Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja
The national leadership of the Peoples
Democratic Party has begun moves to whittle down the power of its
chairman, The PUNCH has learnt.
Investigations by our correspondent in
Abuja on Thursday showed that the proposal to strip the national
chairman of some of his enormous powers was contained in a memo to the
National Executive Committee of the party by the Chairman of its
National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.
The memo was given to all members of NEC on Tuesday at its 74th meeting, which was held at the party’s national headquarters.
The members were asked to give the
documents to officers and influential members of the party in their
states in order to have their inputs before passing them into law.
Makarfi, in the memo, titled ‘Draft
proposals for constitutional amendments’, said the memo was as a result
of the adoption of the report of the PDP Strategy Review and Inter-Party
Affairs Committee.
He said because of this, “it has become
imperative that the PDP Constitution (2012 as amended) be amended to
reflect some of the recommendations.”
The proposed amendments are expected to be passed at the party’s non-elective national convention slated for August 12 in Abuja.
In one of the proposals, titled ‘Removal
of the power of the national chairman to summon (convene) the national
convention’, the party wants the NEC to be the sole determinant of
national convention without it being “summoned” by the national
chairman.
The proposed amendments read in part,
“Modifying Section (1)(a) and inserting a new Section(1)(b) to take away
the power of the national chairman to ‘summon “ the National
Convention, which appears in conflict with the power of NEC to ‘convene’
the National Convention in Section (31(2)(a).
It said this was in line with “August 2016 Port Harcourt proposed amendment”.
The former National Chairman of the
party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, had invoked the power conferred on him
in Section 35(1) of the party constitution to call off the then May,
2016 convention of the party in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The section reads, “There shall be a
national chairman who shall be the chief executive of the party, and his
functions shall be to (a) summon and preside over the meetings of the
national convention, the National Executive Committee, the National
Caucus and the National Working Committee of the party.”
If the proposed amendments scale through, the next chairman will also not be a signatory to the party’s bank accounts anymore.
Up until now, the national chairman is a mandatory signatory to the party’s bank accounts.
Under the topic ‘Revising signatories to
the party’s accounts’, the party proved that “consistent with
contemporary best practices, it is proposed that the present situation,
where the chairman is a mandatory signatory to the party’s bank account
with either the secretary or the treasurer, be replaced with the
treasurer being mandatory signatory, with either the secretary or
financial secretary.”
This will replace Section (55)(3) of the party’s constitution.
The party also proposed the
reintroduction of Section (47)(6), which was revised in the December
2014 national convention, in which the appropriate executive committee’s
appointment of a person from the area or zone of the former occupant of
an office “to serve out the tenure of the officer” instead of “pending
the conduct of election to fill the vacant post.”
The proposed amendment also seems to be
preparing a soft landing for those who had left the party and those who
might want to join it from another party ahead of the 2019 general
elections.
Under the procedure for rejoining the
party, the proposed amendment states that the return of those who had
left it before should be made automatic.
This is contrary to the old order whereby those returning are placed on probation for a period of not less than a year.
The proposal therefore called for the
deleting of Section 8(8)(b), Section (8)(9) and modification of Section
(8)(8) to make rejoining and readmission into the party by a member, who
had left, automatic upon his submission of a written application to
that effect to his ward secretary.
But it said, “Whereas, readmission is
automatic, waiver requirements for contesting elections and enjoying
political appointments remain, and, if thought necessary, would be
strengthened.”
Also, the party is proposing that
Section (50)(4)(7) be amended by reducing the period of membership for
seeking the party’s ticket and political appointment from two years and
one year respectively to a “uniform of six months unless the appropriate
executive committee, at its discretion, gives a waiver to the
contrary.”
The party is also proposing the election of two national chairmen for the party, one from the North and another from the South.
However, “in the event that the National
chairman ceases to hold office or when absent for any reason,” the
proposal stated that the vice-chairman from the region of the national
chairman would act pending when a substantial chairman would be elected.
Meanwhile, the North-Central zone of the
party met at the Command Guest House in Abuja on Wednesday night and
resolved to set up reconciliation committee to wade into the crisis
rocking the party in the zone.
At the meeting were a former President
of the Senate, David Mark; a former National Chairman of the party,
Senator Ahmadu Ali; former governors of Kogi State, Ibrahim Idris and
Idris Wada; their Benue and Plateau states counterparts, Gabriel Suswam
and Senator Jonah Jang; and a former Governor of Niger State, Babangida
Aliyu.
