After being in charge of the country in the last 16 years, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) went into the last general elections poorly prepared, but it threw everything at its disposal to win the contest. Its rejection at the March 28 polls was shocking for the party, which had vowed to rule the country for 60 years. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI examines its recent efforts to reposition itself for the new role of opposition.
Since the March 28 presidential election, when Nigerians overwhelmingly voted for change, the former ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has been trying to grapple with the reality of the verdict and has been making efforts to live up to its new role as the main opposition party. In recent times, chieftains of the party have been taking stock of what led to its failure during the recent general elections. They have also vowed to set the machinery into motion to rebuild the party before the next general elections in 2019.
Some of the names being touted to replace Muazu include a former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili; immediate past Cross River State Governor, Mr. Liyel Imoke; and his Delta State counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. Some observers have, however, cautioned the party not to think of replacing the former National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, with a chieftain from the Southsouth, otherwise it would reduce the PDP to a regional party.
In this regard, the Director-General of the party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation in the last election, Mr. Femi Olukayode, has suggested that it would be in the best interest of the party to appoint the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, as its national chairman. Olukayode (former Fani-Kayode; he changed his name to Olu-Kayode following his acquittal for money-laundering charges), said: “The best thing that our party, the PDP, can do now is to draft in Nuhu Ribadu as our national chairman. We need credibility and strength.” Ribadu and Muazu, who resigned on May 20 amidst calls that he should quit, are both from Bauchi State. Former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Uche Secondus, has been acting since Muazu resigned.
Secondus is from the Southsouth, where the party controls five of the six states in the region. Like in the Southeast, the party produced almost all the National Assembly members in the Southsouth. On the contrary, the party controls only three of the 19 states in the North. The states are Taraba, Gombe and Kogi. In the Southwest, the PDP is at the helm of affairs in Ondo and Ekiti, out of the six states in the region.
But, other observers argue that it would be better for a Southsouth person to occupy the chairmanship to pave the way for a Northerner to emerge as the Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman. This is against the backdrop of the fact that the party may likely field a Northern candidate in the 2019 presidential elections, to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari, if he decides to re-contest. The BOT chairmanship was vacated by Chief Tony Anenih, from the Southsouth, ostensibly for former President Jonathan to take over. All the issues pertaining to the reorganisation of the party would be settled next month, when the party holds its next national convention.
But, according to observers, the PDP leadership has a long way to go in its effort to reposition the party to provide an alternative platform to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Enugu-based lawyer Mr. Enechi Onyia believes the PDP is not prepared to be an opposition party. He said: “The mere fact that it wants to be relevant in government has disqualified it. For instance, it allowed its member, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, to become the Deputy Senate President. With this, the party has become part of government. That is not very good for a healthy democracy, because I don’t think there is going to be a viable opposition.”
Onyia, who was involved in politics during the Second Republic, said the PDP must first of all study Nigeria’s position in the world, vis-à-vis where it ought to be and fashion out its programmes and policies, if it wants to become a virile opposition. He added: “Secondly, it must try to align itself with what Nigerians want: Nigerians want a government of service, not a government of sharing. These are the issues; it not a question of whether one is an Ibo, Yoruba or Hausa. It should be able to position Nigeria in world affairs, as the country with largest population of blacks.
“You do not build a nation by sharing its wealth, rather than increasing the wealth of the nation. I have not seen the indication that suggests that it wants to turn a new leaf. I have not seen signs that it wants to enthrone internal democracy.”
The Enugu-based lawyer said the current situation in Nigeria shows that youths and intellectuals are forging ahead to align themselves with the dynamics of democracy. So, I believe an opposition would emerge very soon.
To the National Chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, it is a welcome development that the PDP is doing something to come back to reckoning. “Some of us have been doing it for a long time. But, it would take a long time for Nigerians to begin to look at them differently,” he said, adding: “Nigerians expect them to play the role of providing an alternative government. But, it must not forget that it gave Nigeria nightmares for 16 years and no matter the level of reorganization, if it thinks it can return to power after four years, it must be day-dreaming.”
To be able to get it right, elder statesman and Second Republic politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, is of the view that the PDP should go round the country, if possible state by state, to find out why it failed during the recent general elections. He added: “Thereafter, the party should summon an emergency meeting, to dissolve its executives from top to bottom and then appoint caretaker committees to run its affairs. The caretaker committee should be given a time-span to reposition the party, by inviting more Nigerians to join the party.
“This would help to inject fresh blood into the party. This should be followed by the election of officers from the bottom to the top in its chapters across the country. They should try to appoint a national chairman and reconstitute the board of trustees, by bringing in more people.
“Also, they should start looking for genuine party supporters who can contribute generously to the success of the party from the ward to the national level. The problem of the party is from top to bottom, so the reorganization should be holistic.”
A finance and investment consultant, Mr. Akintunde Maberu, equally said the PDP must sit back and look at where it failed in the last 16 years, if it wants to succeed in its new found role of becoming a viable opposition party, adding that it is still indulging in the blame game.
To get its acts together, Maberu said in the first instance, the party has to rewrite its rules, refocus their objectives and now come up with constructive criticisms. He said: “It must take up specific areas of the economy and provide an alternative viewpoint to whatever the government in power is doing. As an opposition party, it must thrive on objectivity, for it to galvanise knowledgeable Nigerians into believing what it is saying.”
Since the party was formed in 1998, it has been faced with one internal crisis or the other. The crisis started after the party’s Jos Convention in 1998 where Chief Olusegun Obasanjo emerged the party’s presidential candidate, at the expense of the former Vice President Chief Alex Ekwueme. Many of the party’s founding fathers were not comfortable with Obasanjo’s emergence, saying it was a coup by powerful individuals in the North, who were behind the candidacy of the retired general.
Thus, right from the outset, there was no attempt to enthrone internal democracy in the party. As a former military dictator, Obasanjo’s approach to governance did not brook any contradiction; he was highhanded. Under his administration, the party was always moving from one crisis to the other. During this dispensation, members of the party indulged in all sorts of undemocratic practices. Terms like adoption, imposition, consensus, affirmation and proclamation were very common in the party’s political lexicon; indeed, they found their way into the party’s constitution.
Owing to the fact that the opposition was fragmented and weak, party chieftains did not see the need to imbibe democratic tenets and processes. Political godfatherism and the do-or-die brand of politics were the order of the day. Political jobbers had a field day; founding fathers of the party like Ekwueme were either sidelined or expelled. In this state of affairs, governors under the party’s platform were demigods, who could do no wrong.
Nevertheless, the major crisis that caused the downfall of the party was the one that preceded the 2015 general elections. After Jonathan succeeded the late Umaru Yar’Adua, the North was initially opposed to his bid to contest the presidential election in 2011. The argument was that the North had only done one term and that a candidate of Northern extraction should be allowed to complete the remaining four years. But, former the President Jonathan allegedly pacified stakeholders from the region by agreeing to do only one term.
Indeed, a chieftain of the PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh said the recent general election was a battle between the North and the South and that the one-term pact allegedly entered into between Jonathan, supported by former President Olusegun Obasanjo then, and the Northern bloc within the party was the major issue that decided the outcome of the election.
Ojougboh, who is the PDP’s Vice Chairman (Southsouth), lamented recently that if Jonathan had kept to his promise to do only one term, the party would not have lost the recent general election. He said even the Christian North turned against the former President in the 2015 polls because of the “injustice” of reneging on his promise.
Jonathan had denied entering such a pact and challenged his accusers to provide evidence. But, Ojougboh maintained that Jonathan did make the promise after succeeding the late Yar’Adua, who passed away after spending about three years in office.
Ojougboh said: “Jonathan himself said he will do only four years. Emirs, leaders and stakeholders in the country accepted that Jonathan will do only four years so that power can shift to the North. When the time came, a lot of macabre dance started. People started putting pressure here and there, and people started encouraging Jonathan to contest. Unfortunately, Jonathan didn’t have the nerve to say, no.”
Thus, despite the vigorous and unprecedented campaign mounted by the PDP, Jonathan lost the contest to President Muhammad Buhari. PDP also lost massively in governorship and National Assembly elections. While the APC has taken control of 22 states, the PDP is in charge of 14 states now.
