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Tag: PDP

  • Eclipse of PDP in Northwest

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has gained control of the seven states in the Northwest geo-political zone, thereby halting the influence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the region. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU examines the tragic transition of the ruling party into an opposition in the most populous zone. 

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s loss in the Northwest geo-political zone is Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s gain. The most populous region is now  dominated by the All Progressives Congress (APC). The turn of events is tragic for the ruling party. Before the election, only Sokoto, Kano and Zamfara were under the firm grip of the APC. But, at the close of the presidential and governorship polls, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and Kebbi had fallen to the APC. Whatever gains recorded by the PDP in the Southeast were neutralised by the Northwest bloc votes.

    Like other zones in the North, the Northwest’s power shift  battle was interesting. It was the project of the Northern political class, the royalty and aristocrats. To them, the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has violated the zoning principle by using the weight of his office to press for a second term. If the President had stepped down his second term ambition, the PDP would have zone the presidency to the North. It would have been a tough battle between the ruling and the main opposition party.

    The crisis that consumed the PDP began from the Northwest. The Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko, was suspended. Although the suspension was lifted, the damage had already been done. When the suspension was lifted, his Rivers State colleague Governor Rotimi Amaechi accused the national leadership of the party of being partial because his own suspension was not lifted.

    The zonal leader, Alhaji Ibrahim Kazaure, was also suspended. His suspension was not lifted by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the former National Chairman. In protest, the zone, which was united behind Kazaure, demanded for the removal of the embattle chairman. An aggrieved Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso decried the injustice meted to the zonal leader. Warning about the danger of inflexibility on the part of the National Leader and the National Chairman, he said aggrieved chieftains had an alternative to seek political fortune outside the PDP.

    When the New PDP broke away from the ruling party, Wamakko and Kwakwanso led the aggrieved Northwest chieftains to its inaugural meeting in Abuja. The New PDP was an integral part of the ruling party, which did not foreclose the opportunity for reconciliation. But, the party failed to grab the chance to reconcile. The conditions of the leading lights were simple: Let Tukur take the back seat, lift the suspension on protesting members and reinstate the National Secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a retired brigadier-general and former Osun State governor, whose election as the party’s national secretary was not faulted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The conditions for a truce were ignored by the President.

    During the crisis, the aggrieved governors did not leave their followers in the dark. They were carried along during their face-off with the national leadership. Their supporters therefore, believed that the attack on the governors was an attack on them. They resolved to either survive or sink with them.

    In Katsina, nobody was in doubt about the soaring profile of the APC. The governor, Ibrahim Shema, knew it would be difficult to stop the Buhari train. The President-elect is from the state. During the campaigns, the people had demonstrated their love for him by trooping out. Even, at the PDP campaigns in Katsina, the state capital, the people were shouting Sai baba, Sai Buhari (only Buhari). Although Shema is popular, there was no way he could have convinced his people to reject the former military leader, who was perceived as the symbol of the popular clamour for power shift to the North.

    The perception of the Buhari candidacy was the same in Zamfara State. Since 1999, the progressives have dominated the politics of the state. The PDP was kept at an arm’s length by the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) for 16 years. Even, when former Governor Sani Yerima’s successor, Memuda Shinkafi, dumped the ANPP for the PDP, he lost his seat in the next election to incumbent Governor Abdulazeez Yari.

    Governor has been adjudged as a performer. As a silent worker, the former House of Representatives member has successfully built on the achievement of the ANPP administrations and carved a niche for himself in governance. The progressive bloc in Zamfara is a united fold. When the APC was weaned by the leaders of the legacy parties, it quickly enlarged its coast. There was no succession struggle as party members were unanimous that Yari deserved a second term.  When the APC presidential campaign train rolled into Gusau, the state capital, the crowd was unprecedented. Since that day, it was clear that the APC had grown in leaps and bounds in the state. On poll day, it was a clean sweep.

    In Jigawa State, the people were also rooting for the APC because of the Gen. Buhari factor. Although Governor Sule Lamido understood the implications, his fanatical loyalty to the PDP as a founding father was legendary. He knew that Gen. Buhari was unstoppable but he rejected the entreaties to jump ship, saying that the PDP can still overcome its problems. On the eve of the general elections, Lamido, the last man standing in the Northwest PDP was a lone voice in the wilderness. It was evident that he has lost control. When the results of the poll got to him, he was said to have maintained his calmness. Sources said that Lamido reflected on his failed efforts to save the sinking ship. Accepting defeat, he acknowledged that the outcome was not beyond expectation.

    In the last eight years, the governor has tried for his people. He will be leaving behind legacy projects. In fact, the in-coming APC governor has a lot to learn from his style of governance. But, it was not about him. It was about the performance of his party at the centre.

    But in Kebbi State, former Governor Adamu Aliero was sensitive to the wind of change. He refuted the allegation of defection to the PDP, saying that it was incongruent with the mood of the region.

    As it turned out, the second term ambition of Kaduna State Governor Mukthar Yero also hit the rock. The casualty was heavy in the state, with former Governor Ahmed Markafi also losing his senatorial seat. In the previous dispensation, what usually shaped the elections in Kaduna was the acrimony between the Muslims and the Christians. That gave way in the last election. The only factor was Buhari.

    But, two states – Sokoto and Kano – spearheaded the crusade in the Northeast. Wammako had put his house in order, ahead of the election. Following his defection to the APC, his former supervisor and rival, Attahiru Bafarawa, defected to the PDP when it became obvious that the progressives have the tradition of making the governors the state party leaders. But, the party in Sokoto also moved swiftly by nominating House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal for the governorship. Thus, there was no succession crisis as no eyebrow was raised over the legislator’s aspiration. Unlike the PDP, which went to the polls as a divided house, APC maintained a united front.

    In the PDP, members loyal to the deputy governor, Alhaji Mukthar Shagari, were bitter over his exclusion from the exercise. Since 2007, the former Minister of Water Resources has been on the queue. He stepped down for Wamakko in 2007. When the governor also left the PDP for the APC, he waited behind as the arrowhead of the decimated chapter. However, during the primaries, Senator Abdallah Wali surfaced. With the backing of the party machinery, he displaced Shagari. Thus, there was a repressed post-primary crisis in the Sokoto PDP. The ruptured confidence was not rebuilt. Genuine reconciliation did not take place.

    As it was in Sokoto, so also was it in Kano. Kwankwaso has a solid base. He is very popular. In fact, he has a large following as shown in Lagos during the APC presidential convention when he came second. Since he lost power in 2007, he has vowed never to allow the mistake to repeat itself. Eight years after, he regained the lost seat and became a towering figure. His Kwankwasia movement attests to his soaring profile. Thus, right from the onset, he has been an asset to the APC.

    When the governor became the APC leader, his predecessor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, hurriedly left for the PDP. He was rewarded with an appointment as the Minister of Education. That was not what the North wanted. The zone had its eye on the Presidency. When Shekarau pleaded with the people of Kano to vote for the President, his pleading was turned down. The Kano rally of the APC said it all. On the Election Day, commoners mobilised themselves under the leadership of Kwakwanso to vote for their idol, Gen. Buhari.

    What is the future of the PDP in the zone? From May 29, opposition leaders in the Northwest zone will include Lamido, Bafarawa, Shekarau, Shema, Makarfi, and Shagari. One of the challenges that will face them is the proper coordination of the zonal chapter. Another challenge is funding of the party structures. ‘However, the greatest challenge is how to adjust to the role of the opposition, which the AD, AC, ACN, ANPP, CPC and APC exemplified before power shifted on April 11.

     

  • Pee-dee-pee … porting!

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) old order loved to bawl pee-dee-pee, to which the faithful would roar pawa!  Were such whoops to be re-enacted now,  the thunderous roar, with absolutely no sense of irony, would probably be porting!

    That is how far the once-upon-a-time largest party in Africa has unravelled!

    And fittingly, Vincent Ogbulafor, Himself the hubris-smitten PDP national chairman who predicted his party would rule for 60 years in the first instance, is coolly a part of the tragic collapse.  Talk of Nebuchadnezzar eating grass!

    The other day, ex-Chairman Ogbulafor staged a “secret” walk into the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abuja headquarters, declared himself in some summitry with John Odigie-Oyegun, APC national chairman, and breezed out to casually tell the media: “It’s not yet time to join APC.”  Call it due process porting, and you won’t be wrong!

    But that was too slow for some Edo PDP denizens, and frankly, only a few could beat Charles Airhiavbere, former Edo PDP gubernatorial candidate, in hasty and indecent defection.  Though part of the unfazed denizens that gave APC Governor Adams Oshiomhole some black eye in the March 28 presidential election, particularly in Edo central and south senatorial districts, he jumped boat as soon as he realised President Goodluck Jonathan had lost out in the power sweepstakes.

    “We delivered for PDP on March 28,” he declared, flush with triumph.  “We will deliver for APC on April 11”!  Can you beat that?  And “true, true”, as they would say on Nigerian streets, Gen. Arhivare and his zesty neophytes, that won the presidential election for Jonathan in Edo also rallied to win for APC, the new national ruling party, most of the seats for the Edo legislature!

    Comrade Governor Oshiomhole must have been quite amused with this rather dizzy about-turn.  But he gulped it all up, perhaps having a big snigger in private!  After all, whoever spews out nuts ground to a sweet pulp by benevolent spirits?

    Such was the nationwide scramble to bale out, from the fast sinking PDP ship, that the ever swinging Jonathan Zwingina, in Adamawa, caught the bug.  Zwingina, barely two months earlier, campaigning with Nuhu Ribadu, the Adamawa PDP gubernatorial candidate, had literarily howled at his constituents: “Don’t vote Buhari; if you do, he will gaol all of us!”

    So, in two short months, what has changed?  But don’t ask Zwingina, a former senator, such swinging questions — he has ported, and that’s that!  Needless to say?  Zwingina’s gain was the excitable Ribadu’s loss. Ribadu, who had earlier boasted a landslide, ate electoral crow yet again, by coming a distant third in the gubernatorial race.

    However, Hardball is not really concerned about the PDP humpty-dumpty which, at least for now, not even the best  of the king’s horsemen could put together again.  It is rather for APC, the new national ruling party, to take a cue from PDP’s hubris.  If PDP can dismantle after 16 years of fly-away power, APC too can suffer such collapse, if it gets afflicted by the PDP contagion.

    That is why it must stress more service, less power; and demonstrate a sense of historic mission and responsibility in its new challenge.

    Otherwise …

  • We didn’t handle Jonathan’s campaign fund – PDP

    We didn’t handle Jonathan’s campaign fund – PDP

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has distanced itself from controversies surrounding the N 2 trillion allegedly spent by President Goodluck Jonathan on his election campaign.

    The party said it did not handle the President’s campaign funds, contrary to media reports.

    PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, stated this in a radio programme monitored in Abuja on Monday.

    Maintaining that the President had denied spending a whopping N2 trillion on his campaign, Metuh said funds meant for the campaign were directed and managed by the various directorates of the Presidential Campaign Organization, over which the party’s leadership had no control.

    He said: “As a party, we have refrained from joining issues publicity on this matter, but in the light of series of enquiries arising from allegations that the NWC embezzled the money meant for the campaigns, we need to make some clarifications.

    “As the spokesperson of the PDP, I want to place it on record that the National Working Committee was not involved in the management of funds for the Presidential campaigns.

    “The NWC did not receive any money neither was it in any way involved in how the funds were spent.  Even as the National Publicity Secretary of the party and Chairman of the Publicity Sub-Committee, I did not receive any money from anybody and no fund whatsoever was given to me for the campaign.

    “Apparently out of ignorance, this NWC has been unjustly demonized and labeled. How can anybody expect the NWC to account for funds it never received? Can we account for funds we did not manage? The President in his wisdom set up Directorates and gave them the responsibility to directly manage the elections, including the funding.”

    Meuh decried what he described as the unnecessary heating up of the party system by certain elements who, apparently had been hired by “some divisive elements” within and outside the party to sponsor negative publications ostensibly to pull down the leadership.

    Calling on unnamed sponsors of the report to desist from peddling falsehood, the party spokesman urged party members to unite and support the leadership in its re-engineering efforts aimed at returning the party back to power in 2019.

     

  • After the biggest party

    After the biggest party

    (The rise and fall of the PDP)

    It was a messy and dismal end. There are some deaths that are dignified and ennobling in their calm fortitude and heroic defiance. But not this one. The PDP has died as it lived: beyond its means and probably beyond the means of the country as well. A presidential capitulation quickly snowballed into an anarchic retreat and a rout ending in an electoral massacre on the scale of a Homeric battlefield.

    We will be counting the principal political casualties for many years to come. State orphans abound. The sixty year Reich has become the sixteen year wreck. There are no mourners in this Sambisa forest of the quick and the wounded; only rotund vultures and pot-bellied hyenas having a field day. It is an Eliotsian wasteland, and April is the cruelest month.

    Not even the greatest political soothsayer could have foreseen this distressing disintegration and death of the greatest party in Africa. One of its shrewd and astute founding fathers, in a moment of embattled lucidity, had cautioned that this was not a political party but a rally. A rally is just a collection of different mobs on parade. If there is food, the mob will stay quiet. But if there is no food, the mob will quickly dissolve into its component units, all heading in different directions.

    After the greatest party comes the great hangover and headache. An army founded on the principles and ideology of loot can never survive the removal of its feeding bottle. The same fate also awaits any political party founded on such nefarious axioms. But we cannot afford to gloat too much on the horrid demise of the Nigerian behemoth. Like a festering corpse abandoned by even close relations, the PDP has become a national and public health hazard.

    The methods, means, principalities and instrumentalities by which this maladroit mammoth met its timely end will be studied and analyzed by students of politics in  multi-ethnic societies with self-cancelling pluralities of power fulcrums for years and generations to come. They are beyond the standard fares of conventional post-colonial Political Science. But it is also important for the Nigerian intelligentsia both at home and in the Diaspora to study and analyze what went wrong as a guide to the future in all its gripping immediacy. We are not out of the wood yet.

    In the long run, the PDP was a child and victim of the circumstances of its provenance and progeny. It was an army arrangement. It was never conceived as a genuine and organic political party or mass movement. You cannot give what you don’t have. The army does not do mass movements, except in battle formations. That is a contradiction in terms and offensively pejorative of its constituting ethos. The army thrives on hierarchy and rigid differentiation. All animals are not equal, and some are even more unequal than others. This is the pecking order of nature itself. Democracy is a product of human evolution away from the state of nature, but even then for democracy to thrive there are certain undemocratic institutions that must be permanently in place.

    Like its NPN forebear which met the same fate in a military putsch, the PDP was not conceived as a conventional political party, but as a gargantuan coalition of big people and power brokers whose influence and authority would be so all-encompassing as to guarantee national stability and ward off the centrifugal forces which have hobbled Nigeria since independence. In the event, the PDP was just a variation of an old theme by very much the same military aristocracy.

    On the face of it, it was a patriotic and nationalistic move. You cannot blame the military for being unable to envision a society beyond its own regimental and ideological purview. The Babangida political experimentation with a two-party system threw up a wildcat and a political maverick that could not be relied upon to guarantee military interests which under the long gestation of despotic rule had become national interests. In an attempt to forcibly liquidate the contrary forces, Abacha almost ended up liquidating the whole country.

    Under clever guidance and astute remote control, his successors were not about to make the same mistake. It is easy to forget that General Abubakar Abdulsalaam, in his first broadcast to the nation after General Sani Abacha’s demise, promised solemnly to see the Abacha transition programme to its speedy conclusion. But after being swiftly countermanded by those who put him there, a contrite general announced a new transition programme.

    But just as you cannot step into the same river twice, no two historical conjunctures can be completely alike whatever their outward similarities. 1998 was not 1993. If the military hierarchy had bothered to take a peep into the political horoscope, they would have noticed that population-wise, Nigeria was becoming a much younger country and the demographic condition was about to change forever. The relentless forces of globalization had led to a radical democratization of the means of violence as well as the methods of mass enlightenment.

    In the event, the logic that led the military to an Obasanjo also led to the eventual disintegration of the ruling party. Having exhausted its historical and political possibilities, the military hierarchy had to look for a safe pair of hands and a bluff retired general to cover its retreat to the barracks. The PDP opening convention was a classic case of a textbook military operation as the founding fathers of the party were muscled out by sheer military might. Obasanjo famously took his delegates to the convention in a sealed train and tellingly bivouacked outside the city.

    In the circumstances, the organic growth of party and the deepening of the democratic process were left in the hands of a man who by training and temperament is an authoritarian autocrat who had no truck with democratic niceties. When the retired general famously asked the Turaki of Adamawa whether he could obey simple instructions, many thought it was an eccentric joke. Atiku himself would later find out to his political peril that the Owu warlord meant every word.

    As for the deluded remaining founding fathers of the PDP, they soon found out that military khaki is not civilian brocade. As Obasanjo went for their political jugular, they began deserting the temple, one by one and two by two as the occasion demanded. The fiery autocrat next turned his caressing attention to the main opposition parties, engineering such momentous fissures that none of them survived the thunderous implosion.

    If the PDP ever had a soul it fled at the Jos convention. In other words, the party died in vitro. It was a mere vehicle for demilitarization which quickly transformed into a fascist terror machine for maintaining a hegemonic stranglehold on the nation. As Obasanjo has brilliantly demonstrated, it takes two to play at the fascist game of hegemonic domination. The same logic of the despotic suborning of a nation which made it possible for a military cabal to impose Obasanjo on the polity also made it possible for Obasanjo himself to impose two successors on the nation without heavens falling.

    The game could have gone on for quite some time, but for the dramatic intervention of hubris so overweening that it is beyond the ken of human comprehension. Yet it was a matter of time, with the PDP becoming a stalled behemoth unable to move itself or the country forward and with its monstrous proboscis sucking life out of the nation.

    But only the bold and deeply cunning can call to the bold and deeply cunning. It took an inchoate and incongruous alliance to have the measure of the PDP  in the remarkable political plot that brought the unflappable and wonderfully poker-faced Aminu Tambuwal to the speakership of the House of Representatives

    At  that point in time, political neophytes, particularly the traditional carrion feeders of the South West otherwise known as mainstreamers who did not know where the game was heading ,thought that the ACN had thrown away their pot of amala. But the PDP had been pole-axed and it was only a question of time before the mammoth would crash on the canvas with a resounding thud. As the end approached, even the wily patriarch openly tore his membership card.

    There are great lessons to be learnt from the rise and fall of a party that constituted itself into a nuisance and menace to the Nigerian polity. Despite the national euphoria that greeted the dethronement of the ruling party, the future is full of dark forebodings. Unfortunately if care is not taken, the same fate awaits the now dominant party. This is what should concern all patriotic Nigerians.

    As it was in the beginning, so it seems at the end of the beginning. Like the PDP, the APC remains an inchoate and incongruous alliance; a mere vehicle to capture power teeming with contrary characters and mutually contradictory elements all in a state of antagonistic but paradoxical complicity. In trying to outsmart and outwit the PDP, it has had to be like the PDP; or at best its veritable doppelganger. In other words, there is no qualitative difference or deep ideological divergence between the two parties.

    This is a veritable source of a coming anarchy. The ranking APC hierarchs must now find within themselves the deep reserves of strength and character to give the party a soul and a capacity for organic growth which will drive change and accelerated development for the country as a whole.

    Luckily, they don’t have to look very far for a driving template. The APC already has their two leading chieftains as shining exemplars of the power of a missionary envisioning of a new society. The APC should fuse the pragmatic Democratic Welfarism of a Bola Tinubu with the instinctive messianic populism of a Mohammadu Buhari to evolve a left of centre party whose developmental strides will resonate with Nigerians and the Black Race for generations to come. This is the only way to avoid the fate of the PDP.

  • Implications of Change Manifesto (1)

    Implications of Change Manifesto (1)

    What is billed for change is not diagnosis of Nigeria’s ailments but the efficacy of the treatment of such ailments

    While the history of the decline of the PDP as the largest political party in Africa, particularly the reasons why the party lost to the APC in all the elections waits to be written, the belief in many quarters—elite and folk— is that majority of voters who chose the APC over PDP in all the elections did so because of the promise of change by General Buhari and the APC. Just as the president-elect has started to inform citizens about policies he would introduce to herald change, so are many politicians and even public servants acting and talking in a way to suggest that they do not understand what a manifesto of change means. Even after most Nigerians have opted for a new ideology of governance, many of those who have benefited over the years from a government that has little attention for citizens’ welfare still behave as if Buhari’s change manifesto is mere rhetoric.

    It is clear to the average observer that the most appealing aspect of Buhari/APC campaign is not as much the focus on issues (as distinct from the preoccupation of the ruling party with smear campaign) as it is the desire of most Nigerians for change. Nigerians were fed up with a governance ideology and style that had failed and wanted to have a socio-economic experience that is different from what had obtained for the past sixteen years in general and the past six years in particular.In effect, Nigerian’s desire for change and Buhari’s promise of a socio-political experience that is different from the socio-economic menu of the past sixteen years coalesced to bring what used to be the opposition party to power.

    It is, therefore, not surprising that the President-elect has since March 30 been introducing doses of policy change that is expected to move away from the traditional way of governing the country. Even after General Buhari has said that anyone interested in becoming a minister in his government must be prepared to declare his or her asset, those who have been poster-boys and girls for corruption in government are very loud in announcing their desire to work with Buhari. Individuals who are running away from the laws in other lands and those who should be in court answering to EFCC charges are in the forefront of those advertising their support and selling their expertise toBuhari, as if change is only about content with no connection to form.

    Many of the dimensions of governance that Buhari and APC have promised to change have been part of the rhetoric of government in the last sixteen years: corruption, poverty, infrastructure, education, health, national security, and the country’s political structure and culture, to name a few. What is billed for change is not diagnosis of Nigeria’s ailments but the efficacy of the treatment of such ailments. In other words, Buhari and his party want to move away from rhetoric to praxis. In doing so, it is obvious that it is not just content that should require the attention of the new president but also form.

    As today’s piece promises to be one of many on the implications of Change Manifesto, the rest of today’s column will focus on what should be changed about the fight against corruption. Fighting corruption requires the integrity of a leader who himself or herself is averse to corruption. What is known and propagated about General Buhari is encouraging for the reason that he is the kind of leader that is favorably placed to take the fight against corruption from its present highly rhetorical level to a noticeably practical level. As it is with any desperate problem that requires desperate solution, corruption has both cause and effect.

    The effect is often material or tangible and thus identifiable. For example, having a candidate for governorship or ministerial appointment declare his assets is capable of addressing the material aspect of corruption, especially if such candidate is unable to prove the source of the pre-engagement income he has declared or if at the end of his time in office, he is unable to explain changes in his income at the point of exit from office. Secondly, character flaw can help to facilitate corrupt behavior on the part of office holders. Individuals with moral weakness and poor ethical standards are more likely to be more corrupt than disciplined and morally upright persons in positions of power. So, making sure that only individuals with high ethical standards are appointed as ministers and into other positions can assist the fight against corruption.

    But the cause of corruption deserves as much attention as its effect. Strong institutions and a political system that is not designed to facilitate corrupt behavior are matters that should be of concern to the Buhari administration. Without mincing words, the distribution of power and responsibility between the central and state governments over the years has contributed to the growth of the culture of corruption in the country in the last forty or more years. The rise of political and bureaucratic corruption that has earned the country the stigma of  being one of the most corrupt countries on earth in the last thirty years has links with the descent of the country into a modern form of hunting and gathering culture that has been in vogue in the last forty or more years. What is often referred to in modern political and economic vocabulary as rent collection from petroleum sale is a modern variant of hunting and gathering as sources of livelihood.

    By replacing the relative productive sector in place in the early part of the postcolonial phase with rent collection from petroleum, Nigeria created a socio-economic and political culture that fostered alienation of the citizenry from the country’s rulers. Under a system that is characterized by running both national and subnational governments on allocations from rents collected from petroleum, citizens’ efficacy was eroded. Citizens ceased to be actors (tax payers) and became consumers of what is passed down to the states from the federation account.  Overloading the central government with powers and functions that do not have to be performed principally because of the absence of strong institutions and primacy of the rule of law, those charged with the power to run the country have had so much pork to use to bribe or silence citizens, and to cripple dissent. Impunity consequently grew to an endemic level at the centre, just as it also became part of the culture in states, especially those that are governed by the same party in power at the center. There are many telling examples all around us till today.

    The culture of ruling with impunity and consuming with recklessness on the part of those in power became part of the economic and political culture of the country, to the extent that finding honesty in public and also private sectors has become like finding a needle in a hay-sack. The effect is the penetration of corruption to every level and aspect of life in the country.It is, therefore, salutary that INEC has helped to bring the first corrective step to the culture of impunity and corruption in the country. Having a free, fair, and credible election that made it possible to make citizens’ ballots count to the point of replacing the political party in power with the opposition party for the first time in over sixty years is a remarkable boost in citizens’ political efficacy. It is therefore appropriate that the President-elect has chosen to focus on fighting corruption. But the first step in doing this effectively is to return the country to a productive economy that shuns the dependence on fossil energy. Easy flow of petroleum dollars has also made it easy for states to become fiefdoms that also depend on manna from the federation account, rather than the productive centres that the regions were up till the end of the civil war.

    Cutting recurrent expenditures must include creating a budget that does not need revenue garnered from selling of petroleum. Whatever money accrues to the country from petroleum can be devoted to infrastructure building and renewal, rather than allowing revenue from petroleum to provide resources for the running of our government at the national and subnational levels and the interminable ballooning of recurrent expenditures fomented by those who see political appointments as license for infinite acquisition.

    To be continued

  • Ekweremadu and PDP’s gale of defections

    Ekweremadu and PDP’s gale of defections

    “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

    For me, the post presidential election events in the country bring mixed feelings of pride and shame and they are fast separating the statesmen/women from the opportunists.

    Let me start with the good. Considering on one hand the prediction by US scholars that Nigeria would break up in 2015 and on the other hand, the stoning of the President’s convoy and destruction of his billboards even as near as Abuja satellite towns as well as the threats by the ex-militants of Niger Delta to bring down hellfire if Jonathan did not win, it was clear Nigeria was hanging on cliff from the build up to the presidential elections to the emergence of the eventual winner- irrespective of whoever won.

    However, just as people waited with their hearts in their hands, came the breaking news that President Jonathan had called to congratulate General Buhari even before the final result was announced. It was one of Nigeria’s finest moments. Even Jonathan’s worst critics would agree that the singular act not only earned him a place on the roll call of African statesmen, but also put Nigeria on the gold spot of global democracy.

    Conversely, the PDP’s fall in the presidential election and the loss of its 16-year stranglehold on the National Assembly have just reopened the ugly side of our democracy. It appears Mahatma Gandhi had Nigeria in mind when he listed “Politics without principles” as one of the deadly sins of the modern world. It has thrown the floodgate of defections wide ajar as politicians jump in their droves into the APC house. Two of Plateau State’s Senators-elect -Jeremiah Useni (Jerry Boy) and Senator Joshua Dariye could not even wait to be inaugurated in June before erasing Mary Onyeali’s Olympic gold long jump performance.

    Thousands more already have their trousers folded to their laps, begging for a little landing space even in the APC’s Boys Quarters. This is total rubbish and only goes to confirm that we have more bellyticiansthan statesmen on our corridors of power. I am happy our party leaders are already decoding that this is no good luck. It is both obscene and bad luck for APC and democracy.  Just when we thought we have finally got it right, with two strong parties keeping each other in check to end the culture of impunity we saw under the PDP, the bellyticians of PDP are frittering it away even before the game begins. I thought principled opposition makes democracy thick.

    It is clear that the long jumps are not motivated by conversion to progressivism, but simply by a desperate quest for a space on APC’s dinning table. Sadly for them, it is not going to be business as usual under Buhari.

    However, amidst the defection galore and speculations that ranking South East Senators are seriously lobbying for a parking space in our party, Senator Ike Ekweremadu recently made a whole world of difference by taking a principled stand to stay put in the PDP. Apart from the presidential address conceding victory to General Buhari, Ekweremadu’s speech in Enugu making the rounds on the net is about the most reasonable political statement and critique I have read in recent times. It was a most eloquent leadership, a timely and audacious exhortation for a people who could be probably lost in self-pity and blame for casting virtually all their ballots for a defeated party and candidate.

    Far from being sullen or taking the long jump, he said: “I have read and listened to many lament what they regard as the South East misadventure in view of the emerging scenarios at the federal level. But, let me assure you that Ndigbo have done nothing to be ashamed of and we owe no one any apologies for casting our ballots for the PDP. For me, therefore, our voting pattern is rather a defining moment for Ndigbo because we spoke with one voice and we are proud of our electoral decisions. We voted for a party that integrated us into the mainstream of Nigerian politics, elected/appointed our people into strategic offices, and addressed some of our major infrastructural challenges. So, we took a principled position and accept full responsibility for our political choices.

    “I have also heard a lot of permutations on the possible mass defection of Ndigbo to the APC in the coming dispensation. While I will not hold brief for all the PDP stalwarts of South East origin, especially because our constitution provides for freedom of association, I can assure you that on PDP we stand. At least, count Senator Ike Ekweremadu out of any defection to the opposition. PDP leaders in the South East are committed to further repositioning and strengthening the party. We may not have the presidency, but we are strong in the states and remain the party to beat. On PDP we stand”.

    Ordinarily, Ekweremadu probably stands to gain more in the Senate by defecting to the APC. He is going into the 8th Senate as the highest-ranking South East Senator and among the highest-ranking nationally. He will be coming with a lot of experience and pedigree as a two-term Deputy Senate President, two-term/jinx-breaking Chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Constitution Amendment, and the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament. I also recently read that he holds a PhD in Constitutional Law.

    I prefer his principled stand and would rather our party treats him with a lot more respect as far as the National Assembly and the South East is concerned than these fair weather party men and women rushing to reap from where they did not sow. They will take another jump if the weather changes. Ironically, while some of these opportunists should be ashamed of coming close to our party given the nasty things they said about Buhari, I couldn’t readily remember any particularly ill remark by Ekweremadu about the General.

    His statesmanship also shows in his understanding that Buhari’s success is Nigeria’s success, while his failure (God forbid) will amount to a collective loss. He said: “South East PDP and indeed Ndigbo have nothing against General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) as a person or against his incoming administration. We will work hand-in-hand with him in line with our regional agenda and overall development of Nigeria. We will give him all the support to succeed because he was elected as the President of Nigeria, not president of the APC or any section of the country in particular. He has the choice to be a statesman, bringing every part of the country on board his government or to run an exclusive government. He has the choice to ensure that no part of this country is discriminated against in the distribution of opportunities and development projects on account of their ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, and region or to do otherwise. But I believe that whatever choices he makes, will determine his place in history”.

    This is a true man, my kind of politician.

    Meanwhile, I commend the National Chairman of our party, Chief Odigie Oyegun for his timely advice to the defectors. He bluntly told the jumpers their services are not needed. They should stay in their parties and build their parties and deepen democracy. I pray they heed the advice.

    •Olaniyi, a political scientist writes from Ilorin                   

  • PDP after Power

    PDP after Power

    Since it lost out in the just concluded 2015 General Elections to All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has suffered more misfortunes, including mass defections, resignations and internal crisis. Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, Remi Adelowo and Sunday Oguntola report on the survival options available to PDP

    With the 2015 General Elections concluded and All Progressives Congress (APC) winning the presidential seat, most of the state governments and a comfortable majority at most of the legislative houses both at the federal and states, the fate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is hanging in the balance.

    Already, the initial panicky reaction of some of the party chieftains has raised grave concern over the party’s ability to survive the shock of defeat, rebuild and provide robust opposition after serving for 16 uninterrupted years as the ruling party of Africa’s most populous country.

    Soon after the emergence of APC’s candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, as the President-Elect, there were reports of PDP chieftains dumping the party in droves in preference for a move into the victorious APC.

    This gale of defections within the embattled ruling party, according to observers of the country’s politics, confirms the looming change in the power bloc, and the fear that PDP may not survive the defeat. “With the victory of the APC in the presidential, National Assembly and a lot of state elections, the PDP is embattled and may be further deserted by its chieftains,” an observer said.

    Party leaders, current elected public office holders, political appointees, former aspirants and even newly elected public office holders on the platform of the PDP all found one reason or the other to desert President Goodluck Jonathan’s party soon after his loss at the presidential polls.

    Initial defectors

    The first set of defectors, whose defection was announced barely a week after Buhari’s victory included Ambassador Fidelis Tapgun; Senator Victor Lar and Ambassador Ignatius Longjan.

    Others were Edo PDP candidate in the 2012 governor ship election, Maj- Gen. Charles Arhiavbere, former governor, Prof. Osarhiemen Osunbor and former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier-General Idada Ikponmwen. Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Ahmed Mahmoud and former Governor Saminu Turaki also defected to the APC within the first week.

    In Ogun State, candidate of the PDP for the House of Representatives, Ijebu Central Federal Constituency, Otunba Adewale Moses Osinubi, left the party.

    Former military governor of Kaduna and Katsina States, Gen. Lawrence Onoja (rtd), Senator Gbemisola Saraki and Maj-Gen. S.B.S. Biliyock (rtd) joined the APC from the PDP.

    Within the week also, a former Legal Adviser of PDP was set to dump the party for the APC in Ondo State. Oke, who was the PDP governorship candidate in 2012 in Ondo State, defected to the APC. He formally announced his exit from the ruling party at a press conference in Akure. The defection glee has continued ever since then.

    Resignations

    Aside from the incessant loss of its members to the APC, the ruling party’s future is further threatened by the resignation of some of its other leading chieftains from partisan politics. While those in this category may not jump into the moving train that APC has become, the PDP will no longer enjoy their membership and loyalty.

    Few days after the presidential election, former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, resigned his membership of the PDP. Aondoakaa said he was leaving partisan politics to take care of his personal business and also engage fully in his law practice.

    He said: “I am leaving politics to fully engage in a bigger law practice and also tend to my business. I have already tendered my resignation letter to the party.” On the allegation that he intended to decamp to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the former Minster debunked the rumour. “I am not joining any party, it’s not true; I am leaving now before anyone starts saying anything or insinuating anything, I am quitting partisan politics,” he said.

    Earlier this year, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had torn his membership card of the PDP and declared he would no longer join any political party. Obasanjo renounced his membership of the party at his Hilltop Mansion in Abeokuta while hosting PDP leaders from his Ward 11, in Abeokuta North Local Government Area.

    There are also strong indications that notable PDP leaders like former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida and former PDP chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, may follow Obasanjo’s footstep into political retirement anytime soon.

    Already, prominent PDP chieftains like Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Shuaib Oyedokun, amongst others, have been inactive in the affairs of the party for some reasons, including old age, ill health and the likes.

     ‘We’ll stay back and rebuild’

    The reaction of these top PDP chieftains has given observers the impression that the party may not survive the shock of its sweeping defeat and as a result may not be able to serve as a strong opposition party from May 29.

    But most of the remnants in the party, The Nation approached this week to comment on the development and what the party’s reaction would be said they are set to rebuild the party with the view of reclaiming federal power in the near future.

    Immediate past Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, believes the PDP will bounce back in the next two years.

    He told The Nation: “I am positive we will be back. In the next two years, all those who left will be begging to come back because they will be so disappointed with the APC-led government.”

    He said the party should do a post-mortem “on why we failed to win the elections” and continue to attract “critical, honest and reliable people who can rebuild the party”.

    Gulak believes that attracting and sustaining honest, reliable people to the party will be crucial to its bouncing back soonest.

    Former Senate Leader and Director-General of the Jonathan Goodluck Campaign Organisation during the 2011 presidential elections, Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, also reacted. He believes strongly that the PDP, having learnt from its mistakes, will soon be back as a political force to reckon with in Nigeria.

     “We have no option than to go back to the drawing board. We have to feel the way the opposition felt over 16 years. We must learn from our mistakes so that one day we will come up strongly and win all elections again. People should know that there is nothing permanent in politics. The victory of APC is also not permanent; one day, it will be the turn of another party in power not necessarily APC or PDP. I say so because Nigeria is not matured enough to maintain two party system, talk less of having PDP or APC in power for many years,” he said.

    While admitting that the gale of defection from the troubled party into the victorious APC may affect the chances of his party to bounce back to its old winning ways in good time, the current Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom said PDP members defecting to APC are mischievous, dishonest and lack principles.

    He said: “For me, I will simply say PDP members defecting to APC are mischievous, dishonest and lack principles. You see, they’ll eventually regret when PDP begins to restructure. They defected because PDP lost elections? I think it is unwise. One thing they don’t know is that political parties are formed, not necessarily to form government, though ultimately, power is the goal, but parties are also meant to checkmate the activities of government in power, providing healthy competition and strong opposition. You don’t have to defect to another party to prove that you are good. If you are good, you are good and you can contribute to national development from any political party. I remain PDP and I will help to put our house in order by the grace of God.”

    Earlier, PDP as a party had described those defecting from its fold to APC as “political Trojans,” who, it alleged had “from within ceaselessly worked against the interest of the party and now fear they would face sanctions for their actions.”

    In a statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, PDP said it “would not miss such fair weather members.”

    The party also claimed that necessary arrangements are already being made to re-organise and reposition the party “to regain power in the next four years.”

    Since then, some influential members of the party, including those rumoured to have commenced moves to defect, have come out to associate themselves publicly with the resolve to stay back and help rebuild PDP.

    Among the first of such PDP chieftains to publicly state their resolve to stay back is the Senate President, David Mark.

     He spoke at a special church service to mark his 67th birthday at St. Mulumba Catholic Chaplaincy Apo in Abuja, where he said: “I have no reason to jump ship. I will not leave the PDP. I will be the last man standing for the PDP. The party gave me the platform to be where I am today.

    “I will stay in PDP to contribute my quota to the rebuilding and restructuring of the party. This is democracy. Winners emerge and the losers go back to the drawing board and rejuvenate,” he said, adding, “The outcome of the presidential election in favour of APC is the will of God and majority of Nigerians. We, in the PDP have accepted the result in good faith.

    “Those drifting to the APC now are fair weather friends of the PDP. They are seeking new green areas. When the PDP bounces back, they will seek another return to the party.

    “I believe in PDP manifestos. I will work hard to bring the party back on track. What is important is that we have established democracy in Nigeria.”

    At about the same time, Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, also stated that he would rather resign from politics than defect from the PDP, even as he described the defectors as “people who are suffering from poverty of integrity, morality and principle.”

    Other top PDP chieftains who made the same pledge to stay back include the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the outgoing governor of Kebbi State, Saidu Usman Dakingari, and the immediate past Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, among others.

    While addressing a meeting of PDP stakeholders from Enugu West Senatorial District in Enugu, shortly after the elections, Ekweremadu said: “I have heard a lot of permutations on the possible mass defection of Ndigbo to the APC in the coming dispensation. While I will not hold brief for all the PDP stalwarts of South- East origin, especially because our constitution provides for freedom of association, I can assure you that on PDP we stand.

    ”At least, count Senator Ike Ekweremadu out of any defection to the opposition.”

    Governor Dakingari while interacting with journalists after the elections, at the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport, Ambursa, BirninKebbi, shortly after his arrival from Abuja, said “I am a Fulani man who stands by his principles; I will remain in PDP come rain or come shine.”

    He attributed the party’s failure to what he described as “hurricane Buhari” which according to him has swept the chunk of PDP politicians not only in Kebbi but across the country.

    ‘PDP will not die’

    One refrain that most PDP stalwarts have been repeating publicly since the conclusion of the elections and the first wave of mass defections is that ‘PDP will not die”.

    Sen. Walid Jibrin, the Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BOT), last Sunday spoke to newsmen in Nasarawa State on the fate of his party, when he said, “Nigerians have seen what the PDP government had done in terms of establishing and equipping secondary and tertiary education, creating job opportunities, provision of infrastructural facilities, tackling insecurity and , prompt payment of workers’ salaries, among others.

    “In spite of the defeat our great party, PDP, suffered during the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections, losing the presidential seat to APC, PDP will not and will never die.”

    Mark, Ekweremadu, Aliyu, Gulak and many other PDP remnants say the same thing. According to Aliyu, “Our party is not dead. When all things cool down, we will properly re-organise to bring PDP back to its formidable political strength.

    Many things have happened and this is not the time for us to apportion blames. “I, therefore, hope that the time we will have to re-organise our party, we would add more ideology to what we have.”

    Gulak said, “For me, there have been challenges on my way but having sat down to think, I will sit down in the party with like minds and rebuild the party under the leadership of Goodluck Jonathan, our leader, and give the APC government a run for their money as an alternative and credible opposition.”

    Crises

    The ruling party is also plagued by intra party squabbles in many of its state chapters, a situation that threatens its post-election recovery ability. Many analysts are of the opinion that the party’s chances at bouncing back as quickly as possible would be hampered by the infightings.

    Before the elections, such infightings in PDP degenerated beyond manageable depths in Sokoto, Osun, Ebonyi, Delta, among other states.

    The PDP in Ogun, Oyo and Lagos States are not better off in terms of intra-party crises. The situation in these state chapters of the party, coupled with the party’s losses has put serious strain on the national leadership of the PDP as the party look forward to experiencing life as an opposition party.

    The first challenge seems to be that of leadership that will unite members, give the party the needed cohesion and direction.

    The blame game

    As the embattled party battles with the defections and unresolved internal crisis, most of its top members who spoke this week reveal that another major challenge the party will have to contain with, if it hopes to survive is the on-going blame game. From their comments, it is obvious that the PDP leaders are still blaming one another for the party’s defeat.

    For example, the party’s former National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, while explaining why the ruling party was defeated in the just concluded general elections, blamed the party leadership for lack of internal democracy.

     ”We have been preaching election not selection, internal democracy not imposition. Anywhere it was done, it will leave a bitter pill in the mouth,” Tukur said.

    Another former National Chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, who visited APC National Secretariat on Friday, to hold a closed -door meeting with the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odiegie Oyegun, described APC’s defeat of his party as “a job well done,” expressing satisfaction for APC’s General Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the presidential election. Reminded by newsmen that as a PDP henchman, he had said before that PDP will rule Nigeria for 60 years, he retorted, “Well, when they dismantled Governors Forum, what do you expect?”

    Niger’s Babangida Aliyu was also quoted during the week of blaming PDP’s defeat on President Jonathan’s refusal to honour the alleged one term agreement.

    With this blame game in the face of mass defections and unresolved internal crisis in most of the states, observers say the first challenge PDP must overcome to move forward is that of leadership.

    Goodluck Jonathan

    Following his defeat at the presidential election, there are fears within the PDP that President Goodluck Jonathan may not play any significant role in the future of the party, especially after he might have handed over power to General Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressives Congress on May 29, 2015.

    This fear, according to reliable party sources, is hinged on his current body language regarding party issues. The Nation learnt that since the results of the presidential election became public, the President developed apathy towards party issues.

    “It appears the President is in a hurry to assume his new position of an elder statesman. It is as if he is no longer interested in party issues.

    “The party leadership too has not been able to get through to him as they used to do. Everything within the party is in a fix as nobody appears ready to take charge. And if you consider the fact that the President is the leader of the party in PDP, you will understand why nothing is happening now,” our source said.

    Also there are those who feel the President, on the strength of his commendable act of conceding defeat at the elections, would prefer to become an elder statesman on leaving office.

    ‘It is not likely President Jonathan would want to be the leader of PDP after May 29. Instead, I see him gravitating more towards international diplomacy and statesmanship. He is widely commended by world leaders for his patriotism after the election and as such will enjoy the respect of world leaders after office,” an analyst said.

    Options before PDP

    Operating as the opposition party is alien to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). For 16 years, it held sway as the ruling party at the federal level with many states under its control. But things have changed and the PDP has to adjust too. The first challenge before it is to bounce back to national reckoning. With the All Progressives Congress (APC) about to take off as the ruling party, it is hard to see how the PDP can do just that soon.

    Provide viable opposition

    So, to bounce back, there are options the PDP must consider, according to political analysts and experts. “The PDP must firstly keep its cool and navigate this difficult transition smoothly,” Emmanuel Ojei, a political analyst stated. He said most ruling parties that lost elections in many African countries never really bounced back to reckoning.

    But to really bounce back, Ojei said the PDP must devise means of providing veritable opposition and convincing Nigerians of being a better alternative. “Truth is the APC will make some gaffes. It is just coming into national politics with some new cabinet members that might not be familiar with governance at that level.

    “So, there would be initial mistakes that the PDP can always point out and provide alternative solutions to. If they do that consistently, they will gradually win over Nigerians again,” he stressed.

    It appears the party is already thinking in this direction too. Its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said the PDP will not be joining the APC in any government of national unity, for any reason. Rather, he said the party will support the APC’s administration for the growth and development of the country through viable opposition but will not be part of any Government of National Unity (GNU).

    Stand alone

    The PDP’s spokesman added that the party was committed to making a comeback in the next four years. According to him: “We will do everything humanly possible within the rules to defend democratic principles and ethics, which we have successfully nourished in the past 16 years.

    “Because we are convinced that the APC lacks what it takes to sustain our democracy, the PDP is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure that it returned to power in the next four years to save the nation’s democracy and re-channel our vision of a greater Nigeria.”

    That also hints that the party might decide to stand alone, rebuild and win the confidence of voters on its own. This, to Dr. Musa Yahya of the Department of Political Science, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, is another option the party should consider. “I think the PDP is already a national party. Forget the defections you have seen lately. That is always the trend in Nigeria.

    This, Yahya stated, would mean the party will have to maintain its structure and keep members busy in the run-off to the 2019 presidential poll. But that to Rilwan Adedeji, a former member of the party in Oyo State, is not an easy route to pass.

    He stated: “Truth is many PDP members thrive on government patronage and sponsorship. That was their mainstay. Now that the party is out of power, how will it get the resources to oil the many machineries and structures across the nation?”

    Merger with fringe parties

    But there is yet another option that appears so easy and tantalizing for the PDP to consider. There are 28 registered political parties with only the PDP and APC as dominant players. That effectively leaves 26 parties available for merger with the PDP. The party can draw inspiration from the APC, which became truly national in outlook only when it merged. The defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) fused to inject new vibrancy into the APC.

    Suleiman Ango, a political analyst, believes such option is not out of place for the PDP to consider. “It’s easy to ‘eat up’ or consume these fringe parties everywhere. They will be teased to work with the PDP and will come with values from their strongholds. So, the PDP will do well to see the parties such as APGA and PDM with regional strength that can offer better chances of winning elections again,” he stated.

    But this also comes with snags. Will the parties readily dissolve their structures for PDP? Won’t they be threatened by the size of the ruling party? Will the PDP also consider them equal partners in the merger? Will the PDP consider a change of name like the parties that formed APC did? These are some of the hurdles that a merger option will bring up for the PDP.

  • Edo PDP to boycott rescheduled Orhionmwon election

    Edo PDP to boycott rescheduled Orhionmwon election

    Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it would boycott Saturday’s rescheduled election in Orhionmwon South Constituency for the Edo State House of Assembly.

    Elections in the constituency were declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission because the number of voters in the 12 polling units spread across three wards was large.

    Residents Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini, said a winner could only be announced after the rescheduled elections.

    Chairman of PDP in Orhionmwon, Barr. Nosakhare Ogieva-Okunbor, who announced the boycott at a press briefing yesterday evening said the party has lost confidence in INEC.

    Barr. Ogieva-Okunbor alleged that results favorable to the PDP were rejected by INEC while manipulated results were accepted.

    He said the party considered the boycott because the outcome of the rescheduled election was already determined.

    According to him, “It is unfair to us and our candidate. Of what use is the participation in the election to us when the result is already determined.”

    “PDP Orhionmwon will not participate in the election. The people of Orhionmwon voted for PDP but INEC in collaboration with APC has bastardized the results”

    Candidate of the PDP in Orhionmwon South, Friday Ogierhiakhi, said he supported the boycott because INEC ignored all complaints made by the PDP.

    Ogierhiakhi who vowed to reclaim his mandate at the tribunal said it was ridiculous for results from three units to be higher than results from 11 units.

  • ‘Injustice Killed PDP’

    Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant in Niger State, Alhaji Sale Sahabi Danrangi said injustice was responsible for the abysmal performance of the ruling party at the just concluded general elections.

    Darangi who decamped to the All Progressives Congress (APC) few days to the April 11 gubernatorial election said he along with many others were victims of the injustice of the ruling party during last December governorship primary of the party in the state.

    The former governorship aspirant told Journalists Thursday in Minna that the injustice meted to him and the inability of the party to attend to his protest informed his decision to dump his former party along with his supporters.

    He then advised the APC to keep to its policy of giving every member, be it old or new a level playing ground to achieve their political aspirations.

    Darangi stated that the call became necessary in view of the contribution of those whose defection toward the success of the party at the just concluded general elections.

    He said “people like me who was a gubernatorial aspirant have structures already on ground therefore after our defection we moved with all our people and that helped in winning the election particularly at gubernatorial election.”

    Darangi argued that their contribution assisted in no small measure in the gubernatorial election saying despite the fact that Rijau LGA where he hailed from is a stronghold of PDP the APC won flawlessly.

    He therefore advice the governor elect, Abubakar Sani Bello to remain focus and resolute in ensuring that he delivered the people of Niger State as contained in his campaign template.

  • PDP faults Oshiomhole on 140,000 void votes claim

    PDP faults Oshiomhole on 140,000 void votes claim

    The Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State has picked holes in claims by Governor Adams Oshiomhole that 140,000 votes of the All Progressive Congress were voided during the conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

    It said it symphatised with Governor Oshiomhole for his inability to accept defeat adding that the Governor was looking for excuses to make up for the defeat of the APC at the polls.

    The PDP said 97,414 votes were cancelled and not voided as claimed by the Governor.

    State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, in a press statement said the cancelled votes was in respect of the cancelled votes in Orhiomwon Local Government Area where no vote was recorded.

    Chief Orbih noted that votes from Orhiomwon Local Government were not captured in the March 28 election and that the entire people who collected PVCs in the council were disenfranchised.

    Orbih said the PDP would have swept the polls “if the forces of darkness had not prevailed on INEC to cancel the election going by what we recorded in other local government in the Edo South senatorial zone.

    “When did Governor Oshiomhole become a Returning Officer in INEC that he now apportions electoral figures? We had expected Governor Oshiomhole to have learnt some lessons in the resounding victory of the PDP in the election but we have again seen that the Governor has not desisted from his old ways of playing on the intelligence of Edo people.

    “After winning five out of the nine House of Representatives seats and two out of the three Senate positions in Edo State, we are glad to declare that come the governorship election next year, Edo people will have the final opportunity to put this sad chapter of the APC’s misadventure behind them.”