The Nation Newspaper

Tag: discipline

  • Obasanjo can’t speak on discipline, says Ogun PDP

    The Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s claim that indiscipline is responsible for the party’s challenges.

    Obasanjo reportedly made the statement in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at the caucus meeting of the PDP in the Southwest.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Waliu Oladipupo, Ogun PDP said Obasanjo was not qualified to speak on party discipline.

    It said: “We agree and disagree with the former President. First, the points of disagreement. He is the worst advertisement of the product he is trying to sell. He is not fit to talk of indiscipline in any political setting, especially in Ogun State. Many notable chieftains of the party have said time and again that he is the problem of the party, especially with his politics of imposition, arbitrariness, dictatorship and intolerance.

    “On the other hand, we agree with him, because if not for indiscipline which breeds lawlessness and gangsterism, he and his cohorts will not seek to usurp the validly elected Exco of the then Chief Dayo Soremi and now the Mr. Adebayo Dayo-led Exco.

    “Now, armed thugs allegedly working for him and his group have seized the party secretariat, brandishing pump action guns and assorted rifles. Imagine the consequence of a reprisal attack!

    “We also agree with him on the fact that being in control of the structure of a party is not everything, but using the structure to win elections. We are all living witnesses to the fact that since 1999, our dear former president has never won any election in his local government, ward or even polling booth.

    “If Obasanjo does not condone indiscipline, how could he have attended a zonal meeting presided over by Mr. Segun Oni, who has been sacked by a Federal High Court?”

    The party urged the former president to look around and see if any of the nation’s former leaders, especially in the North, plays local politics like he does.

    It advised Obasanjo to retire from politics and be “a father figure to all”, while tending to his farms.”

  • Obasanjo, Southwest PDP and sufficient discipline

    Obasanjo, Southwest PDP and sufficient discipline

    During last weekend’s caucus meeting of the Southwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which took place in Ibadan, former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo attributed the electoral problem the party was having in the zone to lack of sufficient discipline. If members buried their hatchets, he admonished, the party could make progress in its attempt to reconcile warring members and reclaim the zone from the hands of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). According to Obasanjo, “Our party is not sufficiently disciplined. People run from the South-West to Abuja to claim that they are the authentic group in the party. We should be tolerant. If you respect us, you shall be respected. The issue of structure is a serious problem in the PDP. Some people believe once they have structure they have all it takes. This is the tool they are using to destroy the party. Whoever ignores the word of wisdom will regret it. I want all of you to know that whatever your ambition you cannot unilaterally elect yourself.” The former president went on to counsel and challenge the national, zonal and state levels of the party to carry out a review of the party in all ramifications as a prelude to achieving its goals.

    Obasanjo was no doubt referring to the loss of the four states of Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti to the ACN in the 2007 and 2011 polls. He expects that if the schisms in the party are healed, the PDP could win the lost states back from the rival party. The PDP National Vice Chairman (Southwest), Mr Segun Oni, corroborates the former president’s perspective by suggesting that the ACN was short on performance and was not immune to being upstaged. He also wants the PDP to create a level playing field for every aspirant to contest for the party’s tickets, and come together to fight as a team.

    Neither Obasanjo nor Oni, nor any other zonal leader of the party, said anything about the most important task the PDP has avoided for so long. Either in the zone or at the national level, the party has appeared not to recognise the importance of conceptualising and marketing a philosophical base for the party. Other than being known as the main opposition to the ACN in the zone, the party has scrupulously avoided the mention of ideology in both its existence and campaigns, and has not spoken of the need to create a coherent body of ideas to undergird both its struggle for power and the systematic effort to deliver performance that would better the opposition’s. It is hard not to form the impression that the PDP is short on intellectualism and has merely embraced the rather simple and expedient notion that if a party could build roads and hospitals, that alone was sufficient to earn plaudits and votes for the party. Were our existence to be reduced to such inchoate pragmatism, we would end up being much poorer and less ambitious than we set out to be or is good for us.

    The PDP at any level is free to aspire to any height, but whenever its caucuses meet, let them meet under an atmosphere of deep reflections and robust intellectual exercises. If they find that hard to do on their own, let them hire the right thinkers who can help them climb the rarified atmosphere of philosophy where the few think for the many.