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Obasanjo's power 'at stake'
05/03/2008 10:02 - (SA)
Abuja - Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo faces a battle to keep his grip on the highly influential ruling party on Saturday when it chooses new leaders, party members say.
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) won a landslide last April in disputed elections for president, state governors and state and federal legislators in Africa's most populous nation and top oil exporter.
It had remained a channel of influence for Obasanjo since he stepped down soon after the elections to hand over to Umaru Yar'Adua, who consulted the party over key political decisions such as the appointment of ministers.
Party members said some factions were now resisting Obasanjo's efforts to get his allies into the top jobs. They wanted to reduce his influence.
Obasanjo 'head of PDP Board of Trustees'
In some states, rival factions held parallel congresses and picked competing lists of delegates. There had also been a few deaths in local power tussles over who should vote on Saturday.
As president, Obasanjo imposed a group of his allies as party leaders through "consensus" rather than election. Just before leaving office he appointed himself head of the PDP Board of Trustees, a post he still holds.
It was an open secret that Obasanjo had been campaigning for one of his allies, Sam Egwu, to become the new party chairperson.
"It is incongruous. As an elder statesman he should be advising government in private, he should not hold a partisan position," said former Senate President Ken Nnamani, a member of the PDP National Executive Council.
Nnamani said he feared another back-room deal rather than a fair election on Saturday.
He said: "I am afraid the party is not poised to regain its democratic credentials. The outgoing leadership, which is the only group that has power in the party, did not come in by democratic means."
Law-abiding attitude
Yar'Adua was hand-picked by Obasanjo to be the PDP candidate in the presidential election and some party members said they worried that Obasanjo retained undue influence over his successor.
The new president has asserted his independence from his predecessor by adopting a humble, law-abiding attitude that contrasted sharply with Obasanjo's flamboyance and habit of ignoring procedures to push his policies through.
Yar'Adua had also reversed some of Obasanjo's more controversial decisions.
However, anti-Obasanjo politicians complained that many of the most powerful people in Yar'Adua's entourage were the same men who held those posts under Obasanjo.
Nigerian media reported on Tuesday that state governors were lobbying Yar'Adua for a bigger role in the process, interpreting this as a sign of resistance against Obasanjo. "PDP governors move to dump Egwu" was the headline in This Day.
A senior party member who would vote on Saturday said the field was wide open because Yar'Adua was maintaining a hands-off attitude and there was a swell of opinion against Obasanjo.
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