OBJ, Anenih, Kingibe battle to control Ogbulafor - Why we picked Ogbulafor - PDP; We will work with him - Senators

Taiwo Adisa, Abuja - 10.03.2008

LOYALISTS of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, as well as forces that claim to be working for the interest of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, are now locked in a battle to take control of the newly elected chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor.

Ogbulafor emerged on Saturday as the dark horse after a series of horse-trading had left the former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu, in the cold.

It was gathered that shortly after the emergence of Ogbulafor at an early morning meeting on Saturday, the different camps had kickstarted measures aimed at taking control of the party. While some loyalists of Obasanjo claimed that the former President tacitly gave his blessing to Ogbulafor’s decision to join the race in the first instance, sources in the party insisted that Ogbulafor remained bitter at the alleged shabby treatment Obasanjo meted out to him when he was forced to resign as the National Secretary of the party.

Ogbulafor was said to have visited the home of the former BOT chief, Anenih, early on Saturday to assure him of his desire for peace within the party and that he was not a candidate of Obasanjo. The PDP chairman was said to have relayed his experience leading to his forced resignation as the National Secretary in 2005 and restated that no human being had so humiliated him.

“I was the candidate of the APP in Abia, Obasanjo persuaded me to join the PDP, he made me a minister and then National Secretary of the party. I have never done anything wrong to him. But he just called me one day and said I should resign. He said he will not listen to me until I resigned, it was a harrowing experience,” a source quoted Ogbulafor as saying.

Obasanjo’s loyalists, however, said that Ogbulafor is well known to the former president and that the two of them can work together. “Unknown to many, Obasanjo planted Ogbulafor as a back up, he is not opposed to the former President in any way,” an Obasanjo loyalist said. Another source close to the government told the Nigerian Tribune that Ogbulafor’s candidacy was sold to President Umaru Yar’Adua by the SGF who was initially backing the emergence of Anyim.

It was gathered that an open contest was looming until the governors insisted on extracting a word from the President on his preferred candidate ahead of the convention. Before the meeting that ended early Saturday morning, Yar’Adua was non-committal but had insisted on a choice of a candidate that will not divide the party. To ensure Ogbulafor remains in their firm grips, the different groups are said to be positioning friends and associates of the new chairman as arrowheads who would push whatever demands they have to the party. While the Obasanjo camp is said to be planning to make peace with the new Chairman, the Anenih camp is relying on the longstanding relationship that exists between the chairman and the former BOT Chairman.

The SGF, who has become the arrowhead of President Yar’Adua’s political machine, is said to be relying on the closeness to the taciturn President to get the things done through the chairman. “There is no doubt about it that the new chairman has to do what he should and be fair to all, but he also has to work hand in hand with the President, that is where Kingibe comes in. The President is like a big masquerade, who is hardly heard or seen. Since the SGF is the catalyst for his political calculations, the national chairman and the SGF have to jell,” a party source said. A senator of the PDP, who did not want his name in print also said that though the new chairman would act as a bridge builder, he could not afford to move too close to Obasanjo.

“We, the party members will not allow him to enable Obasanjo to get a third term by default. That means that we are going to push for constitutional amendment, so in the next convention it should be a fait accompli that the powers of the BOT chairman will be whittled down considerably. We need to position the national chairman who is the chief executive of the party, that is how it should be,” he said. Also, senators of the PDP on Sunday reacted to the emergence of Prince Vincent Ogbulafor as the National Chairman of the party, declaring that his manner of emergence would foster unity in the PDP.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, who spoke in a telephone interview told the Nigerian Tribune that the senators were happy with the emergence of Ogbulafor. Senator Eze, however, denied that the senators went to the convention with a fixed mind. “We never really had any candidate before the convention. We said we were consulting and the consultation took us to the Presidential Villa. Our anxiety was that the party should not be torn apart and with what has happened, our party is stronger for it,” he said.

The Vice chairman, Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Matters, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, also stated that the senators would not oppose the new national chairman. “Since what we want is unity in the party, we will work hand in hand with the newly elected national chairman. There is no doubt that he is a man of experience and he will bring that to bear on the affairs of the party,” Abaribe said. Chairman, Senate Committee on National Identity Card, Senator Hosea Ehinlanwo hailed the emergence of Ogbulafor in the manner he did, saying this would engender peace and unity in the party. In apparent response to criticisms of the adoption of consensus to elect its national officers, members of the PDP said that consensus was part of democracy.

All the PDP members interviewed applauded the adoption of consensus in the emergence of the new national officers, saying it was the agreement of the majority of members of the PDP. The Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, said the consensus arrangement was to avoid trouble and geared toward consolidating the internal democracy of the party. The former National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, urged party members to continue to deepen democracy at all levels by allowing changes, dissent and criticisms, saying that ``democracy is freedom to choose''. Chief Olabode George, Chairman, 2008 National Convention Planning Committee, said the zoning formula was a concept in PDP aimed at balancing power distribution among the members of the National Executive Committee.

Former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Chief Chibudom Nwuche, said consensus was part of democratic process since it was the agreement of the generality of the people.