The case for the immediate exit of Prince Uche Secondus from office as chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is quite simple to many of his critics.
According to one of the canvassers, even nature is against the embattled national chairman as his name, Secondus, means that he would always lead the PDP to be second in elections!
It is against this background that stakeholders within and outside the party are now asking whether Secondus is actually inclined towards putting the PDP to play second fiddle in the country today and in the future.
For many who are worried at the failures of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the fear that the ruling party would push the PDP to second place under Secondus as chairman in coming elections is a fear that is a dread.
In examining the affairs of the PDP under Secondus, it must be given that in terms of longevity that the chairman has fared above nearly all his predecessors in office. He is about the longest staying national chairman since the formation of the PDP 22 years ago. The only one who compares with him is Chief Audu Ogbeh.
Even more, Secondus who won the appellation of Total Chairman as chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the PDP in the days of Governor Peter Odili, is about the only national chairman of the PDP to contemplate a second term in office since the advent of the four-year tenure.
During the two-year tenure system, Chief Solomon Lar and Engr. Barnabas Gemade similarly sought new terms but were brusquely overwhelmed by the superior forces marshalled by the presidency under President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Since the introduction of the four-year tenure system under Chief Ogbeh, none of the seven chairmen since then has finished a four-year term.
Secondus’ bid to turn the applecart is one that has been met with strong revulsion. The case for him to serve out his remaining days is also objectionable to his opponents. The fear is that he would influence the choice of his successor, hence now is the time for him to go before the commencement of the congresses.
It is even more remarkable that the opposition against him has come from home in Rivers State with Governor Nyesom Wike apparently leading the forces.
It is reflective of the philosophy that there are no permanent friends, but permanent interests in politics. Four years ago, the ‘Secondus for chairman’ project was a Wike agenda that was pulled through at remarkable cost.
The governor is according to popular political folklore also pushing the ‘Secondus Must Go’ project albeit at great cost with coordinators locally and abroad.
However, what is believed to be a Wike agenda is quietly and actively being backed by many PDP operatives with great aplomb. That is because the national chairman has been found wanting in the discharge of his duties by non-biased stakeholders.
Like Ogbeh, Anambra is about one of the issues that have provoked many against Secondus.
Ogbeh was pushed out of the PDP after he was alleged to have taken an unusual interest against the manipulations being done by elements in the Obasanjo government to entrench the Uba family in the state.
Now, Secondus on the other hand, is being vilified for turning his eyes away from the efforts of the Uba family to push the party out of reckoning in Anambra State.
Many party enthusiasts were shocked this week when a member of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, BoT and one of the party’s most respectable figures, Senator Joy Emodi defected to the APC largely on account of the foibles of the PDP in Anambra State.
Your correspondent understands that Chief Chris Uba, the man that everyone holds as the man behind the crisis in the PDP in Anambra is a close friend of Secondus.
“They don’t hide it that they are friends,” one party operative told your correspondent.
However, many party enthusiasts are shocked that Secondus has stayed away from directly appealing to his friend to stop the fire that has consumed the PDP in Anambra.
Another allegation against Secondus is that he hardly visits states where the party is not in power and hence his seeming apathy towards Anambra.
Party enthusiasts said that all that Secondus needed to have done was to have gone to Anambra and appealed to the aspirants, sorted out his friend Chris Uba and refunded the N25 million the aspirants were made to pay for a primary that was not conducted as promised.
The way he abandoned Anambra was similar to the laidback posture of the party in Osun that allowed Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to strike the deal that made the APC to come from an impossible position to grab the state in the 2018 poll.
The administrative acumen of the national chairman has also been brought to question by party staff.
The chairman is said to be hardly in the office, a situation that has turned the PDP secretariat into a shadow of itself with many departments in the party in distress arising from lack of funds to carry out essential activities.
While these are critical issues in the case against Secondus, politicians being what they are, are also adding issues that your correspondent cannot confirm.
Some say that he is not dependable with the claim of having betrayed past relationships from Dr. Odili to Wike and Aminu Tambuwal. But those are issues in the ephemeral that pertain to secret deals that cannot be confirmed by this correspondent.
The deal many Nigerians want is a better polity. They do not want anyone that would take second in the race to escape the present agonies in the land whether he is Secondus or Festus!
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