The Igbo conspiracy that removed Nwodo- Bala

Bala Buhari, former Minister of the Federal Republic and Secretary of the Northern Political Summit Group led by Chief Solomon Lar was the political adviser to the erstwhile National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In this interview with newsmen he tells the Nwodo story detailing what he alleges to be the intrigues and conspiracies that overwhelmed is revolutionary attempt to return the PDP to the people.

How do you see Nwodo’s seven months tenure in Wadata House?

Upon assumption of office as the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo introduced his reform programmes and with the help of consultants, he was able to develop and fine tune his reform agenda. But the National working committee of the party (NWC) was reluctant buying into his reform programme.

First of all, Dr. Nwodo emphasized on the entrenchment of internal democracy. That the process of choosing candidates must be subjected to internal democracy to the dictates of the PDP constitution, and extant rules. With this, the influence of Godfathers and Godmothers will be completely eliminated.

To return the party to the people, Dr Nwodo quickly embarked on e-registration by digitalizing membership registration. With this membership registration obstacles like the one he experienced in his home state of Enugu will automatically be eliminated. With this innovation, the party will have up to date database of all its members’ nationwide with complete biodata which at present is rather scanty. Funds generated from this, can then be traced easily and completely eliminate fraud and provide financial independence to the party. If the concept had succeeded, funds generated were to be shared to National, State, Local Government and Ward levels. This innovation was killed on arrival.

Dr. Nwodo tried to restore the core values of the party. At every opportunity, he had, he kept on emphasizing that being a founding member of the party, that it was formed on the basis of justice, equity, peace and fair play rule of law and good governance. He tried to improve within his short stay the party image through television, newspaper and bill board nationwide.

Thirdly, he tried to update the party manifestos; he believed that party manifestos are a social contract between the party and the people. All members of the party ought to know what PDP stands for and must be in a position to deliver the content of the manifestos to the electorates and it is a must that Nigerians must know exactly what our party (PDP) stands for and believe in. The manifesto is ready and with the printers.

Fourthly, the National Chairman emphasized on the sanctity of the Electoral Process. So that once you are given the mandate by the people, you should be in a position to deliver and campaign with sincerity and win the votes honorably. At every opportunity given to him, he emphasized on the need for credible election and condemned cash and carry democracy.

This was the vision of Dr. Nwodo and his team and of cause his albatross.

How do you see the challenges Nwodo faced?

It’s important to note that, these are not easy tasks and all efforts to achieve them were met with stiff opposition, both within and outside.

However, these messages were well received by party members to the extent that when it was time for the purchase of Interest Forms, a lot of party faithful showed interest to contest under the platform of our party. For that reason alone, substantial amount of revenue was generated. He left behind a comfortable treasury of about seven billion Naira (N7b).

He had planned to use the money in a special project of poverty alleviation to members to give them a sense of belonging. Independent of government he wanted a programme that would have touched the lives of party members across the country. Dr Nwodo drew this inspiration from the ruling party in South Africa, the ANC. One could see that reforms embarked upon by Dr. Nwodo were generally received by party members but was rejected by those who feared that the party was being taken away from their hands and handed over to the people. It was evident by the last primary elections that more people developed interest in the affairs of the party.

What of the electoral victories and losses?

It is on record that we lost Ekiti state and Osun state through judicial process. We have also won on our side the Abia state governor, and also won the re_run Election in Delta state. We are also sure that there will be no more judicial ambush. The new electoral process prohibits elections being won through judicial process.

What do you think was responsible for opposition of Nwodo’s reform?

His efforts to return the party to the people which was the dream of the founding fathers of the party was stoutly opposed by his colleagues NWC and the governors.

Most of them (Governors) were apprehensive of the reform agenda. One of them continued to sustain litigations in court to remove him right from the day he was sworn in as the National chairman.

It was then not surprising that the day NEC met to accept the national chairman’s resignation, not even one governor had a dissenting voice. They all welcomed the agenda to remove him.

What of the crisis in Enugu?

It was on record that the Enugu state chapter of the party, headed by the governor resisted the implementation of the INEC directive to put up fresh congresses in the state. This matter has been there even before Nwodo or Prof Jega came to office. The Imo state chapter complied accordingly, but Enugu state chapter instead went to court and got an injunction.

The NWC was therefore obstructed from performing its functions until when the court of appeal Enugu removed the injunction.

The state chapter of the party also instituted various litigations that the National chairman was not a registered member of the party and therefore should not parade himself as the national chairman of the party. Five attempts were made to obtain court orders to stop him from parading himself as the National Chairman. It was on the six attempt on the eve of the National convention that they finally secured an injunction.

What was Nwodo’s relationship with NWC like?

It is a known fact that the Chief Vincent Ogbulafor led executive worked with the then cabal to ensure that Goodluck Jonathan then vice president did not become acting president. With the exit of Vincent Ogbulafor and the entry of Dr. Nwodo it was like him versus them.

Like I mentioned earlier these reform agenda to his colleagues’ members of the NWC was seen as criticism against them and the way they were doing things before. They saw Dr. Nwodo’s coming as being to save Jonathan, so it was Dr. Nwodo against them and also against the governors who were uncomfortable with the new reform agenda. Of course all these forces were working on how to deal with Dr. Nwodo and the interest he represented and finally they succeeded in getting new converts to join them.

What role did Enugu court play in Nwodo’s exit?

I was in Oyo state to conduct the gubernatorial primary elections. I left Ibadan for Lagos on the 12th to catch flight to Abuja. I arrived Abuja late in the night and then I received a call from National chairman that there was need to come and see him immediately. I went to him and he informed me about the development i.e. that an Enugu high court Judge had given a court order restraining him from parading himself as the chairman of the party. That was at the eve of the special convention. I asked whether the court order has been served on him and he said no. That court order had not been served on Dr. Nwodo till today.

In the morning all through afternoon I was with the Chairman and to some extent witnessed what was going on. In the afternoon the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice requested for a copy of the constitution of the party which was delivered to him. About this time the National Chairman had already prepared a letter of delegation of responsibility to Dr. Bello Haliru his deputy to preside over the affairs of the special convention.

Before this time, although the purported court order from Enugu was neither served to him or the party, he still insisted that he will not go to the convention ground. At worst as painful as it may be he will only go to the convention sit down like any ordinary member of the party and watch the proceedings.

However at about 4:00pm an in_law to the Enugu Judge came and informed him that the court order has been vacated, he even spoke to the judge. Because of the difficulty in getting the hard copy of the vacated court order, security agencies were involved to go to the high court in Enugu to get the hard copy. At the same time there was breaking news on AIT that the court order served on the national chairman of PDP had been vacated. He also spoke with the Attorney General. He finally made up his mind to go to the convention ground.

The National Legal Adviser on the convention ground also confirmed that the party top hierarchy has not received the first court order stopping the national chairman from parading himself as the national chairman nor the one vacating it.

Just to make the matter worse, the same people that showed disdain for Dr. Nwodo insinuated that he went to the convention ground to give Atiku Abubakar a leeway to void the convention. This was the dummy that was sold to the authority. Looking at the sequence of events you will all agree with me that this is not correct at all.

At what point did the entire South-East get involved in this project of removing Nwodo?

After the convention, the south east governors met at the zonal level with very poor representation and issued out a communiqué asking the National Chairman to resign. It may interest you to note that only the secretary signed the communiqué and the attendance register attached to the communiqué out of four governors only one came, out of 15 senators from the zone about five came yet it was the same document which those who attended refused to sign that was sent as a form of petition to the NEC of the party and it was accepted.

I must say that I was disappointed in the role of the South East in the whole show. The shameful act of conspiracy of the Ibo politicians to remove Dr Nwodo has created a deep scare in the present and future political leadership by any Igboman in the country.

When he was the National Chairman of PDP as representative of the South East, his presence gave Ibos some sense of belonging, but today at Wadata House Ndigbo are feeling alienated and cheated because they are the only zone that are not represented at the highest ruling organ of the party (NWC) . I find the pull down syndrome of Ibos very strange.

-Vanguardwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Feb 15 2011. Filed under Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry