Can Ayu Survive The Battle?

BY AYO ESAN

For months now, the embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu has been at the centre of the crisis plaguing the party.

Ayu’s insistence on completing his tenure as national chairman, even when five governors and some elders of the party across the country wanted him to step down for a southerner because of the emergence of Atiku Abubakar, who is also a northerner, as presidential candidate, caused the party some discomfort.

Some even saw it as the reason why the PDP lost the presidential election and couldn’t do well in the southern part of the country.

As a result of Ayu’s stand, the G-5 Governors, led by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, refused to be part of the campaign of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku Abubakar eventually lost the election to the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

In the post-election period, Ayu had led the party into suspending former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, former Governors Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina) and two others over alleged anti-party activities.

He had also led the NWC into referring Governor Samuel Ortom to the party’s disciplinary committee for the same offence.

However, last week, a development came up that made the embattled PDP Chairman to leave his office and was replaced by the Deputy National Chairman (North), Illya Damagun.

First, he was suspended by the executive committee of Igyorovo Ward, his local ward, in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State.

However, reacting to the purported suspension, Ayu said it was of no effect, arguing that only the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party had the constitutional right to suspend him.

He dismissed the suspension, saying it was the handiwork of those he described as “some members of the Exco who are only being teleguided by political gamblers to cause mischief and nothing more.”

Nevertheless, Wike, the arrow-head of the antiAyu movement within the PDP, was in support of Ayu’s suspension. Speaking during a television programme, he admitted that he supported the move because Ayu played a major role in the colossal failure of the PDP in the 2023 general election.

“First of all, if you are a member of the party, will you be happy with the way the party is today? It is only in this country that you see someone who has failed woefully and without any conscience still eager to occupy the position,” he said.

Wike noted that in the advanced countries, once the head of a political party leads the party to such colossal failure, he will not need anybody to tell him to quit honourably.

“So those in his ward in Benue State are angry. Why are they angry? Ayu ought to have left that office before now. People were saying we were pushing for Ayu to leave and that we had a hidden agenda to make PDP fail.

“Ayu remained and PDP didn’t win. You lost your unit. As national chairman, you lost your ward and local government area. You did not only finish in a distant third position in the presidential election, but also lost in the governorship election,” he said.

As Ayu was wriggling out of the suspension from his ward, a Benue High Court also restrained him from parading himself as the national chairman of the PDP.

Last Tuesday, about 24 hours after the court ruling, he stepped down from his position as the PDP national chairman.

Initially after the ruling, he had dismissed the sack as a bluff, but made a U-turn amid pressure and threats from his traducers. He has since been replaced with the Deputy National Chairman (North), Ambassador Illya Damagum, who will act as the party’s national chairman until the final determination of the suit.

It would be recalled that Ayu took over from Uche Secondus who was also unceremoniously removed from office in 2021 for poor management of the party’s affairs.

Ayu’s removal has seen the main opposition party parading three national chairmen in less than three years. Like Secondus, whose removal was orchestrated by Wike and his group within the PDP, he has been served a dose of the same medicine. Since the PDP lost power at the centre in 2015, Ayu is the fourth person to have assumed that position, succeeding Secondus who stepped in after Ahmed Makarfi who replaced Ali Modu Sheriff.

Will Ayu bounce back or will he go the way of Secondus and many other PDP chairmen that failed to survive the obstacles that littered their paths and bowed out before their tenure ended?

The chairmanship of the PDP has witnessed a high turnover rate in its 25 years of existence, with most of them leaving in controversial circumstances and without completing their terms in office.

The only two that completed their tenure were Chief Barnabas Gemade and Dr Ahmadu Ali.

Political analysts agree that as events unfold in the days to come, it will become clear whether Atiku and his faction in the party will be able to sustain its slippery hold against Wike to control the structure of the party or not.

As if the party wants to use the stepping aside of Ayu to put itself back on good footing, it has started courting the aggrieved members.

Damagum held his first full-fledged NWC meeting on Thursday. During the meeting a decision to reverse the disciplinary measures already taken against some leaders of the party.

The decision to reverse the suspensions and other referrals was announced after the meeting by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba.

He said: “The National Working Committee, NWC, of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at its meeting today, March 30, 2023, extensively discussed recent developments in the party.

“The NWC recognised the imperativeness of a total reconciliation among party leaders and critical stakeholders for a more cohesive party in the overall interest of our teeming members and Nigerians in general”.

Those who had benefitted from the new thinking in the PDP NWC include Dr Ayo Fayose ; Pius Anyim Pius and others who have their suspension from the party reversed.

Also the decision against Governor Samuel Ortom, who was referred to the party’s disciplinary committee for anti-party activities, was reversed. Will the party leadership sacrifice Ayu to reach a compromise with the Wike-led Integrity Group? Only time will tell.

Speaking on this development, a chieftain of the PDP in Ogun State, Mr Segun Sowunmi, said the new development whereby the suspension orders on Fayose and others were reversed is a good development.

“It shows that the PDP has a peculiar way of resolving its internal crisis,” he told THEWILL.