New Telegraph Thursday Back Page of April 18, 2024
By Ike Abonyi
“In the third world, political leaders run political parties in the frame of their factory management.” ― Ehsan Sehgal
In rope dancing, the choreography incorporates an apparatus that is often attached to the ceiling, allowing performers to explore space in three dimensions. How the dancers traverse the space will depend on their body movements and skills. That is exactly what leaders of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party aim to do today as they assemble at the Wadata Plaza, Abuja, the national secretariat of the party. There, the 98th National Executive Committee of the party is meeting. The once-upon-a-time epitome and paragon of democracy in Nigeria and the largest political party in Africa, PDP is at a crossroads. PDP's NEC members are coming into this meeting, hoping to untie and solve the party's problem. They are all arriving at the meeting venue as one PDP family but in such discordant and oppugnant voices that heighten expectations. As per the constitution, the NEC meeting is the second highest organ of the party after the National Convention. It is supposed to be held every quarter or at least twice yearly but has not been held for years now.
All the critical stakeholders are in three camps. One camp wants to maintain the status quo of divisive drift in the party to the eternal joy of the APC that they romance with. The second camp is for the perennial presidential candidate of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to bear the PDP flag at 81 years in 2027. The third camp, comprising mostly youths and some credible leaders, wants a new PDP that should go for a fresh candidate who will be an electoral asset.
The second and third groups are unanimous that the first group should be neutralised to allow the party to breathe normally. But they are not in agreement about Abubakar bearing the presidential flag. This is the crux that makes today’s meeting vital. The NEC meeting is most likely to end up inconclusive.
A combination of the second and third groups may produce the number to upstage the first group. But that does not solve the problem because the first group enjoys the advantage of incumbency as it presides over the meeting. So upstaging the first group is not going to be easy. The presiding group is likely to come up with all manner of intriguing strategies to keep its turbulent tenure alive. Moreover, when pecuniary inducements come into play [as it is likely], integrity will vanish and the group in office will have the upper hand, being masters of intrigue. They have more dubious but large hearts to part with money to achieve their goals than the other groups.
The ringleader of the first group and Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, whose relevance in the Bola Tinubu administration depends largely on his suffocating the PDP, sees today’s meeting as life-threatening because if he loses out, his job might well be on the line. This is especially so with the unabating controversies arising from his ministerial activities. If Wike loses his grip on the party today he will be left with just two options: take leave from politics or join the APC fully. None of these choices will be easy because his godson, Governor Similaya Fubara, is stabilising his position at home and ready to take on anybody including the godfather having recovered from the trauma of his suppression. So, more than anything, today’s PDP NEC meeting is going to be a do-or-die affair for Wike and he may cash in on the disunity among critical stakeholders of the party.
The supposedly most powerful political bloc in the party, the Forum of Governors is in disarray, a misfortune impacting strongly on the party. Some of the governors are with Wike and Tinubu at night, with Atiku in the morning, and with those fresh presidential aspirants in the evening. This has weakened their impact as influencers because there is no sincerity of purpose. Not even the PDP governor at the Yola Government House is with Atiku at night. The same thing applies to the Board of Trustees which lost its relevance during the last campaigns. Then, they were speaking with divergent voices on critical issues. Nothing underscores the PDP malaise more than a BOT that loses the role of the conscience of the party. The evidence is in the way it has been carrying on.
The lower cadres of the PDP stakeholders are mostly cash-and-carry politicians as most of them did not leave their states to Abuja in the best interest of the PDP, that is, to save their dying party. They are essentially on a mission to enrich themselves. Some of them already have estimated how much money they would make from today’s gathering. Those who stand for nothing fall for anything is an adage that always rings true. The language they will hear will be that of money, not about saving or renewing the glory of the founding fathers of the party. The foregoing forms the backdrop of what will make today’s NEC meeting an event to look forward to as it will also set the stage for 2027.
As these intrigues crop up, the PDP is fast losing grip of its traditional strongholds and risks being seen today as having no base in any of the geopolitical zones. The South-East and the South-South which have been its key base since 1999 are gradually tilting away. In the 2023 presidential election, the Labour Party won the two zones at Presidential polls notwithstanding Mahmoud Yakubu's allocations.
The South-West is not likely to shift from APC after their son successfully grabbed the presidency and ran with it. In the three zones of the North, the party is struggling. If voting is about choosing the political party that most reflects your values, we wonder where APC and PDP stand in our choice-making today or in 2027. If unity of purpose is a critical requirement for going far in a political fight, one wonders how far the PDP can go with their apparent disunity.
The real reason democracies are having issues in the developing world is because of their understanding of what political parties are and should be. If they understand that the political parties are national assets, not the personal assets of party leaders, they would strive to protect them jealously by ensuring that dubious elements are not allowed to occupy critical party positions. If only Nigerian politicians understood the true importance of political parties as pillars of democracy and that no set goal can be realised without them, their approach to party management would be different.
If they did, PDP members would not have been careless when they handed over leadership of their party at any level. When it is seen as a money-making machine, as a rotten egg attracts flies, it entices the greedy and unprincipled.
What PDP is suffering today is a consequence of squandered opportunities. For 16 years, it built a formidable asset called PDP. But it allowed greed and corruption which, like cankerworm, ate it deep and left its carcass.
Our two cents for meeting NEC members is to leave self and ego and greed at the door of the NEC hall and enter with an open mind, determined to save the party and our democracy.
This columnist is passionate about this party and has written a lot about it despite its apparent failings because, over the years, he has deployed his professional prowess to the service of PDP, heading the media team under Olisa Metuh to ensure that life was restored to the party after it lost the election in 2015. He has also provided professional services to the two most honest and credible national chairmen of this party, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo and Prince Uche Secondus.
The fact that the PDP’s misdemeanour brought this country to Muhammadu Buhari and now Bola Tinubu with all the latter's ugly baggage should shame every patriotic PDP member and should prompt them to make every sacrifice for the best in the circumstances.
In politics, truth will always be encircled by the high walls of lies, but our responsibility is to know that truth is beyond the walls and that until we get to it what we desire may never come. Every NEC member of PDP knows where the truth is. What is lacking is the sincerity and the selflessness to stick to it.
If the primary purpose of a political party is to win the election and PDP sees itself as a party that wants to return to power, it should stop groping and begin a search for a winnable candidate for 2027 wherever he is in southern Nigeria in line with the zoning arrangement that was created by PDP for which it lost power for violating it. To do otherwise is tantamount to commissioning men of letters to craft a beautiful and emotive epitaph for the tombstone of PDP. God forbid!
