The lingering crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the national secretaryship position is no doubt taking a toll on the party. Since the party opened its gates on January 13 for workers of its national secretariat after the yuletide break, it is yet to host the full compliment of its National Working Committee (NWC) members. The committee which meets weekly, have not met this year but the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the NWC has not met since September last year.
The last time the party was rendered prostrate like this was between May 2016 and July 2017, when the secretariat was locked for more than 12 months due to the leadership tussle between Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and the National Caretaker Committee led by Ahmed Makarfi. While it took the intervention of the Supreme Court to rescue PDP from going into extinction, this time, the party is once again at the mercy of the apex court. The secretaryship crisis has been dragging since 2023. It has been adjudicated by the both High Court and the Appeal Court, now awaiting the Supreme Court to give the final verdict.
So far, the judgements delivered have been favourable to the former National Youth Leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye, who was nominated by the PDP South East zonal leaders to complete Senator Samuel Anyanwu’s tenure. Ude-Okoye is also enjoying the support of other leaders of the party. Fourteen out of the 17 NWC members, including the National Legal Adviser, have recognised him as the party’s national secretary, based on the court judgements.
The remaining three are the acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum; the embattled National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and the National Organising Secretary, Capt. Umar Bature (retd.). Damagum, however, on February 6, in a memo, sought legal advice of the National Legal Adviser Kamaladeen Ajibade, on the matter. He told Ajibade that “following series of litigations from different courts, kindly study all the submissions from the committees set up by the Governors’ Forum as well as that of the Board of Trustees with the view of coming up with your legal opinion to enable us take informed position.” In his response, Abijade said he aligned with the Tanimu Turaki-led committee, set up by the BoT.
According to him, “a legal opinion/ advise having been proffered after evaluation of documents tendered by parties, calling for review of the said legal opinion/advise, in my opinion is not only improper but will undermine the effort of the BoT and increase the already existing tension as well as worsen the volatility within the party which may be difficult to arrest.” The support of the BoT, the conscience of the party, was given last week, after adopting the Turaki committee report that studied the court judgements and other pronouncements on the contentious national secretaryship.
Five days earlier, on January 31, PDP governors, after its meeting in Asaba, Delta State, demanded that Ude-Okoye should be sworn in the National Secretary. Turaki, a former Minister of Special Duties, had in his report, noted that in the eyes of the law, Ude-Okoye is the national secretary of the PDP since December 22, 2023. He added that “this position will continue till the appeals against the respective judgements of the Enugu State High Court and the Court of Appeal, Enugu are heard and determined one way or another by the Supreme Court.”
The Enugu High judgement, which was upheld the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division on December 20, 2024, was delivered by Justice C. O. Ajah, who evaluated the provision of section 47(5) & (6) of the 2017 PDP Constitution, which prohibits members of the NWC from holding dual offices. Anyanwu was the PDP candidate in 2023 Imo State governorship election.
The judge said it is the intention of the makers of the PDP constitution that members of the executive committee at all levels, who intend to contest an election into any elective office should resign their respective positions before doing so.
The status quo ante bellum as at January 13 is one that has Ude-Okoye and not Anyanwu as the substantive national secretary of our party
“Pursuant to section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act 2022, any aspirant who is a political appointee shall resign his appointment before the purchase of Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms,” he said. The interpretation of that provision of the constitution, in his judgement, is that since Senator Anyanwu, who was 3rd defendant in the case “is neither a civil servant nor a public servant under section 318 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended); and since neither the Constitution of 2017 or Electoral Guidelines of 2022 of the 1st defendant (PDP), nor the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) contains any definition of the term ‘political office holder,’ and since the 3rd defendant is holding a political office in a political party being an organisation formed for political purposes, and the functions of the 3rd defendant includes political duties, and since Section 47(5) provides for the resignation of its officers at any level who intends to contest for an elective position in a general election, the 3rd defendant perfectly and squarely falls into the classification of ‘political appointee’ under Part VI Section 1 of the Electoral Guidelines for primary Elections 2022 and must resign or should be deemed to have resigned his appointment before he purchased his Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms under Section 47(5) of the Constitution of 2017 and Section 1 Part VII of the Electoral Guidelines for primary election 2022 of the 15 defendant.”
To do otherwise, the judge said, would give Anyanwu, as PDP national secretary “all the enormous powers he possesses and the finality and supremacy of the decisions of National Executive Committee, into a despotic emperor.” “He will not be able to observe the rules of natural justice in the discharge of his duties as canvassed by the plaintiff in paragraph 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of the supporting affidavit and would disqualify whoever wants to contest any position he is interested.
“The primaries of the 1st defendant will not have any free playing ground as the 3rd defendant will appoint his cronies and cohorts as the returning officers, screening committee members and Appeal Panels etc. in the same primary election he is a candidate,” the judge added, noting that it was the mischief, section 47(5) of the PDP Constitution of 2017, and section 1 Part VII of the Electoral Guidelines for primary elections 2022 of the party seeks to forestall.
The Appeal Court upheld the judgement and directed that Ude-Okoye should be sworn in immediately. Anyanwu said he appealed against the judgement at the Supreme Court and has obtained stay of execution to allow him remain in office pending the determination of his appeal by the apex court. But Turaki committee noted that while the court granted the order all parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and the determination of the motion on notice, “the order of the court was an interim one,” pending the hearing of the motion on notice. He argued that the appeal is not interlocutory, because “if the order was pending the hearing of the appeal, it would then have lasted for ever, until the appeal is heard, no matter how long it takes for the appeal to be heard.”
Turaki examined what the court meant by “status quo ante bellum as at the 13th of January, 2025,” and argued that “the status quo ante bellum as at January 13, 2025, is one that has Hon. Sunday Ude-Okoye and not Anyanwu as the substantive national secretary of our party.” He was of the opinion that if the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division says that the status quo ante bellum should be maintained, “the plain meaning of the directive of the court is that he (Ude-Okoye) should remain in office until the 27th, when the court will hear the application and determine whether his continued occupation of the office should be interfered with or not.”
He examined the stay of execution obtained by Anyanwu and said the Appeal Court judgement is a declaratory one, which cannot be stayed, but argued that even if the judgement was stayed, unless it is renewed or extended, the order on January 13, 2025 “will automatically extinguish, die and cease to exist by the 27th of January,” because it was an interim order. Unfortunately, the court did not sit on January 27, and parties were told that a new date would be communicated to them in due course. The continued crisis in the party two years to the next general election will likely spell doom for it. PDP has postponed its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting several times, and though the meeting has been scheduled to March 13, there are fears that it might not hold because of the division of members on the national secretaryship position. PDP NEC has met only once after the 2023 general election.
This is contrary to the provision of the party’s constitution that NEC should meet at least once every quarter. Apart from the National Secretary crisis, the party has other issues to deal with, including the National Chairmanship position, which has been vacant since march 2023. The party needs to urgently resolve these crises to enable it rebuild for the next general election. The preponderance position of party leaders is that the party should move forward, based on the judgements of the High Court and Court of Appeal pending the final decision of the Supreme Court. However, with the advice of the national legal adviser as sought by the acting national chairman, it is expected that the party should expeditiously resolve the lingering crisis.
