The controversial emergence of Sheriff on PDP’s hot seat

The emergence of former governor of Borno State and one-time chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ali Modu Sheriff, as the 11th national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has thrown the opposition party into a fresh level of disarray.

After over nine months search for a substantive chairman from the North East zone to fill the slot created by the resignation of Adamu Mu’azu in May 2015, following the party’s defeat in last year’s general elections, some leaders of the party still share divergent views over his choice.
Interestingly, Sheriff was never in contention for the position when the party’s National Caucus met ahead of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. The first official mention of his name emerged when at the meeting, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, disclosed that Sheriff, Nuhu Ribadu and Muhammed Wakil, have been invited to appear before the Caucus for screening.

At the time, four party members from the North East namely Wilberforce Juta, Saidu Kumo, Girgiri Lawan and Shehu Gabam had been screened by the Caucus.
By 3pm on Tuesday, the party’s national secretariat, venue of the NEC meeting, was charged. At a point it seemed like the party would implode in the process of trying to arrive at the controversial former governor who eventually got the position.
Some Board of Trustees (BoT) members of the party rejected Sheriff and stormed out of a meeting which deliberated over his nomination. They protested the negative image he would have on the party.

Their protests however could not stop his emergence at the 68th NEC meeting where 60 out of 71 voting members present voted in his favour. Hence he was ratified national chairman by the party’s NEC – the second highest decision making body of the party after the national convention.
As realignment of forces and horse-trading continued, the PDP Governors Forum, National Assembly Caucus, National Working Committee (NWC) and Board of Trustees brought a joker by asking that a National Convention be organised within three months.

By implication, the tenure of the Borno politician which would have terminated in March to complete the tenure of the North East, which was vacated by Adamu Mu’azu in May 2015, will now end in May this year. In what appears to be a fresh twist to the drama, a source told BUSINESSDAY that Sheriff and other NWC members can re-contest in any position after the expiration of the three months tenure extension. If confirmed, this would jeopardise the earlier arrangement where the party zoned the presidential ticket to the North and the national chairmanship seat to the South.

Another source also hinted that the three months extension was merely proposed by the party leaders to douse the tension and that their ultimate goal was to ensure Sheriff stays in office till 2018, a year to the 2019 general elections and possibly presented to fly the party’s presidential ticket.

The man Sheriff

The elder statesman has an impressive resume of political conquests spanning the Third Republic to date. He was a founding member of United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and was instrumental in the efforts that culminated into the merger of ANPP with other political parties to form All Progressives Congress (APC). He later joined the PDP in 2014 after he fell out with the leadership of APC.

The former Borno State governor had engaged the APC National Leader and former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu in a shouting bout at a previous meeting, which climaxed the tussle for the soul of APC in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election.

Although he lost out his bid to upstage the party and his protege and governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, he has an impressive resume of political conquests and launched himself into national limelight after defeating Kolo Kingibe, wife of the national chairman of defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Babagana Kingibe as a National Republican Congress (NRC) senatorial candidate.

He would later become a political godfather of some sort, installing governors and becoming a three-time senator and two-time governor.
A top PDP official who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that with the party’s defeat at the 2015 general elections, coupled with current political developments in the country, the party decided not to opt for a ‘gentle politician’ but a politician that can ‘fight dirty’.
“Sheriff’s ability to fight tough political battles have never been in doubt. Remember how he cut Buhari down to size when they were both in ANPP. In fact, that was the reason why Buhari left ANPP to form the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC),” the source told BDSUNDAY.
But speaking shortly after assuming office as National Chairman, Sheriff said the same instrument used in pulling down PDP in the last general polls would be employed in removing APC from power. “I have no regret forming all the political parties that I was part of. I left APC because of principles and the same instrument we used for making APC attractive to everybody in Nigeria, we are going to use for PDP now,” he affirmed.

 ‘Sheriff still under N300bn Borno allocation probe’

Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says the new chairman of the PDP is still under investigation for alleged corruption.
Recall that the politician was arrested by the Commission in June last year for alleged embezzlement of public funds during his eight years as governor of Borno State but was granted bail.
The ex-governor of Borno State was alleged to have mismanaged over N300 billion from the Federation Account between 2003 and 2011. He was subsequently detained from June 3 to June 4, 2015 and released on administrative bail without being charged to court.
Spokesperson of the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, said: “We can ask him to come back anytime we need him. Sheriff is still under investigation.”

The acceptance crisis and issues within

Although organs of the party like the PDP Governors Forum, Board of Trustees, National Assembly Caucus, National Working Committee, National Caucus, National Executive Committee (NEC) have endorsed his emergence as the party’s helmsman, a group under the aegis of PDP Former Ministers Forum, rejected the move, insisting that the March 28National Convention date is sacrosanct.

But rising from its meeting, the former ministers who served between 1999 and 2015 stressed that Sheriff is unfit to rule the party.
Chairman of the Forum and former Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Tanimu Turaki said: “The Forum of PDP Former Ministers affirms the commitment of ideals and core values of founding fathers. We reject Sheriff as national chairman due to the illegitimacy that brought him into power.

“The forum calls for the conduct of congress at all levels of the party leading to the national convention to be held on March 28, 2016 so as to return power to the people.
“The forum condemns all acts of impunity in the running of the party and calls for the respect of the party constitution and agree to continue with consultation with all relevant stakeholders”.
Although he has not been indicted for sponsorship of the Islamic sect Boko Haram, some analysts opine that the fact that the new chairman gets frequently mentioned whenever the history of the sect is discussed, will cause an image problem for the opposition party.

Already, some analysts have said the opposition party is facing image deficit in the face of some of its leaders like the immediate past Acting Chairman, Board of Trustees, Haliru Bello; National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh; former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki; former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa and immediate past Acting Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus are either in EFCC net over corruption allegations or have been charged to court over the $2.1billion arms deal.

Steven Davies, an Australian hostage negotiator recruited over the release of the Chibok girls had accused Sheriff of been a sponsor to the sect.
While the PDP NWC and the governors have also dared anybody with evidence suggesting he supports the sect to come forward or forever shut up, they believe the narrative over his alleged involvement with Boko Haram was created by the opposition to smear him, knowing how much of a threat he poses to them.

Reacting to Sheriff’s rejection by the former ministers, Olusegun Mimiko, Chairman, PDP Governors Forum stressed that since every past minister is a product of the state chapter of the party, chairmen of the state chapters are all members of the National Caucus that adopted him.
Also, advocates of Sheriff have described the rejection by the former ministers as empty threat since the party’s constitution does not recognise them as an organ of the party.

Another grouse of anti-Sheriff members is that his emergence violates Section 49 (4) of the party’s constitution, which stipulates that “No member of the Party shall be qualified for nomination or election or appointment into any of the offices of the Party, unless he has been a registered member for not less than two years, except there is a waiver by the appropriate Executive Committee”.

According to them, since it is less than two years since he joined the party, he was ineligible to contest the position. However, PDP National Secretary, Wale Oladipo dismissed the claim, adding that he was granted waiver by NEC, which enabled him to contest the 2015 election in Borno Central.

The opposition and 2019

Speaking during his inauguration, Sheriff told jubilant supporters that the party still has the structure and remains focused to regain power in 2019, stressing that “By 2019, PDP will return to power and keep it forever. We will come here to celebrate by 2019 we will rule from the center.”
He reiterated the same point in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, during the thanksgiving celebration of the governor, Okezie Ikpeazu 24 hours later.

For a politician who has criss-crossed many political parties and won a lot of political battles, political observers say Sheriff should have better knowledge of the workings of the APC having contributed immensely to the party’s merger. And with his wealth of experience in opposition politics over the years, they believe it would stand to reason that his boast might not just be empty.
Nevertheless, some APC chieftains believe even though Sheriff is a PDP member in body, he remains an APC apostle in spirit. Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, belongs to this school-of-thought. According to him, the new PDP chairman will work for the APC going by his ‘antecedents’.

Ganduje, while dismissing the threat by Sheriff that the PDP will regain control of Aso Rock in 2019 said: “I do not wish to engage in cross fire. But I believe it is an empty threat. Looking at the antecedents, the history of the chairman himself, we all know he is a cross-carpeter. He is always on the move in changing from one party to the other.

“Even when he was in the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) for eight years, he was working for the PDP. Even the APC started with him, and then he went back to the PDP and we were happy. I am sure in the long run, he would work for us (APC). That is what I believe. We are happy because we believe in the long run, he would work for us. Find out his history, you will believe me.”

However, for most analysts, the task before Sheriff would be to gain measurable acceptance within his party, rebuild the image to his party and position it as the flagship of the opposition. Regaining power in 2019 would be decided by the electorate.