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Something is not right with the PDP
In a constitutional democracy, the principal task of the opposition is to defend the broader interests of the nation from being subverted by the party in power.
Be that as it may, there is something with the conduct and carriage of Nigeria’s principal opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP at the moment, which does not comfort many that it is playing its history-assigned vanguard role as a principal opposition party in Nigeria today.
And because a party’s effectiveness in this regard is a major issue that the electorate considers when it comes to taking decisions on which party to entrust the nation’s fortunes to during the next electoral cycle, the PDP should be bothered.
A first point of default is on the plane of justice and freedom. Whether it has to do with alleged abuses committed by the government in power at the centre or by its own operatives in the states that it controls, the PDP has not come across as one to stand up strongly, and in a most principled way at that, to insist that the rights of all citizens as entrenched in the constitution be respected. As it was with Sowore so has it been with Agba Jalingo. And El-Zakzaky.
Then there is the issue of internal democracy within the party itself with periodic allegations coming into the public space about how one group of officials or the other have not exactly followed the laid down rules in its charter to the fullest.
But perhaps even fundamentally is the fact that the party continues to carry on as one lacking a soul. Pray, what does the PDP stand for? What principles does it hold dear? Where does it stand on crucial issues like restructuring, true federalism and the cries of marginalization from endangered faith, ethnic and communal groups in the country? What is its position on Southern Kaduna?
What this has come to reveal is that even when, by the reckoning of many, power today is on the streets – given the clearly most abysmal performance of the ruling party – the PDP very sadly, cannot pitch for it quite seriously in its present condition.
In the forthcoming Edo and Ondo governorship polls that it should have won easily, it has to fight tooth and nail to even hold itself together. And except something dramatic happens, it may not win or have a strong response punch if it is rigged out as it has continued to allege had been the case in the 2019 voting season.
Underscoring this calamity is the fact that at the moment some of its frontline men, like former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and former Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, are being poached without as much as a serious whimper. Even when it had been expected to reach out to and negotiate to populate its ranks with the likes of the hard-fighting Alex Otti of Abia, it has stood idly by and allowed the ruling APC to snatch that plum prize.
On other planes, there is even talk about former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and immediate past Senate President, Bukola Saraki contemplating leaving the party. This is even as Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike talks about having tax collectors within the fold. And as is becoming characteristic, no one was indignant enough to respond to that ‘insult’ from within.
Indeed, in Wike today can be found all that is paradoxically right and wrong with the PDP. He leads a critical state that has been a safe bet for the PDP across the past two decades. This is most notable. However, he also threatens to break ranks now and again, and when that happens, about all of the party machinery is deployed to placate him!
On his part, former President Goodluck Jonathan is not particularly inspiring. Ignoring the maxim that all politics is local, he has now concentrated on building a global brand presence to the detriment of the party he had led only a half decade ago. Glaring evidence of this is the fact that he literally stood idly by while the opposition manouvred to take his home state out of its historic PDP fold.
Overall, the party does not smell roses. It needs to administer some hard knocks to itself to have a real fighting chance going forward.
And perhaps it is time to agree with those who say that the PDP is indeed a spoilt child; that the circumstances of our national political history and the imperative of uniting to chase out the military had reduced the task before the nation in 2019 to the singular plane of a civilian/military contest.
As beneficiary of that process however, the onus before the party was to expand on the brief. It failed in this and also failed to visualize what life out of power would mean. And because it did not, the result that we have before our eyes now is that, out of power, it has been floundering.
What comes out overall is that the party is clearly a disorganized bunch, lacking in real drive, focus and ambition. ‘With a heavy heart,’ we surmise that, in its present form and shape, and with all of the challenges that the nation is plagued with; the PDP does not deserve Nigeria.
And even when we agree in equal measure that the APC has also burnt about all of its political capital, we do not think that that alone should be a basis for handing over the nation to the PDP in its present form and shape. ‘Ambition must indeed be made of sterner stuff.’
