waiting for the PDP to bounce back and play the role of a
virile opposition party, warning also that anything short of this would
be a disservice to the people and the founding fathers of the party.
He
therefore maintained that an amicable political solution was the best
option for the party and that the proposed convention would be a litmus
test to gauge the seriousness of party leaders towards reviving the PDP.
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