By Sufuyan Ojeifo<\/p>\n
For avid watchers of the nation\u2019s political scene, the developments in the
\nopposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the election of
\nsubstantive national chair and other officers, understandably, deserve
\nmore than a scant attention.\u00a0 This is due, largely, to the fact that, as a
\nleading opposition party in the country, the PDP is the alternative
\ngovernment-in-waiting.<\/p>\n
However, for it to transmute and become government-in-power, it must
\nmuster the capacity to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Party (APC),
\notherwise, it will be the alternative government-in-waiting beyond 2019.
\nCapacity, in this sense, refers to human, financial, material and
\nintellectual capacity.\u00a0 Located in the vortex of this critical component
\nis leadership ability to galvanise and mobilise party members along
\ndesired directions.<\/p>\n
Therefore, a leadership that has the character and discipline to further
\nthe process of consensus-building within the party as well as construct
\nand strengthen strategic linkages with other parties in the overall
\ninterest of the nation is imperative in the PDP quest for
\nself-rediscovery, not a leadership with questionable antecedents or a
\nleadership that is mollycoddled by some state governors to the extent of
\nbeing rendered compromised from the outset of its administration of the
\nparty consequent upon anointment.<\/p>\n
Having just been pulled back from the jaws of the lion via the verdict of
\nthe Supreme Court, after it had sustained scary injuries inflicted on it
\nby some self-seeking members, it will be sad if PDP repeats the same
\nmistake that plunged it into that celebrated hysteria.\u00a0 Both members and
\nnon-members of the PDP were concerned that a party that had blossomed for
\nabout seventeen years with sixteen of those years in the saddle at the
\nfederal level, was headed for self-immolation.<\/p>\n
The role of the duo of Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike and his Ekiti Both Wike and Fayose admitted making a mistake that could have destroyed In his new preoccupation to assume control of the party structure, he has Perhaps the move would have been popular if the choice of aspirant had It is sad that Wike could expend public funds belonging to Rivers people Dokpesi would have been the right person.\u00a0 I cannot fault Dokpesi\u2019s It is expected that those who are committed to the survival and progress If it wants to stay together as a united party, the PDP must not allow any The contestation for different positions was structured, jurisdictionally Makarfi has surprisingly unraveled, thus losing a historic opportunity to
\nstate counterpart, Ayodele Fayose, in signing off the party to Senator Ali
\nModu Sherrif is still very fresh in the mind.\u00a0 The battle that Sherrif
\ntook the party and its salvation army of leaders through before they could
\nreclaim the party and prepare it for the national convention billed for
\nthis week\u2019s Saturday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in Abuja cannot be forgotten in a hurry.<\/p>\n
\nthe party.\u00a0 Having been given a second chance to restitute, one would have
\nexpected Wike, in particular, to be of good behaviour and act in ways that
\nwould conduce to peace, stability and growth of the party.\u00a0 But
\ndevelopments in the party have clearly indicated Wike\u2019s resolve to once
\nmore embark on a scary adventure that is capable of destabilising the
\nparty.<\/p>\n
\nenlisted the support of the National Caretaker Committee chairman, Senator
\nMakarfi, who is interested in the presidential ticket of the party.\u00a0 In
\nthe spirit of quid pro quo, both party leaders are committed to the
\nrealisation of each other\u2019s agenda.\u00a0 For a promised support for his
\npresidential aspiration by Wike, Makarfi has ensured that the micro-zoning
\nof the position of national chair to the southwest zone is discountenanced
\nand the contest thrown open to the entire southern region.\u00a0 Curiously, it
\nis only the national chair that is subjected to this political shenanigan.<\/p>\n
\nbeen different from Uche Secondus, a crony of Wike, whose antecedents in
\nthe National Executive Committee of the PDP where he acted briefly as
\nnational chairman have arguably been questionable.\u00a0 Perhaps, if Wike and
\nhis co-travelers in the fresh plot to destabilise the party have been
\npushing Chief Raymond Dokpesi, whose capacity and qualification for the
\npost are not in doubt, it would have been a different ball game.\u00a0 It would
\nhave been a case of undisputed merit against zoning.\u00a0 But where is the
\nmerit in Wike\u2019s Secondus?<\/p>\n
\nin pursuit of a laughable national leadership for the PDP.\u00a0 This act has
\nonly exposed the governor as profoundly ridiculous and provincial.\u00a0 Even
\nif his plan is to test his popularity and financial might in the party,
\nshould he not have placed his bet on another person outside his Rivers
\nstate?<\/p>\n
\npolitical connections, preeminence and administrative savoir-faire.\u00a0 Even
\nat that, those who crave the entrenchment of due diligence, respect for
\nparty supremacy and discipline would invest their solid support for the
\nemergence of the substantive national chair from the southwest zone.<\/p>\n
\nof the PDP would ensure that the next national chair comes from the
\nsouthwest.\u00a0 If southwest does not get it, it would have lost out
\ncompletely from the PDP power arrangement, which has already ceded
\npresidential position to the north.\u00a0 The south-south has just ended its
\noccupation of the presidency in 2015 and should not talk about
\nappropriating the national chair.\u00a0 Besides, it is only the southwest that
\nhas not produced the national chair of the PDP since the formation of the
\nparty in 1998.<\/p>\n
\naction or decision that would undermine its existence, progress and
\nstability.\u00a0 But, unfortunately, that is the trajectory that the party
\nunder the leadership of Makarfi seems to have taken.\u00a0 Selfish political
\ninterests have once again reared their heads in a desperate bid to hijack
\nthe party machinery and control the soul of the party.\u00a0 Such moves
\ncertainly always leave any party divided, weak and unable to effectively
\nconfront the \u201cmonstrosity\u201d of the ruling party.<\/p>\n
\ncircumscribed and settled.\u00a0 \u00a0There should not have been any reason at all
\nto throw open the position of the national chairman to the entire southern
\nregion, the way Makarfi has done on the prompting of Wike for his promised
\nsupport for his presidential ambition.\u00a0 And who would have thought that
\nMakarfi would become so desperate as to fall for Wike\u2019s overture?<\/p>\n
\nshow selfless leadership and firmness in dealing with a potential
\nflashpoint in the party\u2019s march to self-rediscovery.\u00a0 The good thing is
\nthat there are men of honour in the party who would shun Wike\u2019s messy
\nporridge and do the right thing for conscience sake and for posterity. The
\nsurvival of the PDP will certainly bear their imprimaturs.<\/p>\n