Will Lagos PDP ever find its feet?

Musiliu Obanikoro

The plan to expel some members of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may ignite fresh crisis in the party, writes Adewale Ajayi.

Those who thought that the peace that had eluded the Lagos State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would return to it, may now be losing hope on the party because the bickering is on the increase. The problem has been between Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, the party’s governorship candidate in last general election, and Chief Bode George, Vice Chairman (South) of the party. Each of them commands followership and have factionlised the party in Lagos State.

 Left to Obanikoro, his inability to make the ministerial list was masterminded by Chief George just as  he, alongside his supporters, has alleged  that the party’s loss at last election was traceable to  doorsteps of George because Obanikoro was allegedly used to  supplant the candidate that Chief George favoured for the governorship post, Mrs. Hilda Williams, widow of the late Funsho Williams.

The factionalisation of the party has prompted each group to scheme to hijack the party’s structure. The party’s convention and congresses which were put on hold, were responsible for  silence on the matter, but a case is still pending in court over  an alleged plan to exclude some members of the party from the congress.  The recent crisis is the party’s move to sanction some of its members who had been making  things tough  for it and Obanikoro is one of the  target. Speaking on the plan to sanitise the party, the state chairman, Chief Adebayo Williams, said that since Obanikoro lost the governorship election he had become a dissident in the party and his actions and those of his supporters negate the party’s constitution, and in that light, the party may wield the sledge hammer on them.

He maintained that despite concerted efforts the state executive council had made to bring all members on board and ensure peace returned to the party, some members of the party had decided to wage war against it and that act violated the party’s constitution. He added that treating the party with contempt would not be taken lightly since no individual was above the party and that those flouting the party’s constitution would be brought to book.

 In order to fulfil the plan, Chief Williams said a disciplinary committee had been set up to investigate the affected members, that the party was studying the report of the committee and that its decision would be made public soon. “The decision of the committee on erring members will be made known very soon, while those who have done well will be rewarded and those who flouted the party’s constitution will be dealt with,” he said.  Left to the Obanikoro camp, the latest plan was aimed at ensuring, that he (Obanikoro), lost out completely and if expelled, he may forfeit the ambassadorial posting.  According to Obanikoro’s assistant on media, Lekan Odediran, the plan was to stop Obanikoro’s ambassadorial posting by expelling him and others from the party. His adversaries would have achieved their objective of ensuring he paid for his “sins”. The disciplinary committee was said to have made recommendations without hearing from those affected. “The disciplinary committee set up never invited him to a meeting and neither do the committee represent the party’s interest, rather it was set up to actualise the selfish interests of some members of the party,” Odediran said.

 Speaking in the same vein, Mallam Moyosore Jaji, a member of Lagos Solidarity Forum (a group set up to checkmate the hegemony of Chief George), said that the state executive council was day dreaming, and that Obanikoro and some of his supporters, Mrs. Dupe Sasore, Senator Wahab Dosunmu, could not be expelled from the party just like that because a decision to send them out could only be taken at the zonal or national level.  Though, the party chairman claimed the report of the disciplinary committee had gone through the state Central Working Committee (CWC) and National Working Committee, but what was not certain was whether the CWC endorsed the decision.

 The latest plan may eventually boomerang because there are many people in the party that are fed up with the style of leadership in the Lagos State chapter of the party.  The belief is that Obanikoro is planning to team up with Action Congress (AC). According to one of his confidants, one of the reasons why he did not prosecute his case at the tribunal was because of the agreement he allegedly reached with the AC.  His return to the AC would be retracing his footsteps since he was elected senator on the ticket of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) before dumping the party for the PDP.  The questions then are; what are his chances in AC a party where former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, is a prominent member? Will he be welcome with open hands to a party he once rubbished?

 His decision to quit the AD in the first instance was a shock to Tinubu, because he happened to be one of his confidants, and he (Tinubu) never anticipated him ditching the party. Some members of the party had regarded Obanikoro’s defection as a stab in the back.  His disdain for his action was taken to public glare when the two met at the wedding of one of the children of a frontline businessman, Chief Solomon Ayoku (now late) and Tinubu snubbed him.  As most politicians are considered not to be people of integrity and discipline to stand by their words, his going back to the party may not be a surprise in the political circle, but the question is can he be trusted again?

 Not only will his defection be a moral burden to the AC, Chief George had had cause to apologise to the public that the party fielded a wrong candidate at the last election, and because PDP was desirous of enlarging its membership, the party had taken into its fold people whose antecedents and political attitudes do not fit into the culture of the party.  Speaking at the reception organised to mark his 62nd birthday last year he said: “It is clear that in opening our doors indiscriminately to new members, we have, unwittingly taken in some men and women whose antecedents and political attitude do not fit into the culture of the PDP.

 “This has been aptly demonstrated in the needless uproar despicable and disgruntled elements created after the 2007 governorship election.” The onus of burden for the party is why is it now that it realised that Obanikoro is not a good material for election, after all, aspirants were all screened before they went for the primaries. With the rate some privileged members of the party are edging out others, it is doubtful if Lagos PDP can ever rise to the level that it could give the AC a good fight at any election because the list of those already frustrated out of the party is endless.