Wike, Saraki, and PDP Governors’ Internal Power Struggle Worsens Ahead of NEC

By Chinelo Obogo

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is embroiled in a fresh fierce internal power struggle which involves three major blocs. The rift is threatening to worsen its crisis ahead of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting scheduled for May 27 and the national convention in August, Daily Sun has learnt.

On the one side is the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who is working aggressively to consolidate his influence within the party. Daily Sun learnt from reliable sources that the minister is lobbying hard to reinstate the ousted National Secretary, Sam Anyanwu, and ensure that the next national chairman emerges from his camp. Wike currently enjoys the backing of several PDP governors, whom he has been courting to secure their support. His camp is determined to take control of the party’s leadership ahead of the August convention, a move that has drawn stiff resistance from other groups.

On the other side is the panel led by former Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki. This panel set up after a meeting of the PDP Governors’ Forum at the Bauchi Governor’s Lodge in Abuja early this month has a mandate which is to ensure a successful NEC meeting on May 27 and to lay the groundwork for a credible national convention later in August. Daily Sun learnt that the Saraki panel is working to prevent any single individual, especially Wike, from having undue influence on the party’s structure.

Daily Sun also gathered that the third bloc consists of several PDP governors who have one leg in Wike’s camp and one outside. This group prefers to maintain ties with Wike in the hopes of currying favour from President Bola Tinubu while also keeping their options open. This indecisiveness has become a major headache for the Saraki panel, which is struggling to secure firm commitments from these governors and unify the party ahead of the NEC meeting. Saraki’s panel fears that if Wike succeeds in installing a loyalist as chairman and reinstating Anyanwu, his hold over the party will be further strengthened and will worsen the crisis. But if the Saraki committee prevails, the party may adopt a more decentralised leadership structure.

While the Olagunsoye Oyinlola Reconciliation Committee continues its work with its original mandate, the success of the upcoming NEC meeting is widely seen within the party circles as very crucial for the party’s ability to hold its national convention as scheduled in August.

A chieftain of the party, Umar Sani, who spoke on the lingering crisis, said those who are against the interests of the party were the ones who were allowed to believe that they had the interest of the party at the time of the last convention. He said: “Those same people have openly confessed that they put the National Chairman, Deputy National Chairman, and National Secretary in place. The National Chairman was put in for a specific purpose, and he didn’t serve that purpose, so they used the court to remove him. The same people are now using the Deputy National Chairman to cause chaos because he has aligned with them.”

On the forthcoming NEC and convention, Sani said: “There is no zoning for the National Chairmanship yet, but everyone has an entitlement within our constitution. If you are an incumbent, the party says that you can do two terms of four years each. What we are trying to do now is for the acting chairman to revert to his position as Deputy National Chairman. He was not elected as a chairman, so he has to go back to his position, and because there is a vacancy that exists, section 46, subsections 6 of our constitution, has clearly spelled out how that vacancy would be filled. It is the North-Central that would replace Iyorchia Ayu. The North-Central should be able to bring three names, out of which the NEC would pick one and adopt as acting National Chairman, and during our election, he would now be made substantive National Chairman. A special convention must be held to adopt him as the substantive National Chairman even before our convention.”

(This story was originally published by The Sun, excluding reworked headline)