As the Osun State governorship election draws near, the crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party may ruin its chances, writes FEMI MAKINDE
The Peoples Democratic Party in Osun
State is in a precarious situation. This situation cannot be divorced
from the crisis rocking the party’s National Headquarters in Abuja.
Perhaps more than every other state, the state chapter of the party is
in dire straits as the crisis appears set to decimate what is left of
the goodwill it once enjoyed. Pundits argue that unless the crisis is
quickly resolved, the state chapter of the party will remain in the
opposition longer than it ever envisaged. The situation is made worse by
the fact that the 2014 governorship election is only a few months away.
The party cannot afford to go into the election with its house in
disarray. If, however, the party is able to find a solution to its
myriad of problems, it could spring a surprise.
Former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who
is the national secretary of the Abubakar Baraje-led PDP, leads one
faction of the party while the other faction has remained loyal to the
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
Barely 24 hours after the split in PDP,
the Osun State chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa, issued a
statement dissociating the state chapter from Oyinlola while pledging
loyalty to the Tukur-led PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Some days later, the state PDP Elders’
Committee issued a communiqué in which they also dissociated themselves
from the Baraje faction.
A member of the Board of Trustees of the
PDP, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, who is also the state chairman of the PDP
Elders Committee, said betrayal was not new in politics. He observed
that those who did it in the past did not end their political careers
well.
The elders committee later declared its
support for Jonathan and warned members of the party against attending
any meeting called by Oyinlola or any leader of the new PDP.
Despite the warning, thousands of PDP
members trooped to Odo Otin Grammar School, Okuku in Oyinlola’s hometown
to attend a meeting with the ex-governor.
Oyinlola, who is good in the art of
story-telling, enthralled his teeming supporters with what caused the
crisis between him and Tukur and how his relationship with Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida was misconstrued by Jonathan.
The former governor appeared overwhelmed
by the show of solidarity by thousands of his supporters who came out
to attend the rally despite earlier threats.
He said the PDP leaders in the state would scuttle the party’s chances of winning the 2014 governorship poll by sidelining him.
Oyinlola said, “I am happy that despite
the warning that you should no longer associate with me, you still came
out in large numbers to honour me. God will honour you all. But let me
tell you all, without my support, it will be impossible for the PDP to
win the governorship election in Osun State. “They can only go round to
campaign with what they intend to do but if I follow them, I will tell
the people what I have done in the state.”
When probed further if he was likely to
join the progressives; the ex-governor said he would move elsewhere if
he was no longer wanted within the PDP.
Many suggest that by this statement, Oyinlola was giving a hint of a possibility of defecting to the All Progressives Congress.
The Ganiyu Olaoluwa-led state chapter of
PDP did not take kindly to the effrontery displayed by party members
who openly identified with Oyinlola.
The immediate past chairman of the
party, Alhaji Ademola Rasaq, and some ward chairmen of the party were
suspended for attending the rally called by Oyinlola.
Three out of the four governorship
aspirants of the party were also given a 24-hour ultimatum to either
denounce the statement credited to Rasaq that they (aspirants) were in
support of Oyinlola or be ready to face the consequences.
The governorship aspirants are: Alhaji Fatai Akinbade, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi and Wole Oke.
But the suspension further exposed the disunity within the rank and file of the state chapter of the party.
While some who are loyal to the Tukur-
led PDP hailed the suspension, those who are Oyinlola’s loyalists
criticised the party chairman for taking the decision to suspend members
of the party.
Chief Abiola Ogundokun who is also a member of the PDP Elders Committee, said Oyinlola’s action amounted to a betrayal of trust.
He said the ex-governor did not carry
anybody along when he dumped the PDP and teamed up with rebel governors
to form the “so-called new PDP.”
In response to the ultimatum given to
them by the state party chairman, the three governorship aspirants
dismissed the chairman’s threat saying it was unthinkable for the
chairman to give them an ultimatum to denounce what they did not say.
They urged the party leadership to
resolve the crisis saying the party needed to be united before going to
the polls. The chairman has yet to make further comments after the
expiration of the one-week ultimatum.
Instead, he set up a panel headed by Mr.
Dosu Oladipo to investigate those who were identified to have attended
the meeting with Oyinlola in Okuku.
One of Oyinlola’s loyalists; Chief Dapo
Ayodele, who is seeking to represent Osun Central Senatorial District at
the Senate; verbally attacked the PDP chairman for suspending
Oyinlola’s supporters.
He faulted the “unilateral decision of
the chairman” to suspend the affected persons while stating that
Oyinlola remained the leader of the party in the state.
Ayodele further noted that what should
be the primary objective of the party was to find a way of settling the
crisis rather than aggravating an already bad situation.
A former acting Chairman of the state
chapter of the party, Chief Sunday Ojo-Williams, in an interview with
our correspondent, appealed to all the warring factions within the PDP
at the state and at the national level to unite for the party to win in
Osun State in next year’s governorship election.
He said the party needed Oyinlola and
all of its members, as well as those who were non-members to support it
in order to ensure that it emerges victorious in the forthcoming
election.
Ojo-Williams said since election was a
game of numbers, the PDP would not want to lose Oyinlola’s vote and the
votes of other aggrieved members of the party.
Although Jonathan has his loyalists who
would be ready to work for the PDP during the governorship as well as
the 2015 presidential elections, it is almost certain that some of the
aggrieved PDP leaders will work against it except its internal wrangling
is quickly resolved.
Erelu Olusola Obada was recently removed
as the Minister of State for Defence and her sacking was traced to her
association with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Oyinlola who
obviously do not belong to Jonathan’s camp.
Many believe that even if she, as a
person, does not work against the party’s interests, she may not go out
of her way to work towards its success in 2014; unless an amicable
solution is found to the problems facing the party.
The Chairman of the Federal Roads
Maintenance Agency, Olajide Adeniji, who is an avowed loyalist of
President Jonathan, is one of those who will stake all that they have to
ensure victory for the party but such efforts may come under threat by
aggrieved party members.
There are those belonging to the school
of thought that Adeniji, is a joker Jonathan may use if the stigma on a
preferred aspirant refuses to go.
However, coming from Osun Central
Senatorial District which has produced Chief Bisi Akande and Oyinlola,
it may be difficult for him to convince some voters.
Senator Iyiola Omisore, who is the only
governorship aspirant who escaped the threat of sanctions by the
leadership of the state PDP, is also obviously in Jonathan’s camp.
His supporters believe that he is tough
and has what it takes to give the incumbent governor a serious
challenge. Those in this school of thought argue that they both enjoy a
large following in Osun East Senatorial District where they both come
from.
He too may become a victim of the antics
of aggrieved members of the PDP who have an axe to grind with him and
the party if he eventually picks the ticket to contest the 2014
governorship election.
Without a doubt, the crisis which has
polarised the party at the national and state levels will lead to
serious consequences for the party if not quickly resolved.
This is even more so in the case of Osun
State, given the current level of acceptance the administration of
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the APC enjoys.
The PDP, which is the leading opposition
party in the state, may be in for a long wait to wrest power from the
APC unless and until it puts its house in order.
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All through yesterday, 25th of September 2013, Fans of Nigerian
comedian Bovi inundated him with birthday messages and well wishes!
Little did they know that there would be an even bigger celebration
later in the day.
What movie premiere is going to be happening in the UK soon? The romantic comedy Flower Girl.
Mesut Ozil Photograph: Sang Tan/AP
"When you look at Özil's numbers, the assists are not a coincidence –
it is a reality of his game," said Arsène Wenger, Arsenal's manager.
"When you play against Stoke you don't expect to score three goals from
set pieces but it shows how important his delivery is, and I believe
once he has completely integrated you will see even more. He has shown
today that he is a great player."
A rescuer carries a child to safety at the Westgate mall in Nairobi,
Kenya, after an attack claimed by al-Shabaab militants. Photograph:
Kabir Dhanji/EPA
Kenya's Red Cross said in a statement citing police that 49 people
had been reported missing. Officials did not make an explicit link but
that number could form the basis of the number of people held hostage.
"The priority is to save as many lives as possible," said the interior
minister, Joseph Lenku, reassuring the families of the hostages.
A Kenyan woman is helped to safety. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
Shoppers, expatriates and rich Kenyans fled in any direction that
might be safe: into back corners of stores, back service hallways and
bank vaults. Over the next several hours, pockets of people poured out
of the mall as undercover police moved in. Some of the wounded were
being transported in shopping trolleys.
A wounded woman outside the shopping centre in Nairobi. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
As shoppers inside the mall made their way to safety, witness
accounts of the attack began to emerge. The gunmen carried AK-47s and
wore vests with hand grenades on them, said Manish Turohit, 18, who hid
in a parking garage for two hours.
The attack took place in the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi. Photograph: Observer
Hannah Chisholm, a Briton visiting Nairobi, told the BBC she and
dozens of others barricaded themselves into a large storeroom. "We kept
running to different places but the shots were getting louder so we
barricaded ourselves along with about 60 others into a large storeroom,"
she said. "There were children with us as well as someone who had been
shot. The gunfire was loud and we were scared but at that point we
thought the gunmen were thieves so we assumed they wouldn't try to reach
the storeroom."
Civilians who had been hiding walk to safety with their hands up. Photograph: Jonathan Kalan/AP
Kenya has been braced for an attack of this kind since it intervened
in the war against al-Shabaab in Somalia by sending an expeditionary
force in 2011. Since then Kenyan troops have succeeded in expelling the
jihadists from the southern Somali port city of Kismayo and installing a
former warlord friendly to the government in Nairobi.
The Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Kenyan authorities said they have thwarted other large-scale attacks
targeting public spaces, including, in September 2012, the disruption of
a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning. They arrested
two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and
ammunition.
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