If Ayu must go, Ayu must go

BY ADAMS ABONU

Within the context of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, the major political parties have to, as a matter of utmost priority, present at least a semblance of a unified platform to enhance each of their chances of winning the coveted seat of power. While the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) grapple with sections of dissension within its ranks occasioned by the choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket and sundry matters, the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is bedevilled by the inability of the leadership of the party to manage the fallout of the presidential primaries having Rivers state governor Nyesom Wike aggrieved by the rather biased posturing of the national chairman Iyorchia Ayu. Only the Labour Party led by its presidential candidate Peter Obi seems to be getting their acts right in this season of intrigues.

As a party with experience in national leadership, PDP’s inability to properly harness her stakes in this fierce contest is unbecoming and the needful should be done if Nigerians would take the presidential ticket of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Delta state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, seriously. Suffice to mention that at the heart of the crisis of confidence in PDP is the insistence of a section of the party championed by Wike that Ayu should abdicate as national chairman because the laws of the party provided against a circumstance where the presidential candidate of the party and national chairman emerges from same geopolitical extraction. Not forgetting that Ayu showed an untoward bias for Atiku Abubakar to emerge as the presidential candidate during the party’s national convention in May, his aloofness to the provisions of the party in this regard spells uncertainty and smacks of renegation.

Ayu’s continued stay as national chairman of PDP is inimical to the party’s success in convincing the majority of Nigerians in the upcoming polls is glaring. Consider the festering feud between Wike, who is the arrowhead of elements aggrieved in their numbers, and former Jigawa governor, Sule Lamido, and one would understand why Ayu should not stand in the way of genuine reconciliations within the party. Sule Lamido happens to be among the handful of founding fathers of the party in 1998 still alive and has since then remained fervently committed to the well-being of the party and its ideals. At the height of his personal and political discomfort, Lamido maintained his preference for PDP making him the custodian of the party’s trust.

Wike took up the responsibility of providing for the running of the party and nurtured its organs after the loss of the 2015 presidential election that saw the mass exodus of big-wigs, including the eventual 2023 standard bearer. That he went all the way for the party and vehemently defended against the fiery darts of the ruling APC accorded him an enduring voice in the party that serves as a rallying point for party men like Samuel Ortom, Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu, Donald Duke and a host of other voices of considerable reckoning. Even a teeming mass of PDP supporters nationwide found a voice in Wike’s often audacious exhortations. For a party purporting to win the next presidential election, PDP must find a sacrificial lamb to appease the appetites of grievances raging within and that should come handily.

In the run-up to PDP’s national convention in May, Ayu, who had been a founding father of the party and had a brief stint as senate president in the ill-fated 3rd republic, was tipped as national chairman and all hands were on deck for his emergence in a consensus arrangement largely powered by Wike. In one of his many public engagements, Ayu assured that he would not hesitate to throw in the towel in an event of the presidential flagbearer of the party emerging from the north as himself as the national chairman. Backed by his home state governor, Samuel Ortom, and other leaders of the party, Ayu went on to be affirmed as national chairman. The time has now come for Ayu to respect the rules of the party he joined others to form and his political ego should not be too bogus to be curtailed.

While Wike has insisted that the national chairman respects his gentlemanly appeal and accords the laws of the party requisite regards, it behoves the leaders of the party to provide a soft landing for Ayu to pave way for genuine reconciliations within the party. The rancour between sections of the party, such as that between Wike and Lamido, should be discountenanced considering the political weight of the personalities involved and the consequences of the continual exchange of missives and misgivings.

For Atiku Abubakar, the first test of his leadership and conflict resolution acumen is how he would manage to resolve the stalemate that has clogged the wheel of progress of his party. Agreeing that his emergence ran short of popular expectations that a Nigerian from the south should be more appropriate in the current calculations, he should take the bull by the horn and commit adequately to reining in forces of dissension by appealing to aggrieved interests. In doing this, the PDP flagbearer should prevail on his longtime associate to consider stepping aside from his role as national chairman and demonstrate the will for a southerner with a popular appeal to emerge as national chairman. This is the party’s best bet at ensuring internal cohesion.

After Ayu’s stepping aside, efforts must be made to reconcile the Wike camp with the opposing interests led by Sule Lamido considering that both camps have the best interest of the party at heart. Sule Lamido and Nyesom Wike have shared mutual confidence in no distant past, up to a point when the latter invited the former to come to Rivers state to commission development projects and to be a special guest at the convocation ceremony of the River State University. Every effort must be made to reconcile such mutual respect and Ayu should be made to agree in this direction.

Abonu, a public affairs expert and journalist, wrote from Asokoro, Abuja. He can be reached via [email protected]