Recently, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ward executives at Igyorov ward in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State suspended the party’s national chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, it followed a predictable pattern: impunity has always defined the party’s leadership methodology.
The fall of Ayu came as the culmination of the supremacy battle between two political heavyweights in the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Governor Nyesom Wike, over the position of the national chairmanship.
Wike and his colleague governors under the aegis of G5, had resolved not to support Atiku in his presidential campaigns, insisting that it was abnormal for the presidential candidate and national chairman to come from one geographical divide of the country.
No sooner had the general elections been won and lost than the two heavyweights renewed their war of words, with Atiku informing Wike that they will meet him after his tenure ends on May 29, 2023.
But, unknown to Atiku and other pro-Ayu stalwarts of the party, the move to harass the national chairman out of office was afoot. Consequently, as soon as the ward executives of Igyorov ward slammed a suspension on Ayu, Wike declared his support.
“All of you who are joining Ayu, be prepared. Now, I have no other job, except to put more heat on them and I will continue to do that,” Wike had stated, stressing that it was repugnant for Ayu to remain as the national chairman after leading PDP to a catastrophic defeat.
Tempestuous Tradition
Although Ayu was suspended on his personal capacity as a member of the ward, the disciplinary action was programmed to achieve a hefty political purpose, namely displacing the embattled PDP boss to activate his eventual removal.
Other national chairmen of the party, including Dr. Audu Ogbe, Engineer Barnabas Gemade, had suffered similar fate. But none of them went through disciplinary procedure from the low level of authority as the ward executives. The only person that came so close to such lofty embarrassment was Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo.
Nwodo was said to have been removed via a purported interlocutory order restraining him from parading himself as national chairman. Till date, nobody has sighted the court order, which was said to have followed a suit in his home state of Enugu State.
Like Ayu’s case, Nwodo was involved in a domestic power tussle with his home state governor believed to be ignited by supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan and those for Atiku Abubakar over the party’s 2011 presidential ticket.
Similar to Ayu’s case also, Nwodo’s removal was regularized by an order of the state High Court. However, in Nwodo’s instance, a lawsuit was said to had been filed three weeks to the day the interim injunction, was granted by Justice Rose N. Onuorah against Nwodo over the waiver granted him (Nwodo) to be re-absorbed into the party.
And so, Ayu’s decision to step down after the Makurdi High Court granted a restraining order against his continued stay in office as national chairman, replayed to some extent a similar ambush against Bamanga Tukur. However, while Ayu’s troubles boiled over after the general elections, that of Bamanga Tukur, began and ended in the buildup to the 2015 general elections.
But, signs that PDP would end up as a huge disappointment emerged early in the life of the party, when it failed in its initial promise of being democratic. At the onset of the General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s transition to civil rule in 1998, PDP emerged from the coalescing of various political groupings around the G34 to become a full-fledged political party.
