The fierce battle for the soul of PDP comes up at its crucial convention in two days-time. The battle line has been drawn between self- proclaiming founding fathers of the party made up of veterans of coup d’états such as Ibrahim Babangida, Aliyu Gusau and David Mark and PDP’s serving governors coordinated by Nyesom Wike and Ayo Fayose. There are other marginal interests made up of ex- PDP governors, opportunists and a presidential aspirant like Abubakar Atiku for whom ruling Nigeria has become an obsession.
PDP, formed in 1998 has in 18 years produced 14 chairmen through a deadly game of dog eat dog. The battle became vicious under Jonathan when in an effort to undermine the PDP zoning policy to pave way for his emergence as presidential candidate in 2011, the party produced five chairmen in quick succession: Vincent Ogbulafor (2008), Okwesilieze Nwodo (2010), Haliru Belloý Mohammed (2011), Kawu Barajeý (2011), Bamanga Tukur (2012), Adamu Mu’azu 2014). The battle for the PDP’s plum job did not get any less ferocious even with the defeat of the party in 2015. If anything, it got more vicious with the imposition of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, a total outsider whose name was not on the north-east list for the plum job by Wike and Fayose.
Either in victory or in defeat, PDP has always been at war with itself. For instance, disagreement over sharing of spoils of office after the party’s 1999 victory was followed by assassination of party members and opponents including Ahmad Sardauna Ahman Pategi, Janet Oladapo, Victor Nwakwo, Marshal Harry, Bola Ige, Aminasoari Dikibo,, Funsho Williams, Ayo Daramola, Theodore Agwatu and Andrew Agom among many others whose killings till today remain a riddle.
What is not a puzzle however are the reasons for the war of attrition and brutal killings. Unlike political parties that serve as recruitment centres for political offices and as modernisaton agents in developed democracies, PDP is an association of ‘wheelers and dealers with no identifiable ideological world-view or a coherent manifesto’. John Campbell, a former US envoy to Nigeria during a debate on Nigeria in the British House of Commons a few years back described PDP as ‘an elite cartel at the centre of power in Nigeria, a political party that came together … essentially as a club of elites for sharing of oil rents and political spoils.’
If anyone is in doubt, PDP and its members provided sufficient empirical evidence to validate Campbell’s thesis. For instance, Babangida who a few days ago proclaimed himself a founding father of PDP is widely believed to have institutionalized corruption in Nigeria. In fact President Buhari recently claimed his regime was toppled in 1985 by Babangida, Gusau and Abacha for insisting that one of the three involved in import licence scandal be brought to book.
Another PDP founding father is former vice president, Atiku Abubakar. Both President Buhari and ex-President Obasanjo recently argued that Atiku’s refusal to visit America may not be unconnected with his association with corrupt and jailed US lawmaker – William Jefferson. (Atiku however attributed his inability to visit the US to repeated denials of US visa by US authorities). At home, Atiku Abubakar is haunted by his role in the ill-implemented Nigerian privatization policy, an exercise roundly condemned by a House of Representative probe.
If further evidence is needed to consolidate Campbell’s otherwise unassailable position, we also have it on record that 17 of the 24 governors elected on the platform of PDP in 2003 were charged to court for corruption by EFCC. We can also add how desperate PDP stalwarts first created artificial fuel scarcity before stampeding President Obasanjo to set up the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), an instrument used by PDP stalwarts and their siblings to defraud the country to the tune of N1.6 trillion under the fraudulent fuel subsidy scam.
And a critical look at the PDP candidates and their god- fathers for the Saturday battle presents no less depressing outlook. Uche Secondus is a leading contender. At a period when most part of Borno State, including military barracks, were overran as a result Boko Haram’s superior fire power, Secondus was part of PDP leadership that allegedly converted $2.1 loan meant to cover military hardware and welfare of soldiers to war-chests for the purpose of 2015 election. Secondus recently admitted he was drafted by Fayose who according to EFCC and Musliu Obanikoro, received N3billion out of the $2.1billion military hardware loans as war chest to fight the Ekiti State gubernatorial battle. His other sponsor, Wike along with his other South-south supporters have sworn ‘to fight to the death’ on Saturday.
Also gunning for the plum job is High Chief Dokpesi, a successful business man and media mogul. He admitted collecting N2.1b from Dasuki, ex-President Jonathan’s NSA but insisted it was payment for media publicity and special duties carried out on behalf of President Jonathan.
Also set for the battle is Gbenga Daniel who as Ogun State governor, locked up the state House of Assembly chambers and ruled as a sole administrator after chasing the state lawmakers out of town. Besides his battle with EFCC, Daniel will also be remembered for carrying ex-President Jonathan on his back on a campaign trail around Ogun State, commissioning uncompleted or yet to take-off projects.
Another serious contender for the PDP plum job is Chief Bode George. He was part of Babangida’s South-west military administrators that in the guise of liberalization, sold off some Yoruba national patrimony including the Ikeja Cocoa industries at less than the cost of land on which the industry was built.
Another serious contender for the plum job is Professor Tunde Adeniran who as an accomplished intellectual had attempted albeit unsuccessfully to set an agenda for standard of behaviour for his fellow PDP contestants. Unfortunately his godfather, Babangida has never been known to do anything for Nigeria out of altruism. He destroyed our budding industries and turned our nation to net importer of the labour of other societies. He took the nation through a ‘transition without end’ for eight years only to annul the results of the most credible free election in our nation’s history.
Since it has been established that PDP as an association of wheelers and dealers cannot pass for a political party, Saturday’s convention would have been an opportunity for its stakeholders to reinvent the party by giving way to youths not tarred by PDP 16 years of mindless looting of the nation’s resources. Unfortunately, Saturday’s vicious battle will end the way of all past PDP’s deadly battles: as a family affair if a consensus is reached on equitable sharing of spoils of war or as vicious foes set on a war of attrition with itself. The losers as usual will be Nigerians especially those that had hoped PDP will reinvent itself as a viable alternative to wobbling APC and President Buhari who two and half years into his administration, still depends on PDP appointees to manage some of the over 500 small governments he needed for effective governance.
