As internal crises rock leading political parties in the country, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, has declared that no politician is bigger than the political party.
NewsNGR reports that the frontline political parties in Nigeria, including the All Progressives Congress, APC, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Labour Party, LP, and New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, are all embroiled in different forms of intra-party crisis.
In the APC, some stakeholders, particularly the North Central Caucus, are kicking against former Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s position as National Chairman.
The APC North Central Caucus is insisting on producing the national chairman, arguing that the zone is yet to complete its tenure following the resignation of ex-National Chairman, Adamu Abdullahi, a former governor of Nasarawa State.
The crisis in the PDP is multi-dimensional, including opposition to Amb. Iliya Damagun’s continued stay as Acting National Chairman. The party’s North Central Caucus is leading the campaign against Damagum, demanding that he step aside for the zone to produce a substantive national chairman that will complete the tenure of Prof Iyorchia Ayu, who was forced out in the wake of the crisis that trailed the party’s 2023 presidential election primaries.
The face-off between Federal Capital Territory, FCT, minister Nyesom Wike and his successor, Governor Sim Fubara of River State, has spiralled into a full blown party crisis after Wike threatened to “put fire” in the states of the party’s governors, who have come out to support Fubara.
Before his fallout with Fubara, Wike’s appointment as a minister in the APC government had also created tension within the PDP, with some stakeholders seeking his suspension or outright expulsion.
Following his threat against the governors, the FCT minister has now been summoned to face the PDP Disciplinary Committee.
In the LP, a protracted leadership dispute came to a head on Wednesday September 5, 2024, when an extended stakeholders meeting convened by the party’s only state governor, Alex Otti of Abia State, and the presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, led to the sacking of the National Chairman, Comrade Julius Abure.
A former Finance Minister, Nanadi Usman was appointed as interim ‘chairlady’ to run the party’s affairs for a 90-day period.
However, Abure has kicked against the development, insisting that he remains the national chairman.
The NNPP had also grappled with a crisis which led to the factionalization of the party, with the Major Agbo-led group – comprising original members of the party – expelling the party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential poll, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his followers.
Kwankwaso had joined the NNPP with his supporters before the 2023 presidential election but he was eventually accused of trying to hijack the party from the founder, Chief Boniface Aniebonam, and the original members.
But the Kwankwaso camp is still maintaining its own NNPP secretariat, which it insists is the authentic leadership of the party.
Speaking on the crises rocking the political parties in a chat with NewsNGR, Comrade James Ezema, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the CNPP, said political parties should be able to call their members to order, no matter how highly placed.
CNPP is an umbrella body of political parties and political associations in the country.
Noting that conflicts are normal in political parties, Ezema said, “Political parties have ways of solving their problems and nobody is bigger than the political party they belong to.
“Everybody that belongs to a political party should live by the party Constitution. Nobody will be in a political party and be above the political party.
“Intra-party crisis is not something that is very unusual. It is all about interests within the parties, including the ruling party.
“Every party has one crisis or the other at different points in time and it is all due to conflicting individual interests which lead to clashes.”
Stressing that it is best for the parties to resolve their issues through internal mechanisms, the CNPP spokesman added, “Political parties are run by members and interference from outsiders is not welcome. In fact the Constitution of some political parties will not allow you to go outside the membership to say you want to solve an internal problem.
“Most political parties have internal conflict resolution mechanisms which do not allow for outside interference.”
He specifically noted that FCT minister, Wike, is not too big for the PDP to handle.
“It is not that he (Wike) is too strong for the party; probably the party is taking their time to ensure that they do the right thing at the right time.”
However, while pointing out that there is nothing wrong with a politician being appointed into a government formed by another party, Ezema condemned the situation whereby those in government work for political parties, rather than for the people.
He said, “In some democracies there is what is called a government of national unity where you have members of different political parties forming the government, it is because the winner takes all syndrome in Nigerian politics that it appears to be unusual.
“But once you are working for the government of the day you are not supposed to be working for the interest of any political party, you are supposed to be working for the people.
“But you know what happens in Nigeria whereby the politicians in government work for their political parties and not for the people, which is one of the problems we are having. People are more interested in the next election than governance.”