Ali Modu Sheriff as PDP Chairman

After a protracted struggle for control between its different organs and chieftains the embattled, main opposition Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] last week chose Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as its substantive national chairman. He took over from Chief Uche Secondus, who was the acting chairman since last year’s resignation of Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu in the […]

After a protracted struggle for control between its different organs and chieftains the embattled, main opposition Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] last week chose Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as its substantive national chairman. He took over from Chief Uche Secondus, who was the acting chairman since last year’s resignation of Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu in the wake of the party’s defeat in presidential and general elections. Sheriff was appointed at a meeting attended by the party’s governors and other stakeholders but his appointment was quickly rejected by many party leaders including National Assembly members and the Board of Trustees.
PDP’s spokesman Olisa Metuh said Sheriff’s selection was ratified by the party’s National Working Committee, Governors Forum and National Caucus. He did not however mention the National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the highest party organ after the Convention. In his acceptance speech, Sheriff pledged to galvanise all party members and structures into action to ensure the re-emergence of the PDP into a formidable force that will retake power in 2019.
Before the selection and ratification of Sheriff, the party hierarchy was divided as stakeholders from the North East insisted that Muazu’s tenure must be completed by someone from the zone, a development that prompted Ahmed Gulak, a party stalwart from the zone, to get a court ruling that ordered Prince Uche Secondus to vacate the office and hand over to someone from that zone. Gulak went ahead to declare himself Chairman. Secondus also laid claim to the chairmanship of the party, saying that as the deputy to Mu’azu he should be allowed to take over and complete the tenure of that executive committee.
The PDP had over the last 16 years been in charge of government at the national level and was also firmly rooted at the state level. The party had in the course of its reign produced chairmen that were respected by both party members and non-members. Even though the election of PDP chairmen had often been accompanied by rancor, this one was one of the most rancorous yet, partly because the party no longer has the President who usually chose the chairman and imposed him on the party. First, states in the northeast were asked by the party leadership to nominate one candidate each but later the list was jettisoned and Sheriff and two others were invited to fill the position.
The selection of Sheriff has not gone down well many of the party’s topmost leaders. Sheriff, a three-time senator and former governor, is seen by many as a controversial choice. Sheriff has had a controversial record in Nigerian politics, which includes do-or-die politics and alleged high handedness when he was Governor of Borno State in 2003-2011. A founding APC member, Sheriff switched over to PDP when his candidates were defeated at the party’s first national convention. As a PDP member, Sheriff was accorded privileges that even the governor of Borno State was not given. The Maiduguri International Airport, shut as a result of the insecurity situation in the state, was opened to Sheriff during his visits to the state, a favour refused to Governor Kashim Shettima and to thousands of pilgrims that had to travel by road to Kano. At a time when the governor of Borno State was denied military escorts, Sheriff, then a new PDP convert, was given over 200 armed military guards led by a Brigadier on one of his visits to the state.
For a party that is struggling to redefine itself as a credible alternative to APC, Sheriff’s choice may not be the best for PDP at this time but since it is the internal affair of the party to select its leaders, it should ensure that all issues that have torn the party apart are carefully addressed. Already the likes of Gulak are filing to the court to test the process that produced Sheriff.  There is the need, therefore, for the party to quickly get its act together so that it can function properly as the biggest opposition party in Nigeria. Nigeria needs it because democracy flourishes when there is a vibrant opposition.