If anyone has been wondering why the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the last elections, here is one of the major reasons: a house divided against itself cannot stand. As recent events have shown, just as the party was unable to manage success, it appears woefully incapable of living down defeat. The rift between the workers and the leadership of the party simply goes to show that what we had all along thought was confined to the top echelon of the party indeed permeated its entire organizational fabric. If workers in the party secretariat who are supposed to be custodians of its secrets and the last line of defence have long been drawn in a brawl with the National Working Committee, NWC, how then was the party expected to harness the loyalty and commitment that constituted the minimum requirements for success?
The ongoing exchange of verbal missiles between the staff and the party’s NWC is as bad as it can get. If this awkward development is not quickly arrested, the party would naturally degenerate to an object of public ridicule. And with lost credibility, hardly can it be expected to muster sufficient traction to play its opposition role, a situation where the general public will become the ultimate loser. For now, irrespective of party affiliation, it is in the interest of all Nigerians that the PDP quickly puts the ongoing charade to rest and galvanize the intellectual, human and material resources to effectively play its role as the political check on leadership.
The danger of a tepid opposition platform is better imagined than experienced. Imagine a situation where the PDP continues in its self-destructive path, chances are that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-government, as a human institution, could lapse into lethargy since the threat of an alternative platform, if you like, a government in waiting, would have been destroyed. But, that is even the milder of two potential dangers. The more serious scenario is the prospect of Nigeria descending into full blown dictatorship. It will be infantile in the extreme, as some are won’t to do, to dismiss such a possibility, unless one is too naïve to realize that, without a virile and patriotic opposition, an ex-general’s regimental background could overshadow his democratic credentials.
But, if the party must rise to the challenge of its novel opposition role, then installing a new leadership with the credibility and demeanour to command the respect of its members and public acceptance and confidence is a task that must be accomplished with utmost care and dispatch. In doing so, the party might as well avail itself of the advice of the Father of Modern Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo who, in a recent comment, advised against ethnic or regional parties. I can hear some people wondering what I am driving at: it is possible, inadvertently, though, to reduce a national party to a regional one by the actions or inactions of the leadership. By its performance at the last elections, the PDP has literally been reduced to a regional party, with the south east and south-south as its major strongholds. At any rate, when you remove Delta, which has a large Igbo constituency, PDP will be effectively confined to the defunct eastern region of Nigeria! So, even if the PDP were to elect a leader of northern extraction but who lacks the reach, disposition or organizational stature to command respect across the length and breadth of Nigeria, the party stands the danger of being pigeon-holed into a regional entity.
Therefore, the impending special convention of the party provides a rare chance to begin the healing process in all its ramifications. In this respect, Senator Bala Mohammed’s interest in completing the term of Ahmed Muazu as PDP chairman is a welcome development. Bala Mohammed’s entry into the PDP chairmanship race fuels enthusiasm to the extent that, from what we know, he fits the leadership profile that can restore the party’s unity and bounce. Through years as a top civil servant and politician, the former minister of the federal capital territory, FCT, has been able to accumulate politically bankable capital all over Nigeria. And the fact that he was always entrusted with strategic party responsibilities, albeit of an ad hoc nature, demonstrates the confidence reposed in him by the party. Yet, he cannot be said to have been tainted by the corrosive and destabilizing divisions that had become the hallmark of the elected party executives. This is significant because the party needs a unifier, a father figure, a role that the former minister can play very well in spite of the fact that he is still under 60.
Secondly, by his antecedents as a senator and minister, Bala Mohammed carved the image of a nationalist with the vision of a country where every Nigerian could feel at home. It is important here to recall his patriotic action when, at the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Ardua, against all odds, he galvanized his Unity Forum, group in the Senate to unify in conferring legitimacy on the floundering authority of Goodluck Jonathan. Such gestures are rare in a highly ethicized Nigeria. But the message was not lost on many Nigerians; that a new political ferment was brewing where, with time, in the words of our former National Anthem, Nigerians can be truly committed to a country:
“Where tribe and tongue may differ,
But in brotherhood we stand”.
We saw that in the doctrine of necessity. It also played out in the last presidential elections where a paradigm shift in electoral alliance saw the south west and the north collaborating electorally for the first time to cause a change in government at the federal level. Put succinctly, Bala Mohammed and like-minded fellows have ignited a new political ferment that has engulfed Nigeria for the better. PDP stands to reap immense political capital from the goodwill that Bala Mohammed acquired in the various political stations he has been privileged to occupy.
Perhaps, a third important consideration should address the relationship between the APC-led government and the leadership of the opposition. Here commendation should go to Senator Godswill Akpabio who, even as minority leader on the platform of the PDP, with his colleagues, has pledged the support of the 49-strong PDP membership of the Senate for President Muhammadu Buhari. There is no doubt that Akpabio’s promise of bipartisan support for the President will be richly complemented by Bala Mohammed’s leadership of the PDP. Let the truth be told: PDP cannot reverse its dented image by the gangster method that it has adopted trying to ridicule every step of President Muhammadu Buhari. From feelers, the electorate is not amused by these shenanigans. Let us concede that some of Buhari’s actions are irksome, even downright indefensible; yet, courtesy demands that the opposition should accord him the respect he deserves by speaking truth to authority with some level of decorum.
Herein lies Bala Mohammed’s strongest point in the PDP leadership race; his taciturn demeanour, that ability to drive his point home without sounding abrasive yet, like the well trained boxer, tailors his punches to land on target with destructive effectiveness. Besides, from all indications, the former minister still commands the respect of his former colleagues in the defunct All Nigeria Peoples’ Party, one of the four legacy parties of the APC. We can only appreciate the significance of this point when the role of an opposition party is put in its proper perspective, away from the impression that opposition simply means to frustrate or pull down the ruling party.
No. That is not correct. While opposition parties plan to succeed ruling parties, the former are duty bound, by logic and patriotism, to openly support policies and actions of the government that translate to the greatest good of the greatest number. Incidentally, it takes a man with the maturity, patriotism and humility of Bala Mohammed to soar from the nadir of jaundiced partisan spectacles to this zenith of sublime statesmanship. If there are other interested people of the same hue as Bala Mohammed in the PDP from the north central zone, please let them file out for the competition.
However, I wish to conclude by emphasizing that in the over thirty years that I have known Bala Mohammed, he has left an indelible impression on me as a highly detribalized Nigerian, a result-oriented workaholic, an astute organizer of men and materials, a loyal party man and an unassuming leader who can be trusted to uphold the authority of the Nigerian State, as embodied in President Buhari, without compromising the electoral aspirations of his party.
Agu, publisher of Zest Traveller magazine, was managing director of Champion Newspapers Limited from 2000 to 2008 and one-time chief press secretary to the Head of Nigeria’s Interim National Government (ING), Chief Earnest Shonekan
