Not too long ago, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who defected from All Progressives Congress (APC) to People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was accorded the crown (though with some opposition within the party) to conduct a credible convention and election that would usher in the principal officers that constitute the National Executive Committee of the party. If would be recalled, during the 2015 presidential election, the PDP, the ruling party then, lost to APC, the opposition party.
As expected, the loss of the presidential election by the PDP not only brought a lull to the activities of the party but acrimony and suspicion among its members, some who alleged sabotage within the fold. The imminent drift of the party into limbo as effective opposition was becoming discerning. This was certainly not in the interest of the party or that of the nation’s democracy as lack of effective opposition to checkmate the excesses of the ruling party was and is a call to anarchy, authoritarianism or dictatorship. With this in mind, the PDP stakeholders decided to put their house in order.
The two politicians are power mongers, or power possessed, autocratic, self-imposing and erroneously having an inflated opinion of themselves. They detest opposition and very Machiavellian in their haughty desires
The task to clear the Augean stable and put the house once more in shape as earlier pointed our fell on a committee headed by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who to all intent and purpose, was this time the latest bride ushered into the PDP from APC and was adjudged rightly or wrongly to be an impartial umpire as the good and bad scent of the PDP has not rubbed on him.
Senator Sheriff had this singular opportunity on a platter of gold to redeem his bruised image and bounced back to national reckoning as a result of his inability to realise his ambition in the APC which prompted his exit. Sadly enough, this was not to be as the colour of the leopard that cannot be hidden became manifest. Rather than give a good account of the onerous task given to him, Ali Sheriff, with all the wealth of experience as two term governor of Borno State, three – term senator, party chieftain, ex- this, ex-that, was found wanting and shown the red card.
In fairness to him there were evidence on ground to his credit to show that he was on course in the national assignment given to him by the party but, his direction in this wise was perceived by many as a means to perpetuate himself into the chairmanship position of the PDP to preparing the party for a free and fair national convention of the party that would give birth to national officers of the party. The perceived manipulations and alleged clandestine moves by Senator Sheriff led to internal conflict within the party and ultimate factionalization of the PDP with Sheriff leading a group and Senator Ahmed Makarfi taking leadership of the other. This led to sack and counter-sack by the concerned factions, followed by court litigations until the final pronouncement of the Supreme Court that bestowed the authentic chairmanship of the party on Senator Ahmed Makarfi. In its proclamation, in the chairmanship tussle between the two parties, the Apex Court described Senator Sheriff, among others, as a power hungry desperate politician who would go any length to acquire power.
With the ruling of the Supreme Court, Sheriff’s ambition to preside over the operations of PDP, the self-proclaimed biggest political conglomerate in Africa was sealed. Thereafter, Sheriff, whether out of shock or self imposed meditation sojourn, went into a brief silence and temporarily out of circulation only to re-emerge recently with the announcement that he had defected back to APC.
With this, the Borno Senator has begun another political journey whose destination is unclear, having missed that rare privilege he threw away in PDP when given the opportunity to lead. Sheriff was either deluded to believing the notion that his massive wealth is a ticket to getting and making anything possible or was a victim of his inability to appreciate and digest the dynamics of the complex vortex politics of his fatherland thereby burning his fingers.
And so, when of recent, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was elected unopposed as the APC national chairman with the mandate to bring peace, unity and stability to APC that was already experiencing internal wrangling and factionalization, some members of the party expressed optimism with his election, some reservation while others adopted a “siddon look” disposition. The pessimists were of the view that the combative nature and unrestrained utterances of Oshiomhole might plunge APC, like Senator Sheriff PDP saga, into more troubled waters while the protagonists bought the view that Comrade Oshiomhole’s tenure will bring peace, stability and honour to the
APC.
In character disposition and orientation, Oshiomhole and Sheriff have a lot in common. They are politicians and two – term governor in their respective states. While Senator Sheriff was two – term governor of Borno State, Comrade Oshiomhole was equally a two term governor of Edo State. Both hailed from private sector and from minority group. While Sheriff found his way into partisan politics from business sector, Oshiomhole came into the political firmament of the nation from labour trade unionism.
Victor Izekor, a journalist and current affairs analyst is a member of Board of Advisers of The Point newspaper.