Why peace has eluded Lagos PDP

                   
                   Agbaje

Since 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not been able to dislodge the ruling progressives family in Lagos State. Its defeat at the recent governorship election has weakenefd the chapter. There was a depletion of its rank and file before the contest. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines the factors working against the party and why it may not be able to effectively play the role of the opposition.

SINCE 1999, the ambition of the Lagos State Peoples Democratic (PDP) to govern the state has been thwarted by the progressive bloc. Amid persistent crises, many founding members of the party have defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The struggle for the control of the soul of the party has been bitter. This has resulted in personality clashes among its leaders. Many party chieftains believe that since Chief Olabode George emerged as the arrowhead of the party, peace has deserted the chapter. A former chieftain of the party said George has been thwarting all the efforts to unite the polarised chapter, by always taking unilateral steps considered infuriating to other leaders. Others have accused him of imposition of governorship candidates, thereby preventing proper congresses from holding at the ward, local government and state levels.

Observers believe George’s influence in the party has not been very positive. He has been the one calling the shots, but his leadership has been anything inspiring. The choice of a candidate has always been a source of disagreement. For instance, the party’s governorship candidate in the 2011 general elections, Dr Ade Dosunmu, was widely regarded as George’s candidate, rather than the party’s flag bearer. The party took part in the election as a divided house. Not surprisingly, it was crushed by the then ACN. After the election, the party leaders started to trade blames. A reconciliation move was mooted by a party elder, Pa Aderibigbe Shitta. But it didn’t see the light of the day.

Ahead of 2015, some elders started brainstorming on how to package the party. Ogunlewe said necessity made it compelling to the chapter to do a thorough soul –searching. A team of researchers were sent out to carry out a survey on the prospect of the party in the 2015 governorship election. Its findings showed that the party was rejected in the past because the candidates could not compete favourably with the candidates of AD, AC and ACN. Consequently, a search team was set up to look for a credible candidate. None was found within the party, as it were. Therefore it extended its tentacles beyond the fold and Jimi Agbaje’s name was suggested. But some people pointed out that it may be difficult to convince him.

Ironically, it was George that contacted Agbaje in 2007 to join the party. But, today, they have fallen apart. At that time, Funso Williams had just been assassinated. Prof. Wole Soyinka’s description of the PDP as the nest of killers came to his mind. He told George: “Do you want me dead like Funso Williams.” Also former Governor Gbenga Daniel also beckoned on Agbaje to join the PDP, but he refused.

When Agbaje eventually accepted to join the party, he joined because he believed that he would be endorsed as a consensus candidate. He met a party in crisis, making it difficult for the party to expand its support base. Crisis resolution in the fold is also defective. Its leader, George, has often come under attack of monopolisation and personalisation of party power. It has also become increasingly difficult for Lagosians to embrace the PDP because the state was neglected by the PDP Federal Government.

It was learnt that the search team found out that Lagosians were favourably disposed to Agbaje’s candidature. As a result, he was introduced to the PDP national leadership and members were urged to work for him. Agbaje gave a condition. He said that he would accept the offer to fly the party’s flag, if peace returns to the party. This necessitated the settlement of the rift between George and Ogunlewe. But the suspicion between George and Senator Musiliu Obanikoro remained.

When Obanikoro was appointed Minister, many thought the coast was clear for Agbaje to emerge as the flag bearer. Trouble started when he resigned after weeks of speculation. Agbaje’s camp was jittery because it was not indifferent to Obanikoro’s antecedents and past feats. When the Lagos PDP tactically endorsed Agbaje, Obanikoro replied that it will not work. However, the elders forum stuck to Agbaje’s candidature. The forum explained that “Obanikoro cannot win the governorship election for the PDP and described him as a certified spoiler, twisting and turning in the wills, thrashing about in wild, uncoordinated confusion, frozen in a destructive fixation to weaken our party before he jumps ship.”

The ego war between Obanikoro and George was accentuated. The former Minister of State for Defence said George was his rival at the primary and not Agbaje, who he described as a foreigner in the chapter. Obanikoro boasted he would win the primary without George’s support. The exercise was held amid fire exchange and stone throwing by the supporters of the two leading aspirants. Agbaje was declared winner. Obanikoro rejected the result, which he said was manipulated by George and other party leaders in favour of Agbaje. Obanikoro engaged in war of words with Agbaje and George. He also sued the party for failing to address a petition he wrote over the conduct of the primary.

The controversy was resolved with the intervention of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Obanikoro was compensated with ministerial appointment to restore peace in the Lagos chapter ahead of the election. The reconciliation turned out to be a mere window dressing because Obanikoro’s supporters vowed not to vote for Agbaje. The threat was real as neither Obanikoro nor his supporters attended Agbaje’s campaign rallies. Agbaje lost the election.

The post-election crisis manifested when the Chairman, Mr Tunji Shelle, was sacked by 34 members of the State Working Committee. He was replaced by Mr Kamaldeen Olorunoje. The executive members who were Obanikoro’s loyalists accused Shelle of mismanaging election campaign funds and manipulation of the primary which led to the defeat of the PDP at the polls. They said: “We members of exco have all agreed that the way the party is being run should not be allowed. There is need for restructuring. If we want restructuring, there is no way the chairman can continue in office.” But Shelle, a stooge of George described the sack as null and void. He called on members to discountenance the sack and also admonished the brains behind the preposterous action to retrace their steps and allow peace to reign in the party.

There existed two executives in the Lagos PDP until a former member of the House of Representatives, Moshood Salvador, emerged as chairman in the build-up to 2019 general elections. His tenure was crisis ridden. There were Jimmy Agbaje faction, George camp that produced Salvador and Segun Adewale group. Both Salvador and Adewale claimed to be chairman of the party. Salvador described the situation, on assumption of office, as terrible. According to him, “I inherited a lot of problems on assumption of office, most of them are yet to be resolved. This is a bit disturbing, because without peace, proper reconciliation and collective resolve of members to work together, we would only be wasting time.”

Salvador claimed he was open to peace and equally expected Adewale to tow the path of reconciliation so that we could agree on how to move the party forward. But Adewale has consistently challenged the leadership of George in the state chapter. He described him as a political leader without followership. According to him, “Bode George had never won elections in his polling booth, his ward his local government and his senatorial district. How can I recognise him as a leader? They are aware that some of us in Lagos have track records of political success. For instance in 2015, I won four House of Representatives and six House of Assembly seats for the PDP in my senatorial district.

In the midst of leadership wrangling, Salvador dumped the party for the APC. He quit the party few weeks to the 2019 general elections. In his parting words, Salvador predicted that his exit marks the end of PDP in Lagos State.

He said he was prompted to take the decision because all his efforts to move the PDP in the state forward were frustrated by some elements in the party. He alleged that George did everything possible to undermine the progress of the party.

“I can no longer labour in vain, the national leadership of the party did nothing to support or appreciate my efforts as PDP chairman. When you have people or leadership that cannot give you encouragement to carry out your vision, you take it to another place where it will be appreciated.

“I am not happy that I am abandoning what I laboured for, but I have to move on with my supporters because I cannot continue to labour in vain"
George said Salvador could not be stopped from leaving as he is an adult and competent enough to make decisions for himself. He, however, questioned why Salvador had to leave at a time when Adeniyi Aborishade’s murder case, to which he was earlier linked, had not been resolved.

On allegations that he was responsible for the friction in the party, George said it was wrong for Salvador to have made the allegations. He said the PDP Chairman was actually the one running the party like his private estate, causing rancour and unnecessary wrangling in the party.

George said Salvador failed to honour agreements reached on executive offices after the Supreme Court verdict affirming Senator Ahmed Makarfi as National Chairman. He said then that the party had agreed that 65 per cent of the offices should go to Makarfi’s followers in the state, while 35 per cent should be given to followers of ousted Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff.

“Rather than follow the agreement, he was imposing people as party executives, taking decisions that did not go down with members. He was running the party as if it was his personal estate,” George said.

He added that the PDP was based on strong democratic foundations and that impunity and indiscipline could not be allowed to reign in the party.

However, the party’s spokesman, Mr Taofik Gani, admitted that the exit of Salvador few weeks to the election affected the PDP’s performance at the polls. He said: “Salvador left with some party members and we believe strongly that he left behind some party members who must have undermined the possible victory of the PDP in their areas. I will not be honest to myself and the party to brush aside the implication of a party state chairman defecting to the rule party just few weeks to an election”.

The exit of Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe has further weakened the party. Ogunlewe described his defection to APC as home coming because he belonged to the progressives fold. With his exit, PDP in Lagos State is personified by George.

There is cold war raging between George and Agbaje. It was a fall out of the 2019 governorship election. Agbaje was the governorship candidate. He refused to hand over campaign funds donated by the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to the party leaders because of what he described as the management of the past. As a result, the party leaders didn’t attend Agbaje’s campaigns.

Adewale has stepped up his fight for party leadership. He claimed to be the authentic Chairman of the PDP in Lagos. According to him, he was the most qualified person to lead the party in the state. He insisted that Dr Adegbola Dominic who, he alleged, was imposed by George, lacks what it takes to move the party forward.