Ogbulafor And The Tasks Ahead

Taiwo Adisa, Abuja

Prince Vincent Ogbulafor Just like some view the character of the man in question, the emergence of the new National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been seen in that light. The man has never posed as an extremist in the pursuant of his causes. While some see him as a system’s man, others see him as a seasoned administrator that can lift the party out of the woods.

Some have even cited his mode of defection to the PDP and his emergence as a power broker in the party he joined after the 1999 election as a test of his character. Ogbulafor has axes to grind with the former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Kalu, on the rightful occupant of Umuahia Government House in 1999. He had contested the governorship seat on the platform of the All Peoples Party (APP), now All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and his camp believed he won the election against the PDP duo of Orji Kalu and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.

The APP then headed for the election tribunal and in the estimation of loyalists of the party, there was a strong case that could upturn the verdict as given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in favour of Kalu and his then deputy, Abaribe. But the PDP flagged off discussions with the APP candidate and before long, the case at the tribunal was withdrawn. Not long afterwards, the candidate himself found accommodation in the PDP and was named a Minister. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was to make him the National Secretary of the party in one of the series of his interventions in the affairs of the PDP during his tenure.

His job at the helm of the party terminated in 2005, when the former President by fiat, ordered him to resign from the position. In the march towards the March 8, 2008 National Convention of the PDP, Ogbulafor was not highly considered. In strong contest were the former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and the former governor of Ebonyi state, Dr. Sam Egwu. To some extent, there were also Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, who was believed to be the candidate of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, and Ambassador Frankline Ogbuewu, who was seen as a compromise candidate that could come from the Ebonyi axis, following the near warfare unleashed on the party by the duo of Anyim and Egwu and also the move by the South East caucus of the party to restrict aspirants from Ebonyi and Imo to the slot. There were moves as well to make a former presidential aspirant, Chief Emanuel Iwuanyanwu, a prime target for the top job in line with the re-zoning arrangement in the South East. On the D-Day, March 8, the twists and turns have gone full circle and we saw the main contenders appearing on the podium only to announce the adoption of Ogbulafor as the new National Chairman.

Since his emergence, Ogbulafor has lived up to the billing. He has announced his preference for dialogue and accommodation in the affairs of the party. The party had been polarised into pro-Obasanjo and anti-Obasanjo forces ahead of the convention. For those opposed to the former President Olusegun Obasanjo maintaining a vice-like grip on the party through the emergence of the National Chairman in the mould of Egwu, Ogbulafor appeared the middle of the road approach.

He is gentle and urbane and not associated with extreme positions. That is why some regard him as the establishment person. In his inaugural address, Ogbulafor insisted on moving the party forward by ensuring the return of the founding fathers who had been marginalised in a way. He said that he was ready to bring back all the estranged founders who had been ostracised in the past years and declared that they had been readmitted immediately.

He declared that he was going to run an open administration and ensure the dreams of the founding fathers of the party became a reality in his tenure. Outside the pleasantries, Ogbulafor has to settle down to the reality of running the office he was elected into on March 8 and the tasks ahead of him are enormous. Just like many would want to associate all the troubles with Nigerian with the PDP, it is clear that the tasks before the new National Chairman are enormous. First, he emerged in an atmosphere of suspicion, where the contenders believed they were arm twisted to pave way for him and going by the experience of the South East when the Senate Presidency was zoned to the area, Ogbulafor knows he has to be careful to avoid the sort of game of musical chairs that characterised the Senate Presidency’s residency in the South East.

The main task ahead for Ogbulafor is reconciliation. He knows that he needs to bring back not just the members who have defected to other parties, but also the dejected members who are barely existing in the party. He also has to marry personal interests with the global interest of the party. Already, there is a challenge for him in his home state, Abia. Immediately he emerged, interests cropped up to state that it was impossible to have a National Chairman without a base at home. The allusion here is to the congresses in Abia State which Ogbulafor’s supporters see as marginalizing the National Chairman. Ogbulafor’s supporters and loyalists of the incumbent Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, were said to have been left in the cold as to the mode of emergence of the new executive in Abia State. There was the claim that only loyalists of the gubernatorial candidate, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, were made to occupy strategic positions in the party executive.

Thus, immediately Ogbulafor emerged, there was the push from some of his loyalists that Abia’s case must be revisited. For Ogbulafor, as they say, charity begins at home and the report of the Dr. Alex Ekwueme Committtee-led reconciliation committee of the party could be a starting block. The report indicated that imposition of candidates in the five chapters of the PDP in the South East during the last election provided a solid ground for discontent. The development was said to be responsible for the loss of three of the five states in the zone to the opposition parties.

For now, only Ebonyi and Enugu are being controlled by the PDP. In Abia, Ogbulafor’s home state, the Ekwueme report indicated that most candidates were imposed ahead of the last election and that a long list of aggrieved members include, the former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, a member of the Board of Trustees, Chief B.B Apugo, Chief Emma Adiele, a gubernatorial aspirant in the April 2007 polls and younger brother of the former Senate President, Sir Marc Wabara, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, now of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Governor Thoedore Orji, Senator Chris Adighije, Dr. Anagha Ezeikpe and the Ugwa Ngwa people as a block, perhaps as a result of the treatment meted out to their son, the former Senate president by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Besides the agitation to accommodate his interests, Ogbulafor would be impressed if he succeeds in reuniting the above mentioned with the PDP as far as his home state of Abia is concerned. But there are pockets of discontent in the four other states of the zone as well. There is the trouble with the Enugu State chapter of the party, the crisis in Imo and the general discontent in Anambra. If he pulls through the reconciliation in Abia and the South East, Ogbulafor would have emerged the new leader the PDP desires and that could place the party in the good stead it should be to deliver the good for the country.

Outside the South East, Ogbulafor has test cases to resolve in Bayelsa and Edo. In Edo, forces loyal to governor Oserhiemen Osunbor are at loggerheads with the former Chairman of the party’s BOT, Chief Tony Anenih, as some interests have succeeded in creating a wedge between the governor and the former BOT chairman. The crisis came to a head on February 28, when Osunbor led a parallel congress opposed to that held by loyalists of Anenih. The governor had adopted a chairman other than that anointed by the Anenih camp.

Though, the matter has been reported to INEC and the PDP secretariat, the wisdom of Ogbulafor is bound to be tasked in a situation where some interests are projecting the governors as the party leaders and are seeking to jettison arrangements and adherence to federal character that preceded their emergence on the seats. The same scenario is unfolding in Bayelsa State where loyalists of governor Timipre Silva upturned the agreement reached by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan and stakeholders in the party ahead of the February 28 congress. The stakeholders in Bayelsa, with the Vice President in attendance, had agreed to retain the incumbent executive of the party for the next two years, while some loyalists of the governor went ahead to conduct a congress on February 28 to elect another state executive. Governor Silva adopted the action of his loyalists when he arrived the country after a trip abroad and that has been the crux of the matter and that is directly pitching the Vice President against the governor. This matter too is before Ogbulafor, as well as similar issues in 10 other states. How he goes about bringing the aggrieved back to the fold is something that will come to the open as his tenure progresses.