Pity the lot of Nigeria’s once formidable Peoples Democratic Party as it today wriggles in death throes. Given its well-known reputation as a bad mother, it is no surprise that some of the children of the PDP who rose to prominence on the platform have been quick to disown the party. Even worse, to poke fun at their mother.
Last Tuesday as the Senate resumed plenary, a former PDP Senate leader, two-term governor on the banner of the party, and before then, multi-commissioner on the platform of the PDP, that is, Senator Godswill Akpabio, now sitting comfortably as All Progressives Congress, APC Senate President took the joke to another level.
“This defection is an earthquake, one that will lead to many other PDP senators dumping the party.”
The prayer by Nwoko for a Senate investigation into the crisis in the PDP, undoubtedly, epitomises the low level the party has gone to. Even those who speak for the party today at almost every level are doing so not out of conviction but for selfish reasons.
The intervention by the Board of Trustees, BoT into the latest crisis in the party in the face of contention over the position of National Secretary has now been enveloped with controversy.
The BoT ordinarily should be the conscience of the party, able to through moral suasion and institutional memory of its members, help to nudge the party towards good manners.
However, that intervention has now been riddled with controversy. The first controversy is the moral fettles of the chairman of the BoT, that is Senator Adolphus Wabara. When it suited him very well not too long ago, Wabara easily played anti-party by ruling out his party’s prospects in 2027 in Abia State when he affirmed the Labour Party governor, Mr Alex Otti for a second term.
Beyond that is the way the BoT has gone about the duty of arbitrating between the contenders for the position of National Secretary. While the BoT may be commended for its decision to seek expert advice from one of the leading legal experts in the party, Dr Taminu Turaki SAN, the BoT’s seeming refusal to vigorously interrogate the issues at stake is befuddling.
The main contention presently in the PDP is that Senator Samuel Anyanwu who was elected to the position in 2021 did not resign the position to contest the party’s governorship ticket in Imo State.
This correspondent like many others within and outside the party may have been troubled by the morality of the act. However, the constitution of the PDP allows such actions. Section 47 (5) of the party’s constitution gives the leeway for party executives to stay on in their positions and seek elective offices.