Ekiti PDP: A divided house

Oni

 

Ekiti State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in a fix. Before the recent congress, it was polarized into three factions. Now, the outcome of the cngress has deepened the intra-party crisis, reports Correspondent Sulaiman Salawudeen.

Ekiti State Peoples Democratic Party is battling with protracted crisis. Although a new state executive committee was elected at its recent congress in Ado-Ekiti, the exercise failed to unite the three factions. The factions are led by the Southwest PDP leader, Mr. Segun Oni, Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade, and former Governor Ayodele Fayose. The three leaders are locked in a battle for supremacy in the party.

At the congress, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe was elected as the new party chairman. But after the exercise, a party chieftain, Mr. Akin Omole objected to the exercise, claiming that he is the authentic chairman.Ogundipe is a member of Fayose’s faction. Omole is an active supporter of Oni.

The warring leaders had presented candidates for the various party offices ahead of the congress. However, Olubolade­ and Oni lost out. The two failed to enlist popular support for their respective chairmanship aspirants. Since Fayose’s candidate emerged as the chairman, the two camps have not shown the readiness to cooperate with the new executive committee. For example, the new exco complained that it had become difficult for it to resume at the party secretariat, owing to lack of plans for official handover. 

Last year, PDP elders had pleaded with Fayose to return to base, after about three years of firing salvos to the fold from outside. A delegation comprising former Deputy Governor Paul Alabi had appealed to him and other aggrieved members who had dumped the party to return, with a promise to accord them their rightful position in the chapter.

The party elders reasoned that Fayose could assist in lifting the spirit of the party and reversing its dwindled fortunes. It was believed that the former governor’s populist inclinations could become an asset during electioneering. Others recalled that, when the party was done in 2001, Fayose was among the new stalwarts who lifted the chapter from the dungeon. 

One of the banes of Ekiti PDP is the absence of a top leader who command overwhelming support. Thus, reconciliation was short-lived. Before Fayose’s return to the party, Olubolade and Oni camps, which were pre-occupied with the choice of candidate for the 2014 governorship elections, were scheming to discredit one another.Party members who worshipped at the feat of the minister believed that he was the main arrowhead because he could distribute resources. However, prominent PDP chieftains who served under the defunct Oni Administration remained loyal to their former boss. While supporters of Olubolade perceived Oni as a liability, having lost power, thereby exposing the party to ridicule, Oni’s men saw Olubolade as a defector coming to reap where he did not sow, unlike Oni, who, as a founding member, laboured for the party during difficult times.

Supporters of Oni are also not happy that Olubolade took the shine off the deposed governor during the last presidential campaigns. In their view, Oni should have been made minister, instead of the retired naval officer.During the electioneering, President Goodluck Jonathan was inundated with complaints that Ekiti PDP was a divided house threatening to fall. Worried by the discord, he had appealed to the chieftains to close rank and work for collective interest Oni’s camp openly canvassed against Olubolade’s bid to become minister immediately after the elections, despite the latter’s substantive post as a minister of state. 

However, things appeared to look bright for the party lately when, just two days before the ward congresses across the State, the minister summoned a meeting of the stakeholders in Ado-Ekiti. At the meeting were Fayose, Ropo Adesanya, Mrs. Fatima Raji-Rasaki and Alabi. The second day, at another meeting held at Ipoti-Ekiti, which was attended by Fayose, Alabi, Oni, Chief Dayo Okondo and former Deputy Governor Abiodun Aluko, the party leaders promised to work for unity.

However, the meeting never achieved the objective of unity and harmony.

While die-hard loyalists, including Senator Clement Awoyelu, former state chairman of the party, Chief Ropo Adesanya, Chief Yinka Akerele,  Okondo believe that Oni should be the overall leader, Chief Alabi, former Minister of State for Energy (Gas), Mr Tunde Odusina, Aluko, and Dr Jimi Oke believe that only Olubolade is better placed to assure that role.

The minister, who had an edge as the party’s representative in Abuja, had been instructed by the national leadership to rebuild the party. In discharging that role, he said: “PDP problem is not that of Olubolade, Segun Oni or that of Ayo Fayose  alone, but that of every member. We have a lot of talents in our party and if these talents are harnessed, we will surely come back to power in the coming election”. 

However, with the selection of Oni as the zonal leader, the role reverted back to the former governor. Yet, as he took off as the national vice chairman, he is assailed by the fact that the Ekiti PDP exco has not been cast in his own image. Now, Oni’s faction,  led by Barr. Akin Omole, has gone ahead to form a parallel exco, claiming to be the authentic state executive committee. War has broken out between the duly elected chairman, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe and Omole,  and there is no end in sight to the intrigue.