By Adelaja Adeoye.
The massive loss Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) suffered certainly did not come as a surprise to some Nigerians and political analysts, because of the magnitude of APC’s campaign and tenacity to wrestle power from Jonathan.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), since its birth in 1998 had held on to power for 16 years starting from 8 years administration of Obasanjo/Atiku, 3 years of Yar’Adua/Jonathan and 5 years of Jonathan/Sambo.
“The funny thing now is that larger portion of same set of people who made up the 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), well over 75% of them are now in the new ruling All Progressive Congress (APC)”.
The arrangement of PDP was to rotate power between the North and South based on agreement by principle which was not really bonded by constitution of the party. After Obasanjos’ 8 years ruler-ship which represented the slot of all the 3 geopolitical zones of Southern Nigeria (South West, South East and South South), there came the turn of Northern people and Yar’Adua stepped in but very sadly and unfortunately his tenor was cut short by death which threw the nation into political tension and almost caused constitutional crises because the North were not willing to give up the slot claiming that they must complete their 8 years, Jonathan as the then vice President came in, in acting capacity and completed the remaining tenor of Late Yar’Adua.
Jonathan was able to rally round members of PDP and governors for support to be elected as a substantive President in 2011 which he actually achieved, after completion of his 4 years tenor, he was supposed to quietly hand over power back to North and trouble began for the PDP.
Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan led his party to electoral battle field against Nigeria’s former military dictator, General Muhammadu Buhari of APC in 2015 and lost too woefully that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost many of its controlled states to the APC.
The biggest mistake PDP made was to have allowed herself to be arm twisted by Jonathan and his men against the party’s zoning arrangement, APC as a new party which clearly understood the agitation of the North and weakness of PDP, swung into actions immediately by mobilizing and consolidating its membership across every states. The APC in their usual political antics began to incite Nigerians against PDP using the biggest epidemic befalling the country, corruption, Boko Haram, Chibok Girls saga and many other agitations of the people to blackmail the party out of power. They campaigned rigorously and ensure PDP and Jonathan was defeated by either hook or crook.
Jonathan approved the use of Card readers for general elections thinking that he was bringing innovations into our electoral system but not knowing that the device was a plot targeted at removing him from the office. It was rumored that former INEC Chairman, Professor Attairu Jega hatchet all the plans in collusion with top APC leaders as there were rumors of secret meetings in Dubai and other locations outside Nigeria but unfortunately Mr. Jonathan could not take any actions to thwart the plans of his political opponents for reasons best known to him.
One thing that could easily point to this rumor was that the war torn Borno State where Boko Haram throws Bomb almost daily with millions of IDPs were able to collect over 5 million Voters Cards and Lagos with relative peace got a less than 2 million voters cards.
Most of the figures churned out from the North were so scary, for example Kano State accredited 1.9 million people and almost all the 1.9 million voted for APC. This remains the greatest misery since Nigeria has been conducting elections; let’s leave that story for another day.
Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Peter Ayodele Fayose warned and campaigned against the card reader Machines but Jonathan and probably those that stand to benefit from the contract refused to heed to his call.
Fayose argument was that a device that has not been put to use cannot be trusted at a general election. He was vindicated with the massive complaint that greeted the use of the device; even Jonathan himself was quoted by some section of media that card readers should be revived before 2019 election after the card reader machine almost prevented him and his family members from voting during the Bayelsa Governorship election.
PDP is still nursing the wound suffered at the poll, but the question is how long would the party continue in the electoral loss mourning?
The party PDP needs to put its house in order as soon as possible, over six months is more than enough to put itself back in shape rather than wobbling and fumbling as a viable opposition, else a new MEGA party should be activated.
Nigerian people expects PDP to put up a strong opposition against the ruling APC and the best way PDP can again entrench herself in the hearts of Nigerian is by forming a strong, formidable and responsible opposition to Buhari’s government.
In my own opinion, below are some few of my thoughts on how the party can easily and quickly bounce back ahead of future elections.
First assignment for PDP in her efforts to rebuild the party is to elect or appoint a well experienced publicity secretary who knows how to play the game with the ruling APC, even non-PDP members are unimpressed with the current publicity secretary Chief Olisa Metuh, he is seen as not competent enough to be an image maker for the party.
Second assignment, PDP should set up a committee that will proffer solutions on how to win future elections with achievable, realizable and modern manifesto based on the needs and yearning of Nigerians.
Third assignment, the party must appeal to all Nigerians to support them, set up committee that will pacify and ensure all her members in other parties return to the big umbrella for a better future, senior members who have suddenly remain non-partisan must be reach out to, people like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Ibrahim Babangida and other founding members must be brought back to contribute their own ideas to the success of the party.
Fourth assignment, the party must ensure that it field credible, popular , Influential, Rugged and competent candidates at Presidency, State Governorship, Local Governments and other elective posts in future elections who can deliver on party’s manifestos and give people the dividend of democracy.
Fifth assignment, PDP must form a very strong and united front that’ll not be easy to be intimidated, harassed or hounded with state security apparatus by the intolerant APC led government. Every Security strategies they can lay their hand on must be utilized for protection.
For PDP to survive, it must understand that both old, young and new members are needed, the attitude of some party leaders that they can do without some people in the party was one of the major downfall of the party, recall that the problem began when 5 strong PDP governors crossed to nPDP and eventually left for APC. The situation could have been salvaged when they were still in nPDP if ex-President Goodluck had called for a truce but ego, and pride deterred him.
After the PDP 2016 National convention where new leaders will be elected, the party needs to start reaching out to all aggrieved members, youth groups, women group, other smaller parties and all stakeholders that can help them build formidable winning structures across every geopolitical zone in Nigeria.
PDP must move from analogue use of media to a very efficient and purposeful use of digital media, the reality is that there are lots of its members such as Demola Olanrewaju, Adeyanju Adedeji. Anthony Ehilebo, Opeyemi Azeez Ahmed, Adelaja Adeoye, Vincent Arogbodo, Chinedu Nwosu, Paul Utho, Vox Populi, Lekan Durojaye, Zainab Dabo, Reno Omokri, James King, Olufemi Fani Kayode, Doyin Okupe, Babatunde Gbadamosi, Kamaldeen Abdulsalam and many others that can be of great advantage to the party in terms of media organization.
As a matter of fact, PDP leaders at National Working Committee must come to join social media by themselves and begin to identify some of the supporting youths in order to attract and train them for future purposes, PDP must leverage on social media but not for hate campaign and malicious propaganda like APC did during the last general election.
Adelaja Adeoye is a blogger, social and political commentator who writes from Lagos Nigeria. Twitter Handle: @AdelajaAdeoye.