I have never really been a fan of the People’s Democratic Party. The party, since its creation in 1998 and its ‘successes’ in subsequent elections in Nigeria, has turned the established democratic norms as it relate to party politics internal organisations on its head.
From the elections of party officials to man its national, states and local government offices, to the processes of picking their members to run for elective offices across Nigeria, it has been found wanting at every stage of the processes. Of course, they had every reason to do so. A ticket on the not necessarily ideological platform of the party, means an automatic transmission to a political office. And that is why the polity witnessed all sorts of brazenness, sharp practices, godfatherism, imposition, killings and maiming of intra party opponents to get the ticket to run on their platform.
You get to read gory tales of wanton killings, kidnappings, and thuggery on the eve of primaries and you wonder if the office seekers are there to serve the public or themselves or their sponsors. And so, when the party was booted out of office in the 2015 general elections after 16 years of being in the saddle, people, including this writer, heaved a sigh of relief. It was more of a divine intervention than the political savvy of Nigerians or of the electoral umpires. The PDP has had its brazenness, arrogance and impunity thwarted by forces they are still trying to fathom.
The political space temporary had a breath of fresh air while the party tried to come out of the shocking defeat and adjust to the new realities. Their attempt to adjust to their new role as opposition party has seen all sorts of scheming and maneuverings. Having ceded the party control to the almighty state governors by the party hierarchy, it was the business of the remnants of their governors to source for a new party leadership to reposition the party in their vain hope of recapturing power in 2019. Thus began the scramble for the control of party structure that has kept the party prostrate for a long time now and without any hope of a resolution. It all started as an altruistic endeavour.
The party had appointed The Udom Emmanuel committee (governor of Akwa Ibom state) to recommend to it a zonal structure in electing new party leadership. The North East, which produced the last national Chairman in Adamu Muazu, were yet to complete their tenure as he had suddenly resigned after losing the election. And so, there was the need for the zone to appoint somebody within it to fill the gap.
The PDP is lying prostrate. And, it is not likely that the imbroglio would be resolved soon. Not with the gladiators not willing to shift grounds. Even the seeming truce brokered by party elders has had no impact in getting the factions to sheath their swords
The surviving governors were at their game with Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State leading the way. Predictably, they reached out to one of their own, Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno State to fill the gap, despite the preponderance of quality candidates that filled the region.
As usual, it was their act of imposition that got Alhaji Sheriff in the saddle. And, like the Renaissance writers, who wrote the methods of holding powers to Italian princes, Sheriff adopted their thesis by adopting a realistic approach to running the party. He must have read the book, Courtier, by Baldassare Castiglione, in which the writer urged those who want to keep power to surround themselves with nourished loyalists and talents. And be thoroughbred in the school of intrigues. By the time those who went for Sheriff knew where the man was going and that he had other ideas, a panic button was set off.
They hurriedly called a meeting in Port Harcourt to elect a new Executive Committee but ended up with a caretaker one, with former Kaduna governor Ahmed Markarfi as the helmsman. Then the battle shifted to the court rooms. They even resorted to fisticuffs and locking and occupation of their national headquarters. The result has been that they have lost three state governorship elections in succession.
The APC beat them in Kogi, Edo and Ondo. It is likely that the bruises in Rivers re-run would not be surprising. The PDP, the former behemoth is lying prostrate. And, it is not likely that the imbroglio is about to be resolved anytime soon. Not with the gladiators sticking to their guns and not willing to shift grounds. Even the seeming truce brokered by party elders has had no impact in getting the factions to sheath their swords. Political pundits have come up with various ways through which the PDP could get itself out of the quagmire. Some have suggested that the two factional helmsmen be made to abdicate their throne.
The thinking is that the country needs a virile opposition, which the PDP should provide to avoid a descent into tyranny. But, I am not going to buy the argument that the party is being manipulated by the APC, the party in power. Close watchers saw this coming a long time ago. The discontent among members of the party was palpable. That was what gave birth to the mega union that strengthened the APC to win power at the centre in the first place.
PDP should be encouraged to put its house in order, imbibe the spirit of internal democracy, and most important, stop their all-knowing, all-powerful and pestering governors from disturbing the peace of the party. My recipe for the resolution of the lingering feud in the party is to adopt the Solomon option. Those who are familiar with the biblical judgement delivered by King Solomon on the case of a disputed baby brought before him, can feel the direction I am going. The fake mother had demanded that the baby be divided among the feuding mothers while the authentic mother pleaded that the baby should be handed to the fake mother only if to preserve the life of the baby.
Solomon saw the truth from the scenario and promptly handed the baby to the authentic mother. His argument was that no mother, who has gone through the pain of delivery, would want her baby killed and divided among feuding mothers. In applying this option, I think the PDP elders should call the feuding parties together and throw a poser to them, to find out who truly wants the party to bounce back or buried. This is feasible unless all the party members are involved in the nailing of the coffin of the party.
