By Sufuyan Ojeifo
For avid watchers of the nation’s political scene, the developments in the
opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the election of
substantive national chair and other officers, understandably, deserve
more than a scant attention. This is due, largely, to the fact that, as a
leading opposition party in the country, the PDP is the alternative
government-in-waiting.
However, for it to transmute and become government-in-power, it must
muster the capacity to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Party (APC),
otherwise, it will be the alternative government-in-waiting beyond 2019.
Capacity, in this sense, refers to human, financial, material and
intellectual capacity. Located in the vortex of this critical component
is leadership ability to galvanise and mobilise party members along
desired directions.
Therefore, a leadership that has the character and discipline to further
the process of consensus-building within the party as well as construct
and strengthen strategic linkages with other parties in the overall
interest of the nation is imperative in the PDP quest for
self-rediscovery, not a leadership with questionable antecedents or a
leadership that is mollycoddled by some state governors to the extent of
being rendered compromised from the outset of its administration of the
party consequent upon anointment.
Having just been pulled back from the jaws of the lion via the verdict of
the Supreme Court, after it had sustained scary injuries inflicted on it
by some self-seeking members, it will be sad if PDP repeats the same
mistake that plunged it into that celebrated hysteria. Both members and
non-members of the PDP were concerned that a party that had blossomed for
about seventeen years with sixteen of those years in the saddle at the
federal level, was headed for self-immolation.
The role of the duo of Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike and his Ekiti
state counterpart, Ayodele Fayose, in signing off the party to Senator Ali
Modu Sherrif is still very fresh in the mind. The battle that Sherrif
took the party and its salvation army of leaders through before they could
reclaim the party and prepare it for the national convention billed for
this week’s Saturday in Abuja cannot be forgotten in a hurry.
Both Wike and Fayose admitted making a mistake that could have destroyed
the party. Having been given a second chance to restitute, one would have
expected Wike, in particular, to be of good behaviour and act in ways that
would conduce to peace, stability and growth of the party. But
developments in the party have clearly indicated Wike’s resolve to once
more embark on a scary adventure that is capable of destabilising the
party.
In his new preoccupation to assume control of the party structure, he has
enlisted the support of the National Caretaker Committee chairman, Senator
Makarfi, who is interested in the presidential ticket of the party. In
the spirit of quid pro quo, both party leaders are committed to the
realisation of each other’s agenda. For a promised support for his
presidential aspiration by Wike, Makarfi has ensured that the micro-zoning
of the position of national chair to the southwest zone is discountenanced
and the contest thrown open to the entire southern region. Curiously, it
is only the national chair that is subjected to this political shenanigan.
Perhaps the move would have been popular if the choice of aspirant had
been different from Uche Secondus, a crony of Wike, whose antecedents in
the National Executive Committee of the PDP where he acted briefly as
national chairman have arguably been questionable. Perhaps, if Wike and
his co-travelers in the fresh plot to destabilise the party have been
pushing Chief Raymond Dokpesi, whose capacity and qualification for the
post are not in doubt, it would have been a different ball game. It would
have been a case of undisputed merit against zoning. But where is the
merit in Wike’s Secondus?
It is sad that Wike could expend public funds belonging to Rivers people
in pursuit of a laughable national leadership for the PDP. This act has
only exposed the governor as profoundly ridiculous and provincial. Even
if his plan is to test his popularity and financial might in the party,
should he not have placed his bet on another person outside his Rivers
state?
Dokpesi would have been the right person. I cannot fault Dokpesi’s
political connections, preeminence and administrative savoir-faire. Even
at that, those who crave the entrenchment of due diligence, respect for
party supremacy and discipline would invest their solid support for the
emergence of the substantive national chair from the southwest zone.
It is expected that those who are committed to the survival and progress
of the PDP would ensure that the next national chair comes from the
southwest. If southwest does not get it, it would have lost out
completely from the PDP power arrangement, which has already ceded
presidential position to the north. The south-south has just ended its
occupation of the presidency in 2015 and should not talk about
appropriating the national chair. Besides, it is only the southwest that
has not produced the national chair of the PDP since the formation of the
party in 1998.
If it wants to stay together as a united party, the PDP must not allow any
action or decision that would undermine its existence, progress and
stability. But, unfortunately, that is the trajectory that the party
under the leadership of Makarfi seems to have taken. Selfish political
interests have once again reared their heads in a desperate bid to hijack
the party machinery and control the soul of the party. Such moves
certainly always leave any party divided, weak and unable to effectively
confront the “monstrosity” of the ruling party.
The contestation for different positions was structured, jurisdictionally
circumscribed and settled. There should not have been any reason at all
to throw open the position of the national chairman to the entire southern
region, the way Makarfi has done on the prompting of Wike for his promised
support for his presidential ambition. And who would have thought that
Makarfi would become so desperate as to fall for Wike’s overture?
Makarfi has surprisingly unraveled, thus losing a historic opportunity to
show selfless leadership and firmness in dealing with a potential
flashpoint in the party’s march to self-rediscovery. The good thing is
that there are men of honour in the party who would shun Wike’s messy
porridge and do the right thing for conscience sake and for posterity. The
survival of the PDP will certainly bear their imprimaturs.
Mr Ojeifo contributed this piece from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com