Many loyal members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have been having sleepless nights since August 31 when some governors of the party led by former vice president, Atiku Abubakar staged a walk-out from the Eagle Square national convention ground of the party to form a parallel faction they called the New PDP. But unknown to many Nigerians, the split of the party has become a blessing in disguise for some members of the party that hitherto were denied many privileges by some of the Governors in the Abubakar Baraje faction

The reason why some PDP members are hoping the split of the party remains unresolved revolves around what elder statesman and first republic minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark described as the dictatorial tendencies of some governors. Early this year Chief Clark said at a press conference that most of the governors are dictators that trample upon the rights of the people of their states with impunity and control the state chapters of their political parties without recourse to the provisions of their party constitution

According to Clark, before the split of the Nigeria Governors Forum under the then chairmanship of Governor Rotimi Amaechi the forum was used as a weapon against PDP and their members in some states

His words: "The ugly truth is that today the PDP as a political party is no longer in control of its various organs and for some time now, proper elections at congresses and conventions have not been held democratically due to the imposition of unqualified members on the good members of the party, contravening section 87(4) of the amended Electoral Act 2011." Among the G7 Governors in the parallel faction are Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara state and Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso of Kano state

It is common knowledge that the Kwara state governor has no personal grudge against the PDP national chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur or President Goodluck Jonathan

Governor Ahmed was dragged into the fray by his benefactor and political godfather, Senator Bukola Saraki. Saraki was the one that sponsored and installed Ahmed as his successor against the wishes of his late father, Dr. Olusola Saraki

Former Governor Saraki joined the parallel has demanded that the federal government should prevail on the anticorruption agencies from probing any of them as pre-condition for settlement

However, the departure of Bukola Saraki and his supporters from the mainstream PDP is a welcome development to the original founders/members of PDP in Kwara state. The Saraki clan joined the PDP from the defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP. Since the Sarakis joined the PDP they had been in control of the party structure in Kwara state and they determine who gets what in Kwara PDP. Even Baraje, who is the parallel PDP chairman, is a puppet in the hands of Bukola Saraki. All members of the PDP that are not loyalist of the Sarakis have been short-changed, marginalized and denied patronage since the Sarakis joined the PDP

It is therefore a thing of joy for these marginalized members of the PDP when Saraki and his loyalists opted out of the mainstream PDP. Leaders of those who were denied their rights while Saraki was in control of PDP were at the party national secretariat, Abuja yesterday where they paid solidarity visit to Tukur and reaffirmed their loyalty to the national leadership of the party. The marginalized PDP members during the visit harped on the imperative of democratizing the party internally and enforcement of sanction on the renegade members of the party

The stakeholders led by Alhaji Sulaiman Alada and former vice chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof Abdulrahman Oba disassociated themselves from the Barajeled splinter group of the party, describing it as; "a cabal commanded by a renegade group which calls itself the new PDP"

Alada who spoke on behalf of the group, which had Alhaji Abdulrahim Oba; Mrs Sarah Jubril, Special Adviser to the President on Ethics and Values; Sen. Haliru Kayamah, Deacon John Dara; AlhajI Ladi Edun; Alhaji Folorunsho Ayinla, Alhaji Kunle Sulaiman and Mr Femi Sunni among others as members, maintained that the new PDP in Kwara, is a party that has been constituted by proclamation and it is unknown to any democratic ideas or principles. If the people promoting that party are doing so on the excuse that they are trying to entrench democracy within the parent party, that is the wrong way to go

"We on this delegation urge you Mr. Chairman that the time is now not tomorrow, that you must put on ground your strong foot of discipline to restore sanity in Kwara PDP.’’ He said

Alada stressed that if the party leadership does not take drastic steps to address the situation on time that lots of damage would be done to the party in the state

According to him, the plans of the new PDP members was to ultimately leave the party for some other party after destroying it and frustrating genuine PDP members in the state and assured Tukur and members of the National Working Committee, NWC, that Kwara PDP under their watch, would continue to be united to ensure the party`s victory in the state always

Alada added that the party stakeholders would ensure that certain individuals in the state that think the state depended on them, would be put to shame at the end

In his response Tukur said that the visit of the delegation was an indication that all was well in the party`s Kwara chapter

He maintained that the party remained strong, great and determined as the ruling party, assuring that the party leadership would ensure discipline in all its chapters

Obviously conscious of the travails some PDP members were subjected to by Saraki’s supporters, Tukur stressed that the party national leadership on his watch would continue to ensure that right things were done in the party always. "There would be no imposition but consensus no selection but election.’’ he said

Some of the delegation who spoke to newsmen said that the ultimate intension of the stakeholders was to break the grip of the Saraki dynasty on the people of Kwara state and this is the right time to do it in the interest of the people of the state

The situation in Kwara PDP is similar to what is happening in the Kano state chapter of the party. For a very long time Governor Musa Kwankwaso had absolute control over the affairs of the state chapter of the party. Kwankwanso even had a group called the Kwankwasiya and any member of PDP that does not belong to this group is automatically confined to the fringes of the party

Kwankwaso’s alignment with the New PDP was a welcome relief to members of the party that have been sidelined for long. Coincidentally, as Kwakwanso and the other G7 governor are battling with Tukur the tenure of the Kano PDP state executive committee expired

With Kwakwanso partially out of PDP, the stakeholders who were marginalized by the governor led by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghalli Na’Abba stepped in to take over control of the party. The Kano stakeholders, who included the Mohammed Abacha, son of late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, were the ones that reminded the national secretariat of the party of the expiration of the tenure of the PDP state executive committee

The former Speaker of the lower chamber of the national assembly was at PDP national secretariat with some high profile members like Aminu Wali where they spent several hours with the national leadership of the party

PDP national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh confirmed that the tenure of the state executive committee headed by Alhaji Adamu Sumaila and loyal to Governor Kwakwanso expired since 14 August

Said Metuh: "Because nature absorbs no vacuum, a caretaker committee would be constituted pending when a new executive would be inaugurated for Kano PDP.’’ After the meeting the NWC set up a Caretaker Committee for Kano PDP

Kwakwanso, despite his membership of the "New PDP" was jolted when Tukur-led NWC set up a Caretaker Committee headed by Dr. Hassan Kafayos. Kwakwanso’s group has since ran to court to stop the Caretaker Committee from functioning

Political observers believe that the ouster of Kwakwanso group from the leadership of Kano PDP was one of the incentives that made Mohammed Abacha dump the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, with his large supporters for Peoples Democratic Party

As the peace talks with the rebellious PDP members appear to be dying, those who were hitherto marginalized by the G7 governors are hoping whatever be the outcome of the peace talks, the party must entrench internal democracy and state chapters freed from the stranglehold of the governors to enable every member of the party benefit maximally from their membership of the party.