The Peoples Democratic
Party ruled Nigeria from 1999-2015. It projected by its prowess, might, fame and
power that it would rule Nigeria for an uninterrupted period of sixty years.
But that projection was subdued by the political sagacity of the once disparate
opposition parties which later merged to become the All Progressives Congress
(APC). The PDP eventually fulfilled a sixteen-year of unbroken service to the
nation in place of the sixty years earlier projected. The former ruling party
was defeated in the 2015 general elections, now subjecting to be the main
opposition political party in Nigeria.
Following the defeat of a
once elitist and very vibrant political party, it soon was engrossed in to
serial political upheavals, the most enduring and devastating one being the
tussle for leadership of the party between Alhaji Ahmed Markafi and Senator
Ali-Modu Sheriff. It was a legal war of attrition garnished with all kinds of
political maneuvering. The PDP was in complete disarray and the hopes of ever
uniting into a vibrant party again were glaringly elusive. However, the
painstaking efforts of some of the founding fathers and party stalwarts to pick
the pieces of what remained of them yielded a positive result culminating to a
convalescing party as it presently stands. The most cementing factor that has
propped up the party to its roots was the judgment of the Supreme Court
recognizing Alhaji Ahmed Markafi as the legitimate Chairman of the party
pending the national convention of the party. On that solid premise, the party
began to toe the path of recovery. The convention to elect the officers into
its National Executive Committee was soon scheduled and efforts were
meticulously geared and executed to ensure its success beating all odds. Then
came December 9, 2017, the convention eventually held at the Eagle Square,
Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The convention
experienced the normal pains and gains of re-organizing and restructuring a
once vibrant political party. What happened at the convention was not a
peculiar case to the party as any convalescing political party will certainly
witness a rancorous situation. The Chairmanship position which was very
sacrosanct to the resurgence, sustenance and relevance of the party became the
hottest position to be contested among other positions. By the arrangement of the
party, the chairmanship position was zoned to the Southern region of the
country, being that the presidential ticket for the 2019 general elections has
been zoned to the North - the ticket, which former Vice-President Abubakar
Atiku hopes to secure in contesting the laudable position of the president of
the country.
For the purpose of the
election, the southern zone was further sub-divided into two to produce
contestants for the chairmanship position. The zones were the South-west and
the South-south zones. The South-west zone produced lots of contestants which
included the former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Olabode George, Senator
Rasheed Ladoja, Chief Gbenga Daniel, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Professor Taoheed
Adedoja, Professor Tunde Adeniran, and Mr. Aderemi Olusegun. The South-west, a
very versatile and exposed zone could not arrive at a consensus to produce a
candidate to face those of the other zone, that is, the South-south which
produced only two candidates. These were Chief Raymond Dokpesi and Prince Uche
Secondus. Based on lack of proper organization and some sundry factors of obvious
incoherence among the candidates of the South-West, it became apparent from the
beginning that these contestants were heading for a failure, against the
South-South zone who could strike a bargain of consensus without any serious hullabaloo.
By the time the candidates from the south-west were beginning to realize the
incoherence in consensual building, it was almost too late. They all lost out.
Another contentious issue
in the convention was the withdrawal of the aggrieved candidates who cited
election irregularities and money politics. The situation was further worsened by the
verbal assault of the Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike who cast aspersion on
the entire Yoruba people of the South-west. Governor Wike had described the
Yoruba people as politically irrelevant to the PDP. He even made a direct
accusation to the former president of the country, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that
even when he was the president of the country, PDP never fared well as it ought
in his time. This singular
misdemeanor angered Chief Bode George, who is of the Yoruba extraction, in no
small measure. Coupled with other factors that led to the chief’s withdrawal
from the contest on the 8th of December, he angrily predicted the
convention as “the event will be a charade”. He had argued that the position of
the Chairman should have been “micro-zoned” to the South-West. He further said
that “the PDP has lost its soul…has now mangled and distorted its soul and
spirit. There is no morality here anymore. There is no sanity or any sense of
enlightened civility…I hereby withdraw from this brazen fraud and absolutely
preconceived monetized, mercantilist, convention”. He also inferred that PDP
may lose the support of the South-west in 2019.
I seem to agree with
Chief Olabode’s position, of PDP’s losing the support of the South-West in the
2019 general elections. Though the
social-political behaviour of man cannot be predicted in the absolute terms,
but political antecedence is potent enough to predict political happenings in
the future. This predicted loss is not only because Olabode or any other Yoruba
candidate failed to become the Chairman of the PDP but for other obvious
reasons.
First, if we do not learn to forget, in the
build-up to the 2015 general elections, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwani Akiolu
made a categorical statement against the Ibos of the South-East resident in
Lagos, when he discovered that they were making frantic efforts to change the
political game of Lagos State by voting in the opposition party (the PDP). The
Oba threatened to literally ‘throw’ all the Ibos into Lagos lagoon if they do
not have a rethink of their over-zealousness to foster a PDP governor on Lagos
State against the wish of the indigenes. In retaliation, the Ibos blatantly
voted massively for the PDP in Lagos to ‘assuage’ the humiliation suffered from
His Excellency. Though the APC won the State eventually, but the Ibos made
their point.
In the same vein, Governor
Nyesom Wike uttered inflammatory statement in his campaign for a South-south
candidate for the chairmanship position of the PDP. He viewed the Yorubas from
the South-west are politically irrelevant in the issues that concern the PDP.
He was alleged to have said that what good will come to the PDP if a Yoruba man
was elected as the Chairman. He further insulted the former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, who was a co-founder of the party, that when he was in power, he did little
to retain the solidarity of the Yorubas to the PDP. He therefore urged the
delegates not to vote for a Yoruba candidate to occupy the Chairmanship
position of the PDP.
This singular assault may
be ‘forgotten’ for now, but I opine that it might be used against the PDP in
the build up to the 2019 general elections. The South-west who are already with
the ruling APC may further deepen their love and allegiance to the party and
‘fight’ vehemently against the PDP in 2019 as retaliation to the verbal hemorrhage
of Governor Wike. The PDP may pay dearly for this insult.
Secondly, I opine that
the best way for the PDP to spread its popularity and canvass for more votes
would have been to cede the Chairmanship to the South-West, which Olabode George
intelligently coined as ‘micro-zoning’.
From obvious indications, most states from the South-South and
South-East zones have allegiance with the PDP already. The best way to spread
the net to other zones, especially to the South-West zone who are already with
the APC and whose Nigerian Vice-President is from that ethnic extraction, was
to give the Chairmanship position of the PDP to the South-West. This position
ordinarily runs in tandem with common sense, strategy and political sagacity. The
Chairmanship from the South-west would have been a burst to the pipe of strength
of the APC in that zone. From the foregoing therefore, it will take rigorous,
intelligent mobilization and issues-based campaigns with superior arguments and
irresistible convictions of the electorates, before the PDP can win the
South-west. As at present, it is not out of place to say that the PDP has been practically
reduced to a regional party, having lost the South-West zone substantially.
This might obviously
affect their fortunes in the 2019 elections.
Furthermore, the party
has another huddle to contend with, that is their primaries in selecting a
Presidential candidate to contest with the sitting president. The former vice-President
Atiku Abubakar has returned to the PDP to seek the presidential ticket for the
2019 elections, I guess strongly. Will he be availed of this complex opportunity
when the PDP has said clearly that there will be no automatic ticket for candidates?
If he is not given the ticket, what happens again to the party? Another round
of crisis?
Finally, with the level
of corruption being exposed of which the last administration is allegedly culpable,
will discerning Nigerians still vote for PDP to take over power at the centre?
It is not that the APC as a political party in government is totally clean and
free of alleged corruption, but the present government is seen to be making
frantic efforts to convince the world that they do not support corruption. This
is unlike the former administration which appeared to be extremely weak, helpless
or even in tacit consent with the issues of corruption.
The PDP and APC have a
lot to do to win the votes of the electorates; that is if the votes will count
at all. It is going to be a battle of the titans. Nevertheless, the electorates
must be the ultimate decider, by choosing the lesser of the two evils – the APC
or the PDP!
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