THE PDP CONVENTION HAS ENDED IN IBADAN – Matters Arising

THE PDP CONVENTION HAS ENDED IN IBADAN – Matters Arising.

A date set for an event will certainly come. Thus naturally 15th and 16th of November 2025 dates set for the PDP elective convention in Ibadan, Oyo state have come and gone. Now the question to be answered is, did the PDP convention take place? Was it legally conducted? These I think, are legal questions not political nor moral questions. It is not a matter of fact but a matter of law.

Yes, the convention has taken place as scheduled but INEC did not attend. What is the legal consequence of the INEC’s non attendance? It is of no legal consequences at all provided the party has complied with its guidelines, its constitution and with provisions of the 1999 constitution. 

S. 82. (1) and (5) of the Electoral Act is the only section in the Electoral Act dealing with that and it stops at the necessity for giving notice of the convention to INEC only. The section clearly said –

“Every registered political party shall give the Commission at least 21 days’ notice of any convention, congress, conference or meeting convened for the purpose of “merger” and electing members of its executive committees, other governing bodies or nominating candidates for any of the elective offices specified under this Act”

(5) Failure of a political party to notify the Commission as stated in subsection (1) shall render the convention, congress, conference or meeting invalid”.

I know of no law in Nigeria that says failure by INEC to attend a party’s convention automatically invalidates the outcome of the convention after giving the Commission a notice of the convention. I have no doubt in my mind that the PDP had actually given 21 days notice of their convention to INEC. The party has thus fulfilled the condition precedent for holding the elective convention. Since INEC did not attend nor witnessed or monitor the convention, that is the business of INEC not PDP again. 

Where INEC does not attend a party convention after proper notice, the non-attendance does not affect the legal validity of the convention. INEC’s presence is desirable for evidentiary and administrative purposes, but it is not a condition precedent for the validity of the exercise. The law does not empower INEC to approve, reject, or validate a convention; its role is simply observational. A party’s internal democratic process does not collapse merely because INEC officials are not physically present.

But why did INEC absented themselves from the convention? It is simply because of two substantive orders that were specifically directed at the INEC not to attend. This one too doesn’t matter. It is trite that where a court of competent jurisdiction issues an order restraining INEC from attending, monitoring, or participating in a party convention, INEC’s absence is not only lawful but mandatory, and the validity of the convention cannot be questioned on the basis of INEC’s non-attendance. 

In other words a court-ordered restraint cannot convert INEC’s absence into a defect. The only issues that would render such a convention invalid are breaches of the party’s constitution, failure to meet statutory requirements, or acts of fraud or illegality, not the absence of INEC, especially when the absence is in compliance with a judicial directive.

I DON’T  KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FRIEND GOVERNOR FINTIRI 

Long before the convention, the chairman of the Convention Planning Committee Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri had said that nothing would derail the party’s upcoming convention in Ibadan, Oyo State and even boasted to Wike that –

“I will not place our relationship above this party; it’s becoming too embarrassing”, 

I was therefore surprised that while delivering his speech at the convention, Gov. Fintiri even said “with the absence of INEC, it is not within my prerogative to continue with this exercise. I leave the convention delegates to decide”

This was quite surprising. Fintiri has questions to answer O! Expelling Wike was a decision of the convention and Fintiri was the chairman. Why did Fintiri distance himself from the decision of a convention that he was chairman of? 

Wike has been a pain in the neck of PDP. He is Tinubu’s Chief Executioner in trying to kill the PDP and all opposition parties in Nigeria. He wants to be the only person on the ballot in 2027. Why, if I may ask, has Fintiri distanced himself from the decision to expel Wike? Is Fintiri among the people that want to turn Nigeria into one party state? Is Fintiri going to join APC? 

My information is that Fintiri is not going to join APC. And I believe those close to him who told me that. Time shall tell. 

Read Also: Requiem for a Once-Mighty Party: PDP’s Final Comical Exit

WHY THE OPPOSITION MUST UNITE

I have written here two days ago that PDP should go ahead and hold their convention. Aside the law, I did so for purposes of telling President Tinubu and Minister Wike that they have no right to turn Nigeria into a one party non democratic state. I will not advise anyone to disobey a court order. However, as I have said, court order without more, cannot invalidate the outcome of a convention just because INEC failed to attend after being given proper notice. 

Ordinarily, if Wike dare appeal the Ibadan High Court decision to the Court of Appeal, the appeal court will solve the problem. That was why to have refrained from holding the convention would have boosted Tinubu and Wike’s ego. 

If anything, the hand writing is now not only clear but clearer that both Tinubu and Wike are involved. But Nigeria is not Cameroon. Nigeria must not be a one party non democratic state. It is in this respect that I don’t see any difference between PDP and ADC in this struggle for the sustenance of our democracy in Nigeria. We must come together to fight President Tinubu who has ceded every revenue making Ministry, Agency and Department of government to his ethnic group only. A president who has captured the resources of Rivers State and made an elected governor subservient to a Minister in Abuja. A president who has rendered our National Assembly ineffective, made our governors decamp to his party for fear of the EFFC. A president who hoodwinked Adamawa state and took away the Federal Ministry of Education from us and instead of giving the Ministry to a man from another ethnic group, the president gave it to his own ethnic group who thimk they know the value of Education better than people Adamawa state. We shall respond to those who are complicit on this on Election Day and appropriately too. 

All these are before the president gets a second term and he has to have our votes to ‘zarce’.