Can it be said that Olisa Metuh, ebullient spokesperson for recently defeated Peoples Democratic Party, betrayed a sense of anguish when he lamented the quandary that efforts to reform the party had become early this week?
Metuh, ordinarily a man of infectious optimism, reeled out the frustration of leaders of Africa’s erstwhile largest party, concluding that a combination of forces, some internal, some external, had colluded to snatch victory off the hands of the PDP in its bid to re-launch sequel to its inglorious defeat in Nigeria’s last general elections.
The scenario painted by the PDP’s spokesman rubs salt on the already festering injury of a party which literarily threw its shinning bowl of nourishing cuisine to the dogs as a result of the same traits which is making reconciliation impossible. The PDP’s lost dog is yet unable to perceive the guardian hunter’s whistle.
How did the PDP arrive this unenviable destination from the beautiful bride, which bore so much hope at the country’s return to democracy in 1999? My take is that the sheer welcome that the party received at inception coupled with the ability of its first presidential offering to overrun other parties and seize a sizeable part of the country in the second general elections and over the next 12 years, aggregated in hubris almost unequalled in our national landscape. A manifestation of that was the brag to rule Nigeria for at least 60 years!
Revelling in its conceit, the PDP developed a penchant to slight the people and the process that brought it to power. From 1999 when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo took over as President until last May when Dr Goodluck Jonathan handed over power to President Muhammadu Buhari, the PDP displayed scant regard for the people and for due process in anything and everything. The Nigerian people rewarded the party handsomely when it voted it out of power in March 2015. If the PDP were to be a commodity on auction today, few Nigerians would stake their one kobo on a party that has fallen mightily from grace to grass.
The only problem with the choice that Nigeria made is that the current ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, is only marginally different from the PDP. While I must ventilate the hope to be proved wrong in this assertion, I want to suggest that not a jot of the malfeasances that we hold against the PDP is not manifest in the APC.
Unlike the PDP however, the APC, at least has some regard for the people, even if superficial. Contrasting their PDP counterparts who are impetuous and mainly uncivil in the execution of their recklessness against the state, the new helmsmen are subtle and strategic in the attainment of missions. They are masters at the game of agenda setting, perception building and perception management. It is the reason why in spite of the well-advertised achievements of state governors from the legacy parties that coalesced into the APC, there is hardly any state in Nigeria that can be said to be on the path to sustainable development. Perceptive Nigerians would describe what we have had in the last 16 years as a smoke and mirrors situation. Not much to show for anything but how many people see that?
This is why I think Nigeria needs a party like the PDP going forward. The point is that politicians are naturally opportunistic, which is why we currently have a lot of members of the PDP in a rat race to become members of the ruling party. The current migration in droves cannot guarantee social cohesion and stability of the nation state as previous experiences have clearly shown. Not that those on the exodus desire collective good anyway. They move on to the next party in regard to feathering their own nest. But for unsuspecting Nigerians, those jumping ship are those who can no longer endure the stench in the PDP’s sinking mansion. But we have been here before!
Recall that when we started in 1999, the PDP was not the octopus that it eventually became. In the South-West and North-East, other parties dominated the political space ensuring some degree of partisan constraint and discipline.
The effect of the death of the PDP will however be more gross for a nation whose constitution donates enormous powers to its executive president and commander-in-chief.
A country where the President has the power to appoint people who superintend over the conduct of national elections, where the President is allowed to appoint the head of the judiciary albeit on the recommendation of a body of jurists, where a President or his party can influence the leadership of the National Assembly among so many other such important decisions, needs a party in the clout and national spread of the PDP to keep government in check and ensure that we do not descend into authoritarianism by default.
Nigeria has travelled this path before and the consequences have always been grave for the party involved and the country in general. The PDP therefore needs an unencumbered re-evaluation of its journey in its quest for reform and political rebirth.
And even the APC will benefit from this. To strengthen the APC and save it from complacency and destructive arrogance, there is a need for an alternate power house which can compete with the APC’s might in strength, size and human resource. The APC will therefore do itself and the nation a lot of good by not attempting to stifle the PDP.
As President Harry Truman said in a message to the United States Congress in 1950: “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
The current desertion of the PDP by its members is indicative of the incurable political indiscipline and staying power of our political elite. This is clearly injurious to the country’s political health.
In essence, a political party in the name of the PDP or in another name should emerge from the ghost of the party which lost huge grounds in the March 2015 elections. This will reinvigorate the political process and strengthen the nation’s collective political and democratic growth.
The current absence of an alternate voice of reason impoverishes our politics and may lead to a situation in which the people may lose confidence in the capacity of politicians to oil the political machinery.
Only the permanent interment of the self-interests of gladiators in the PDP and politicians outside the ruling APC is able to secure the future of democratic practices in Nigeria. Those who make it difficult for opposition voices to thrive must remember that without the sacrifices made by the legacy parties, Nigeria would not have the APC, the elections would not have been won by the APC and the flicker of hope which the APC victory gave Nigerians would never have arisen. We must be set to bury the APC when in case it decides to turn back on the people.
PUNCH
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