Tukur’s topsy-turvy peace mission

BY HENRY UMORU
THE Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee, NWC of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, last Monday, rolled out a list of 30 members
under the name, 'reconciliatory panel,' with Governor Henry Seriake
Dickson of Bayelsa State,the home state of President Goodluck
Jonathan, as chairman.
The idea of having a reconciliation committee to resolve the multiple
crises bedeviling the PDP could have been a welcome development given
that the party is preparing for the August 31 Special National
Convention to correct the wrongs that were made in March 2012 when
Tukur emerged as national chairman.
The issue of reconciliation also became imperative in the light of the
approach of a tougher opposition in the form of the yet to be
registered All Progressives Congress (APC) an amalgamation of
opposition political parties including the Action Congress of Nigeria,
ACN, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and All Nigeria Peoples
Party (ANPP).
The Dickson panel, which was inaugurated, yesterday, has Alhaji Asheik
Jarma as deputy chairman and Amb. Umar Damagun as secretary. The
members include Secretary, Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid
Jubrin; former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu; Senator Hope
Uzodinma; Prince Arthur Eze and Chief Onyema Ugochukwu.
PDP Chairman, Bamanga Tukur
Interests in the party
Announcing the composition of the committee, the party's acting
National Publicity Secretary, Tony Okeke said the reconciliation
Committee was put up to ensure comprehensive reconciliation among
members and interests in the party.
Other members of the panel are Dr. I. A.Obuzor, Alh. Salisu, Hon.
Bello Mohammed Matawalle, Niyi Fadimula, Chief Jerome Eke, AVM Chris
O. Marizu, Hon. Tijani Ibrahim Kiyawa, Dr. Christy Silas, Barr. Jangwe
Yusuf, Mrs. Ngozi Olejeme, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Yakubu Shehu,
Mohammed Kuchazi, Mrs. Adedeji Otiti Olarenwaju, Chief Emma Iwuagwu,
Sen. Umar Gada, Asiwaju Dosun Fatokun, Engr. Harold Eze, Hajiya Fati
Sabo, Hon. Wakili Mohammed and Shittu Mohammed.
According to Okeke, the committee was set up to carry out a
comprehensive reconciliation of aggrieved members of the party.
Avalanche of reconciliation panels: Before now, the PDP had put in
place a couple of reconciliation committees including one led by
former Vice President Alex Ekwueme.
The Ekwueme's 11-member reconciliation committee had some of the
party's founding fathers and grandees such as former Minister of
Finance, Adamu Ciroma; former DeputyNational Chairmen, Bode George and
Shuaib Oyedokun, former Governor of Plateau State, Fidelis Tapgun and
former Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana among others.
The Ekwueme panel visited the six geo-political zones and raised the
alarm that the party was in very bad shape, even as it discovered that
only six out of the 34 founding members remained in the party at that
time. Thereport of the Ekwueme committee as good as many thought it to
be was, however, thrown into the dustbin. Ekwueme, understandably, was
in the position to attest to the ill-health of the PDP given his age,
experience and forthrightness.
Rather than carry out a holistic implementation of the Ekwueme report,
Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor who became the new national chairman, set
up another 18-member committee to review the report. It washeaded by
the former Minister of Defence, Dr. Haliru Bello Mohammed, the then
deputy national chairman of the party.
Other members of the committee were Shuaibu Oyedokun, Shetima Mustafa,
Ibrahim Ida, Martha Bodunrin, Hakims Agoda, Halim Idris, Frank
Ogbuewu; Onyeabo Obi and Aminu Wali, who is now Nigeria's
Ambassadorto China.
Ogbulafor remarkably, did not give anyreason for setting up a new
panel but in a very tactical manner named his new committee as "elders
committee"which he gave the task of ensuring "deep commitment towards
fostering and consolidating reconciliation within the party".
The 14-member elders' committee, which had former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Senator Ike Nwachukwu, as chairman, was inaugurated on July
1, 2009 to among others ensure total reconciliation of members in
states with crisis which then were Anambra, Kano, Bayelsa, Edo and
Akwa Ibom among others.
Members of the Elders' Committee were former Governor of Delta State,
Chief James Ibori; Prof. Jerry Gana; former Governor of Gombe State,
Senator Danjuma Goje; Alhaji Dahiru Manga Ignatius Ajuru; Alhaji
Shuaibu Oyedokun; Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam; Senator
Ayim Ude Chukwu; Hon. Dave Salako; Chief Ebenezer Babatope; Mrs.
Herberta Okonofia and the present Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia
Zainab Maina. Former Acting National Secretary who was then the Deputy
National Secretary, Dr. Musa Babayo served as the secretary.Just as
the Ekwueme committee, the Nwachukwu team after much travelingand
talking also came out with a reportwhich is lying fallow somewhere in
the national secretariat of the party.
It is thus interesting that the party has again come up with another
reconciliation move. However, the thrust and components of the present
trouble shooting move are being questioned.
There was also the move as disclosed by Governor Godswill Akpabio of
Akwa Ibom State that President Goodluck Jonathan would lead a panel to
resolvethe multiple crises in the party, but it received attacks
especially from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the idea died
on arrival.
But the panel resurrected in another form, this time with Dickson as
the chairman. Dickson is Jonathan's governor, whom critics said would
not go against the wishes of President Jonathan and Tukur because he
would want to come back again as governor.
If reports of men like Ekwueme, Nwachukwu, Gana, Oyedokun, Babatope,
Yahaya Kwande and Adamu Ciroma among others as assembled in the past
were thrown into the dustbins and total reconciliation eluded the
party, how far can Dickson'scommittee go?
Needed muscle
Will Dickson have the needed muscle to bring former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, Adamu Ciroma; Olusegun Agagu, Gbenga Daniel, Yayaha
Kwande,Ayo Fayose, Caleb Olubolade, Christopher Alao- Akala, Rasheed
Ladoja, Wole Oyelese, Chief Richard Akinjide, and the Ubas, Ukachukwu
and Ulasi in Anambra, among others, together, and tell them the truth?
Will he have the same muscle that Ekwueme, Nwachukwu, Babatope, Gana
and others had in the past?
Will Tukur's men like Senator Umar Gada, Shittu Mohammed, and Ibrahim
Mantu go contrary to his wishes? How will these men reconcile Wammako,
Nyako, Lamido, Kwankwaso with others? How will Dickson reconcile
Amaechi with Jonathan and Tukur knowing what happened after the
election of the Nigerian Governors' Forum, NGF when Dickson, Akpabio
stormed out, rejected the results where Amaechi scored 19 as against
the 16 votes of Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State?
Skepticism trails move: Since the emergence of the committee,
criticisms, skepticism have continued to trail the reconciliation
train.
Chief of Staff, Rivers Government House, Mr. Tony Okocha, feared that
the Committee might not achieve anything because the chairman is an
interested party. Also, a former governorship aspirant in Adamawa
State, Dr. Umar Ardo, described the panel as one that is dead on
arrival. ''With all due respect, I write to respectfully urge the
National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and members of his
National Working Committee, to kindly reconsider the appointment of
Gov. Dickson of Bayelsa State as Chairman ofthe Reconciliation
Committee of the party.
''Other than the fact that as a governor,Dickson would have little
time to devote to such an onerous and time-consuming task, I also
think that he is eminently unqualified to handle such an assignment.
In the first place Dickson lacks the national exposure and experience
that such a task requires.
Secondly, Dickson himself is a subject of conflict within the party
apparatus and membership. The way and mannerin which he was brought in
as governor, and the furor and controversy that it generated across
the country, drain him of all moral standing to undertake a
reconciliatory mission.
Also, as a governor of the president's own state, Dickson cannot be
objectiveand fair in his judgment. Given that one of the most central
causes of the present disputes within the party is the inordinate
ambition of the president for 2015, I cannot see how Governor Dickson
can depart from this goal should it be imperative for the committee to
do so in the course of its assignment.
''In fact, Dickson's appointment will only be seen as an act of
nepotism aimed at satisfying the impulsive determination of the
president to achieve his aspiration. This perception will
automatically estrange most aggrieved members and stakeholders of the
party. The committee will thus be dead on arrival."
Given this view, which is shared by many members of the party it is
not yet Uhuru for Bamanga Tukur. It is to be seen how far the
Dickson's panel will go.