•Governors, ex-governors and get together chiefs commerce hearth as Ibadan conference turns into the frontline of a brutal struggle for PDP’s survival
By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
THE Peoples Democratic Celebration, PDP, is not only divided. It’s at warfare with itself. In Abuja this week, the get together as soon as proud to name itself Africa’s largest political household appeared much less like a motion, extra like a battlefield.
No rallies. No cheering supporters. Solely boots in Maitama at midnight, whisky and anger on the desk, and papers on the secretariat stacked like weapons.
That is trench warfare. The scars will final lengthy after Ibadan in November.
The ‘rebels’ collect
The rebellion has a basic: Nyesom Wike, Minister of the FCT. Nonetheless swaggering like a discipline marshal of dissent, he enters conferences with the calm of a person with nothing to lose, his allies shifting behind him like lieutenants getting ready for an assault.
Round him stands a hardened corps of ex-governors: Samuel Ortom, Ayo Fayose, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Their faces carry the scars of previous battles, males who’ve gained and misplaced elections however by no means misplaced their urge for food for fight.
They’re not whispering; they’re shouting. Their six-point ultimatum reads much less like negotiation and extra like give up phrases handed to a defeated enemy.
Contemporary congresses in Ebonyi and Anambra. A brand new South-East zonal congress. Recognition of South-South outcomes upheld by the courts. Native authorities congresses in Ekiti. An finish to micro-zoning past NEC’s system. And the chairmanship should keep within the North Central.
The message was not a compromise however a command. With out these, they declared, the Ibadan conference is ‘invalid.’ The ‘rebels’ are already making strikes. Envoys slip out and in of Wike’s Abuja residence below cowl of night time.
Whispers of contact with the ruling APC cross via the ranks like contraband. The air in PDP’s corridors hangs heavy, like gunpowder ready for a match.
The counter-offensive
The response was swift. On the nationwide secretariat, Umar Damagum, PDP Appearing Nationwide Chairman, stood earlier than the elective conference planning committee throughout their inauguration final Tuesday. He carried himself like a commander not prepared to retreat. His phrases got here sharp, a dare to the ‘rebels’.
“At essential moments, I selected restraint, not out of weak point, however as a aware sacrifice for the survival and stability of our get together. The PDP is just not damaged. It isn’t defeated. It’s marching ahead, stronger and extra decided to reclaim the presidency in 2027,” he declared.
Round him, the corridor stiffened. Governors leaned in. Aides straightened their backs. The environment shifted like troopers bracing for artillery.
Then Bala Mohammed, chair of the PDP Governors’ Discussion board, slammed the desk. The sound cracked like gunfire within the chamber.
“The time has come after we should flex our muscular tissues. We aren’t cowards, and we aren’t afraid of anyone,” he fired.
Silence gripped the room. Then got here the grenade.
“We can not proceed to participate and permit folks to take us to the slaughterhouse. Consensus can not imply stupidity. If anyone desires to kind a faction of fools, let him go forward,” he roared.
Not peace. Conflict
Even the ‘conscience of the get together’ spoke within the tone of commanders. Senator Ahmed Makarfi, standing in for BoT Chair Adolphus Wabara, spoke with the chilly weight of a decide delivering sentence.
“A conference is just not about 100 per cent settlement, however in regards to the overwhelming majority. That’s what have to be mirrored on the conference.”
Then Adamawa Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, chair of the conference committee, leaned into the microphone. His eyes had been bloodshot, his voice like metal. The room hushed.
“I cannot place relationships above this get together. Purchase the varieties. Submit them. Check your reputation. That’s democracy,” he thundered.
And he wasn’t completed.
“Allow us to not take all our issues to the media. It’s turning into too embarrassing. In case you are a celebration man, you agree points inside the get together. We is not going to permit indiscipline and blackmail to derail this course of,” he lashes out.
Each line landed like a burst from a rifle. Each goal knew it.
The barricade of legislation
The ‘rebels’ could rage, however the battlefield has its barricades. And on this political warfare, legality is the wall.
Contained in the cramped NEC corridor on the PDP Secretariat, the weary hum of ceiling followers fought with hurried whispers. Officers unfold out paperwork like battle maps.
The iron wall was clear: the one INEC-recognised correspondence for the conference has already been signed by Damagum and Nationwide Secretary Samuel Anyanwu.
With out their joint signatures, no different conference exists. No paperwork, no battlefield. The realisation spreads like smoke via the ranks: the dream of a parallel conference is a ghost. Until Damagum and Anyanwu swap sides, insiders name it ‘unimaginable’, Ibadan stays the one battleground within the horizon.
The ‘rebels’ could march, shout, curse. However the fortress of process holds. For now.
Skirmishes within the trenches
The struggle is not only in speeches. It’s in whispers, manoeuvres, sudden strikes.
In state capitals, emissaries transfer like scouts, testing loyalties. Some governors faux neutrality whereas sharpening daggers below the desk. Others communicate of unity in daylight however commerce secrets and techniques at nighttime.
Each hall in Wadata Plaza (PDP Nationwide Secretariat) seems like a trench. Every workplace is a bunker. Aides clutch telephones as if they had been radios on the entrance, passing messages coded in half-sentences.
Even silence feels weaponised. When one camp speaks, the opposite camp solutions not with phrases, however with absence; boycotting conferences, skipping occasions, ready for the opposite facet to sweat.
Ibadan: the frontline
The frontline is about. Committees shaped. Types printed. Delegates courted. The warfare machine of the conference grinds into movement.
However the air is thick with suspicion. Each handshake feels prefer it hides a blade. Each smile seems like camouflage.
Rumours unfold: the ‘rebels’ could boycott or stroll out earlier than cameras. Some whisper of court docket injunctions timed to blow up like landmines on the eve of conference. Others predict defections, sudden realignments, betrayals staged for optimum spectacle.
Contained in the corridors, governors change sharp seems. Aides sweat, telephones buzzing with coded alerts. Every hearsay is one other bullet at nighttime.
Then Fintiri’s vow cuts via the smoke: “I cannot place relationships above this get together. I’ll ship.”
Ibadan is not a metropolis on the calendar. It’s the frontline. And reputations will bleed.
Survival or slaughterhouse
Two truths stay when the mud settles. First: solely Ibadan issues, as a result of Damagum and Anyanwu maintain the signatures. Second: politics is just not solely legislation. Additionally it is theatre, notion, spectacle.
The ‘rebels’ could not cease Ibadan from taking place, however they will wound it. A lawsuit, a boycott, a walkout on dwell TV, any may flip the PDP conference into an empty parade floor, mocked by rivals.
Damagum holds his line, his phrases a protect: “The PDP is marching ahead stronger, extra decided, and higher ready to reclaim the presidency of this nice nation and rebuild Nigeria from the mismanagement of the present ruling get together.”
However Bala Mohammed’s thunder nonetheless rolls throughout the sphere: “We aren’t cowards. We aren’t afraid of anyone. However we can not preserve quiet and permit folks to take us to the slaughterhouse. That’s their job. Our job is to ensure we don’t go. We is not going to permit it.”
Between self-discipline and defiance, legislation and legitimacy, unity and rise up, the PDP is locked within the battle of its life.
Ibadan is the frontline. The one query is whether or not the get together marches out stronger or by no means.
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