Lagos — The reconciliation panel appointed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to sooth frayed nerves over the prosecution of the failed third term bid has gone to work, but the same cleavages thrown up by the controversial project have blighted the reconciliation move.

"I have no doubt in my mind that the acrimony, threats and media excesses that accompanied the constitution amendment exercise, must have created or deepened conflicts and divisions within our party . I believe that we must embark on fence mending, soothing of relationships, closing gaps and reconciling and ensuring inclusion wherever possible"- President Olusegun Obasanjo

The above quote was from President Olusegun Obasanjo's address to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting hurriedly convened after the controversial constitution amendment bill was thrown out by the National Assembly. Few days after that Thursday May 18, 2006 speech, the PDP gave effect to Obasanjo's directive by setting up reconciliation panels for each of the six geo-political zones in the country. But the panel's work, according to party sources, is being blighted by the same cleavages and intrigues that created the acrimony in the party in the first instance. Some of the influential politicians who have either been driven out of the party or have been rendered irrelevant in PDP and are meant to be brought back are viewing the reconciliation move with intense suspicion. "The reconciliation is fake and I am not moved at all by it. Nothing will come out of it," Abia State Governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, told THISDAY.

Kalu is one of the founding PDP chieftains that the PDP henchmen are planning to bring back to the fold. Perhaps, the main objective of the reconciliatory move seems to be to lure Vice-president Atiku Abubakar and his associates most of whom have virtually left for the newly formed Advanced Congress for Democrats (ACD) back into the PDP fold. But how genuine is the reconciliatory move or how sincere can it be? There are two mutually exclusive camps now - those who worked for third term and those who opposed it. Atiku had provided the rallying point for the opposition to the third term agenda of President Obasanjo until it was shot down. After his incessant underground moves against the plot, the vice-president on one occasion, openly addressed members of the National Assembly who were opposed to third term and encouraged them to be resolute in their fight against the monster. That the same Atiku will be back to work with irrepressible third term campaigners like Chiefs Tony A nenih, Bode George, Ahmadu Ali among others, remains unclear. After the death of third term, can they now cohabit in the PDP? The reconciliatory party was said to have reached out to Atiku and broached the issue of reconciliation. But the Atiku group is said to be insisting on the dissolution of the party executives as a condition for genuine reconciliation.

Some analysts had said full reconciliation would be difficult to achieve when the camp that appointed the reconciliation panel was also part of the crisis within the PDP and as they say those who come to equity must come with clean hands. Although there pockets of misgivings within the PDP family for which many had speculated that the collapse of the party was imminent, third term however came to accentuate those disagreements. The Ali led NEC worked assiduously for third term, which it adopted as the party's official project. The party had also warned that any party member opposed to third would be sanctioned. Before third term came into the open, all those that were likely to canvass alternative views over the project had been virtually muscled out of the party. The 'cleansing' had ensured that Obasanjo got whatever he wanted within the PDP. The control of President Obasanjo over the PDP has never been this total, said one analyst adding that the PDP of today is Obasanjo's political party.

The composition of the reconciliation panel seems to further reaffirm this thinking. In the 18 member- reconciliatory panel inaugurated last Tuesday in Abuja by the PDP National Chairman were known foot-soldiers of the third term agenda. In the panel were Deputy National Chairman (North), Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, the Deputy National Chairman (South), Chief Bode George, Secretary Board of Trustees of the party, Prof. Jerry Gana, and Publisher of Champion Newspaper, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, among others known to have worked either directly or indirectly for third term.

And this among others is why the panel has been upbraided at every turn. Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure, for instance faulted the reconciliation committee saying the decision was hastily taken and did not factor in the feelings and opinions of stakeholders. He said in an interview with THISDAY that, "there was no consultation. Again, this is the problem we have in Nigeria, which I have tried to avoid in my state. You called an emergency NEC meeting and the next thing you do is to announce that you have set up a reconciliation committee without input from others".

Picking holes in the caliber of people chosen to work on the panel, Kure said, "Look, we can manage a situation where they put people like (Professor) Jerry Gana for Niger State but imagine a situation where you put somebody like Senator Paul Wampana, who has been saying all sort of things against the vice-president, to reconcile Adamawa State.

"Who among those people he has been insulting will listen to such committee?" he asked.

Meanwhile, the vice president has pooh-poohed the reconciliation move. Atiku said the ongoing reconciliation effort would fail. Speaking with reporters when he opened his media campaign office in Abuja penultimate Wednesday, the vice-president said since the present leadership of the party was not democratically elected, there was no way a peace initiative by it could restore peace to the party.

"I welcome reconciliation within the party because it will be bad for a party like PDP which has been built over the last seven years to collapse. But I feel the reconciliation effort cannot work. How can people who came in through an illegal arrangement initiate reconciliation? It will not work. I also believe that the committee that has been set up to handle the reconciliation process is flawed. Most of the members are not those who command respect and influence within the party. I do not see them been able to restore peace to the party", Atiku said.

Some of those who resigned their membership of the PDP to form the ACD have vowed never to go back to the party. The Chairman Media and Publicity Committee of ACD, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, said in a press statement that there was no iota of truth in the rumours allegedly being peddled by the leadership of the PDP that reconciliation talks have started between the PDP and chieftains of the ACD.

"These members left the PDP to form the ACD, as the PDP made it impossible for them to ventilate their democratic ideas. The same characters with warrant officer mentality that turned the PDP into a garrison are still in charge and have not purged themselves of their anti-democratic credentials", he said.