 The Potarka Division of the Court of Appeal is yet to give its decision on a motion filed by the Chairman of the People's Democratic Party, PDP Prince Uche Secundus. Secundus has urged the court to suspend the October 30 and 31 National Convention of the Party and to declare him the right person to preside over the exercise. While joining us to break this down is political analyst Biodum Shoumi. Thank you very much Mr Shoumi for joining us. It's my pleasure. Great. Here we are again talking about the in-fighting within the PDP seems to be deepening every single day. Secundus is asking the court to suspend the October 30 and 31 National Convention just as I said earlier on to declare him the right person to preside over the exercise, not only that. Now the court has fixed October 28 to hear the rule on the motion for an interim injunction by Secundus against the PDP and others. Now what do we presume is going on here? Because one minute the party is saying they do not necessarily need to, they do not necessarily need the party chairman to conduct the convention as it was. But now he's saying that he doesn't even want the convention to hold except he presides over it. So it looks like the PDP is speaking from both sides of its mouth or maybe he does need to have its house in order. Yeah, well what in the process that's what Secundus is trying to achieve is to establish through the courts that he has a valid claim, he still has a valid claim to share my chief of PDP. We should not forget the shenanigans behind all the political death moves made to get rid of him from office one way or the other. They tried to get him to resign to be billed, the party eventually got fractional rights because there were two cases involved. Now Secundus' position is very clear that the PDP convention should not appeal because he should have presided as the chairman and therefore since he has filed a case in court, all parties to this suit are expected to exercise restraint, not to do anything that would bring up a fatal conflict on the court, that is to render the court interrogation of his case useless. That is the point which Secundus is doing. But I felt he made a mistake in me sharing by not going for an interlocutor injunction to be strained with PDP from organizing any convention and the strained, you know, the chaotic chairman, he didn't do that, he's just filing the injunction. So there was nothing stopping the PDP from going ahead, you know, they really have gone ahead because there was no injunction, even though all parties are expected to exercise restraint when the cases occur and you have been sacked. So that is the fact of the matter. What we see going on now is in that field of different processes that are those who want to destroy the PDP and make it so weak before the next election, you know, some of them, even the people acting in the APC, there are also those who within the PDP are just, you know, to position themselves for either the chairmanship of the party or eventually for the presidential ticket of the party. We have heard what the current chairman said, look, you will be prepared to resign if he not on my marches as the presidential candidate. So there are a lot of political death moves going on. But if Secundus is going to be right by default, they may as well set aside that convention. I spoke with the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the People's Democratic Party, if I'm not mistaken, last week or two weeks ago, on the same issue. And I did ask him why, which is Secundus's tenure, expires sometime in December. And then they're fixing a national convention in October. And he said, well, that the party, it doesn't matter, whoever emerges and the National Working Committee will wait till December for swearing in, or they may determine if Secundus stays or goes. And now you've told me that there should have been an interlocutory, just an injunction of sorts to stop them from having that convention. But they seem to have it all figured out. But again, if Secundus, I mean, whether this case is in court or not, if Secundus, knowing that in Nigeria we really do not respect court orders, we pick and choose which one to adhere to, if this plays out the way it does play out, does that mean that the new National Working Committee that emerges come October, the end of this month, might have to kick Secundus out if they choose? Yeah, it depends on the way the judge will read what has happened. And it also depends on the evidence presented to the courts. The PDP risks one thing, which is because a case is in court, he has filed a case in court and the PDP has been served properly. The fact of the matter is they are expected not to do anything that would put a fate a complete before the court. They are expected not to render the interrogation of the court a useless society. So therefore, the risk is that the judge in his view may choose to set whatever they have done since the case was filed in court, render it a knowledge. And the other side of it is that the judge might take a view and say, I don't know, there is no injunction filed by you at the time, by Secundus at the time when those processes were taking place and therefore the hacks had been completed before you filed the judge. And because of that, the judge may as well refuse to uphold the submissions of Secundus lawyers by disregarding or notifying the convention. So it's two ways. It depends on how the judge did it and since all the facts are not very clear presently to me, the papers, the evidence before the court. So we can only assume that there's a risk of the court notifying it. It's also likely that the court may not even agree with Secundus and uphold his removal. So these are issues which the PDP needs to ponder about. The PDP brings about a period of uncertainty, particularly for the major opposition party in Nigeria, who by now should be getting set to get his ass together with a view to challenge this. But it's quite unfortunate that this terrible situation and because of that is not enhancing democracy. The crisis within the PDP itself is diminishing democracy because we are not having a vibrant opposition to the women party. It's interesting to also note the movements within the party. We've seen the former Speaker, former Senate President, I beg your pardon, Pakola Sariqi, making a lot of moves and having reconciliation meetings here and there. We've also seen an Attiku Abu Bakar, who's still very much interested in the race, even though recently there's been a suit against him challenging his eligibility to run for presidency. We've seen a lot of big weeks making big moves. There's also been a list released of people who they think within the PDP might be interested in not just the leadership of the party but flying the presidential flag for the party. I'm asking you because of course we're analyzing this issue. Could this also be the reason why the position of Secundus is threatened? But looking at the body language of Pakola Sariqi, is there any form of reconciliation that can address the situation that the party is facing right now? And how soon can they put themselves together, get their acts together to be able to face an APC, which also might be having its own problems but seem more ready than the PDP? Yes. Well, when this problem started, there were so many people keenly interested, you know, that for the sake of democracy and for the sake of having a very vibrant alternative, at all times in any democratic setting, the PDP needs to get their acts together. I remember there were a lot of discussions about the southern government's position on greasing and the position of the northern governments and how it cut across the major political parties, that is APC, PDP. So it seems those parties were divided along that line. If you remember, Wike, the PDP governor, was also part of the southern government's position. So also the state governor and all APC governments. On the side of the north also, you also have PDP and APC working together on those agenda. So what that means is the southern governments are taking a position, which includes the PDP governor, to say that we will not accept, well, they are not saying that, they are advocating that the next presidential from the south, so given that situation, they are diametrically opposed to their colleagues from the north, who are also from the same political party. So this is part of the things, you know, the game going on. A second was simply removed for majorly, for one reason, because of the needs for those who are interested in the presidential race to ensure that they have a chairman, or a chairman who will do their bidding, because the chairman in PDP or APC, the chairman is very powerful, they can influence a lot of things. So we have seen the game going on behind, nobody is thinking about democracy currently, nobody is thinking about the fate of PDP, the people currently doing what they are doing, are doing it because of their own personal ambition. And that is what is guiding them. Now they have removed second ones, second ones are still getting up, they are making moves to resolve some of these issues behind the same. By that, whether those issues will be solved is in it, because there will always be a third force, there will always be a third party involvement in their own internal language for obvious reasons, because you don't expect the APC to go to bed and allow PDP to ignite. Both parties are working very hard, we have had Swaraki also saying some APC big weeks, we will soon be joining PDP. So both parties are working very hard to undermine each other, simply because all the parties are not ideologically oriented, and it's easier for you to sleep in the APC and wake up in PDP the next day. So because of that, we have this flow of movements from one party to the other. And that is what is going on currently. Nobody is thinking about democracy, nobody is thinking about the fate of PDP as a vibrant opposition party currently, or the need for PDP to begin power. What is at play currently is the interest of candidates who are interested in the presidential race. And that of course leaves the question of, to us, the people who are watching, if we do even understand what's happening, or more people might not necessarily understand what's going on, or that these politicians are more interested in their personal gains as opposed to what we need as a people. So where does that leave us as the electorates? We vote for whoever the parties throw up at the end of the day. It's a case between the devil and the deep blue sea? There are a lot of contradictions which are a political process is faced with. Many of them can be resolved in restructuring. But with the body language of the presidency and the political parties, it does not seem they are so much interested in restructuring in the sense that all the political parties are in November currently trying to to slug it out on who becomes the nest of democracy. There is no party who is taking a position to say that look, look, until we restructure, we are not going to get involved in this process. That does not mean that that process will go on seamlessly. I really doubt that otherwise, what are you going to be talking about? Militarizing the political space in Annambra and I thought that if families don't exist, they will disrupt that very process. So what you see is the nature of the politics we play in our country, we are the interests of politicians first before they think about the political party and before they think about my duty. We need to restructure this country. If we don't get the structure right, we would always have this kind of challenge. You still have the security challenge, how do we intend to resolve that? How do we intend to manage that situation? It's not yet clear. How would you get new purpose to come out and vote in elections or to come out and participate as a doctor for whining? No one knows what would happen. So democracy is very fragile and is faced with so many challenges which are inherent. I hope not, but the bottom line is the political parties are not butting their acts together. Both the PDP and APS inclusive. The major parties are the internal ranglings in some cases, almost partionalised, semi-fartionalised, and then both parties are not meeting the needs or expectations of the people in terms of their performance. We need to wait and see how they open the doors. I'll be able to show you as a political analyst always a pleasure to have you speak with us. Thank you very much. It's my pleasure. Thank you. We'll take a short break now to say about the accusations that were laid yesterday by the federal government on NSAS protesters and iPop members on the destruction of properties in the south-east and the south-west, including the Obus Palace. Stay with us. What does iPop member has to do with the destruction of properties? To me, iPop member has nothing to do with this. What resulted to that destruction of property was the result of the killing and protesting. Protesters are right which they are supposed to exercise, but due to the way the government was doing it, that's the reason why they are now escalating. The idea is not to escalate. For the first few days they did it before that day, nothing like that. There was no destruction, but because of the killing, that was why it happened like that. iPop member has nothing to do with. He has nothing to do with iPop member and it was not even the protesters' intention to do that. When the answer started, it started as a peaceful protest without any violence. The people only gathered at the toge protested the police brutality which was peaceful until the government coming was shooting by the soldiers, by killing people. So that was actually what escalated to the crisis. So if you actually look at it, or the crisis was not as a result of the answer, the crisis was a result of the pro-reaction of the government by killing innocent people. So when killing have involved you, actually you are going to understand that yes, all that you might likely involve. So there was a lot of people that had jacket because now it become a crisis between government and the people. So it's not actually the answer. The people that actually escalated the problem the same way you see the issue of what do you call it, KANU. KANU was no issue in Nigeria until government begins to promote KANU. If you look at it, IPOP was no issue. Nobody know about IPOP until the federal government itself promote. So the issue is that the government is the problem of the attract causes of every crisis in Nigeria. One of these days, you and I, everybody are going to stand before the throne of judgement and explain what we did on NETS. One of these days, take that one first. Second, how can IPOP and NSAS protesters help the God to go to an Obers Parlas KBAC Alayelua Ekejoriza I don't believe that. I think that is just funny because if you look at the NSAS, the origins of the NSAS protest was born out of everything that the federal government failed to do. So what is also a valid reaction of people who have been going through a lot. So you cannot attribute what happened to the Obers Parlas and every other facility to IPOP. IPOP up their own grounds or other grievances against the government and they know how they want to settle it. So if you are going to channel your accusation the government should first ask itself this question why the world was there and NSAS movement why in the world was there a protest and why all that destruction. If they can't answer that question, that's it. But as far as I'm concerned it has nothing to do with IPOP it has nothing to do with NSAS protest it just as a result of governments will have to do the needful to do what is right. When the government fails to citizens, that's their reward. Have a nice day. Well there's nothing more to add I want to thank you for being part of the conversation tonight. We'll be back tomorrow on Plus Politics. I am Mary Yannickle.