Nigeria: How PDP Came to This Sorry Pass

Adili · 2015-04-04T05:38:27+00:00

By all standards, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could be described as the biggest political party in the sub-Saharan Africa. To many, it is a behemoth because its spread and membership cut across the six geo-political zones. It also controls state governments in all the zones, at least. PDP has its least controlled states in the South-west in Ondo and Ekiti States. In the South-south, the party's presence is felt in four states of Cross Rives, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa, while in the South-east, PDP is in control of Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia States. In the North-west, the PDP political tentacles are in Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa, while in the North central, it has control of the states in all the states of the zone, except in Kwara and in the North-east, PDP is in control of Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba States. But this may have ceased to be the case with the outcome of the March 28 presidential election which produced candidate of the All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari as winner. And as it is now, the PDP is gradually becoming a shadow of its former self. The behemoth has been reduced only to the South-south and the South-east geo-political zones, with little control strength in Taraba State. How are the mighty fallen after sixteen years at the centre. What could be wrong and what led to the collapse of the giant called the PDP. Several factors could be adduced for this great fall by the ruling political party. The Sycophantic PDP Governors The basic problem of the PDP as a political party is the governors elected on its platform. This is because the PDP governors did not allow for a genuine democratic presidential primary election. At the time, members of the party were expecting that the party would repeat its presidential primary election as it did in 2011, when President Goodluck Jonathan democratically defeated former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. But the PDP governors did not allow for a proper presidential primary which President Jonathan would have excelled. But the governors in the eve of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to decide on the presidential primary adopted Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate, thereby closing the door against others that had nursed presidential ambition, even though it is known that they could not have won. What is more important was for PDP to allow anyone with presidential ambition to come out in an open and democratic manner to test their popularity. The All Progressives Congress (APC) did it and Atiku Abubakar, Rochas Okorocha, Rabiu Kwankwanso, Sam Nda Issaih came, saw and were defeated. No one muzzled them out of the race. That was not the case in the PDP. Governors with known presidential ambitions were blackmailed and eventually, chickened out. It is still to be explained why the governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido and his Niger State counterpart, Babangida Aliyu with known presidential ambition, all of a sudden declined further interest in contesting for the party's ticket. Is it because they were not interested in the first place and yet supported Nigerians and their followers to spend huge sums of money projecting their interest, only for them to chicken out at the eleventh hour? What went wrong? Nothing actually went wrong, except that they were blackmailed out of the race. It is a known fact the circumstances of the arrest of the children of the Jigawa State governor and other horse-trading that led to Lamido dropping his presidential ambition. Even in some states in the north, some PDP governors could not openly campaign for their party's presidential standard bearer. The governor of Kano State, Musa Rabiu Kwankwanso openly declared that the PDP governors are ashamed to campaign for Jonathan. Hence in their states, the campaign slogan is foundation to lintel, meaning vote from councilors to National Assembly, but not for the presidency. None of the PDP northern governors challenged the governor of Kano State on his claims. The figures reeled out from northern states supported this claim that the PDP governors from the northern states are not in support of President Jonathan, after all, the presidency must return to the north. The Obasanjo Factor Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whether you like it or not, was a factor in the PDP. As a President of Nigeria for eight years, he cannot be wished away. He was a former chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT). It is a known fact that most of the PDP governors became governors through him one way or the other. Obasanjo is also seen as the eye of the international community. To have allowed him to be treated the way he was treated to the extent that he first quit his chairmanship of the BoT and later all his followers that were members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) were either humiliated and pushed out of the party was a sign that all was not well with the party. The former governor of Lagos State and later Osun, Olagunsoye Oyinlola who later became the national secretary was humiliated out of PDP. Even when the courts ruled that he should be reinstated, the party executives ambushed the court order and at the end of the day, he defected to APC. The same treatment was meted to the national auditor of the party, Bode Mustapha, who was also humiliated out of office in the in-fighting in his home state, Ogun State. The same thing happened to the former Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni, who was haunted out of office at the Deputy National Chairman of PDP in the South-west. All these were prelude to the eventual quitting of his membership of the party. Many saw the quit of Obasanjo from the party as the last straw that broke the Carmel's back. PDP officials did not help matters as they allowed hot exchanges between a leader of the party that ruled the country for eight years. It is also a known fact that it was Obasanjo who made Jonathan to become President and when the crisis between them became public knowledge, every right thinking person knew that danger was lurking in the corner. Lackluster NWC members To make matters worse, the lackluster members of the National Working Committee (NWC) that's been severally accused of lacking initiatives was another source of disaster waiting to happen. Almost all members of the PDP NWC are like small gods in their respective states. In almost their states, there is one problem associated with them due to personal aggrandizement. Take for instance, the fight in the home state of the national chairman, Adamu Muazu which became a source of embarrassment to the party during the presidential campaigns. Within the party in the state, PDP was divided into factions belonging to the governor, Isa Yuguda, the Federal Capital Minister, Bala Mohammed and the camp loyal to the game changer, who incidentally is the national chairman, Adamu Muazu. All through the presidential campaigns, when the APC were attacking both the person of the President and the party, Muazu never responded. To an extent, it was the deputy national chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus that was taking the fire and also responding on behalf of the party. Whereas, the APC chairman, John Oyegun was firing from all angles. At a point PDP needed leadership, Muazu was nowhere to be found. The crisis over the primary elections of the party did not help matters, as the NWC members were fighting to ensure that their cronies became the standard bearers of the party. This, in itself, led to many members of the party defecting to other parties to eventually come back to win the ticket of the party. PDP leadership was found wanting when it needed it most. Former Senator representing Anambra North, Senator Emmanuel Anosike also said the defeat suffered by the party was based on act of sabotage by some party chieftains. According to him, PDP woes began when state governors began to nominate unpopular candidates for primary elections. At the end of the day, he stated that the governors could not help deliver their candidates and their failures rubbed off on President Goodluck Jonathan. "What happened at the just concluded Presidential election, which produced Muhammadu Buhari as President-elect, was a case of PDP defeating itself. It was a complete case of sabotage by some governors and mischievous party chieftains due to greed and selfishness. "They filled unpopular candidates and their people rejected them and through protest votes, they voted them out. What happened could be compared to a man who bought a brand new car and rather than engage a qualified and experienced driver, chose to give it to tricycle driver who had no experience in car driving. He took the car but lost control of it and crashed it." The former lawmaker however believed that PDP members have learnt their lessons and will emerge from their misfortune stronger and more united than ever. "We have learnt our lesson and I want to tell you that PDP will come out stronger", he said. Anosike said what party members who claimed to love the President would have done was to go back to their constituencies, their wards and their polling units to intensify campaign early enough rather than roaming about in Abuja. He commended President Jonathan for his bravery and sportsmanship in conceding defeat, noting that he has further portrayed the party in a good light before Nigerians, Africans and the global community. The role of Patience Jonathan The history of the defeat of President Jonathan by Buhari would not be complete without the role played by the egregious wife of the President, Patience Jonathan. Her role in the quarrel that led to the exit of the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi deserved to be mentioned in the defeat of President Jonathan. The bitter fight between Patience and Amaechi was indeed unnecessary. As if that was not enough, the PDP Women Campaign where she literally abused some elders did not help matters. Though it is true that the objectives of the Almajiri Schools was to take care of the less privileged, to turn convert that into abuse that the north gave birth to children and abandoned them to be taken care by the Jonathan administration was not palatable to the ear. Much as it is seen as part of campaign talks, some of the utterances of the out going First Lady was uncalled. To some political observers, some of the campaign abuses were indeed not necessary. The role played by a former First Lady, the late Maryam Babangida should serve as a point of emulation and some excesses should be reduced. PDP may have lost the election at the centre, it is not over yet. There could still be room for amendment. This is not the end of the road for the party, but there is the need for it to restrategise and regroup. Four years is and should not be seen as the end in the life of a political party like the PDP. Neither should it be seen as the capitulation that would warrant defecting to other political parties especially that Nigerians don't like to stay in opposition because of the politics of stomach infrastructure. However, what has happened should serve as an opportunity for PDP to do some self reappraisal. Source:allafrica

Thread starter Adili
Start date Apr 4, 2015

Adili

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Nigeria: How PDP Came to This Sorry Pass

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