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PDP As A Terminal Patient By Ifeanyi Ebere Despite all the pretensions or posturing that defy obvious reality, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is terminally sick. The funereal atmosphere that attended the party’s national convention recently had removed any vestige of doubt that the PDP is ill. A convention at which there were more long faces than smiling faces conveys ominous signal of the uncertain fate that awaits the party. Indeed, anyone who had the curiosity to watch the proceedings live on NTA could not have failed to notice the bizarre features of the controversial convention, which was widely regarded as a brutal assault on the party’s existing constitution and brazen disregard for the courts as the last resort for aggrieved citizens of the country, including party members who felt cheated. The atmosphere of conviviality and amiability that should have attended a gathering of “one family” was palpably missing. In fact, the whole event appears like a wedding attended by reluctant or unhappy guests. Many of the participants, including Governors, wore the expressions of their minds on their faces. Although more Governors had attended the convention than originally thought, the mood of those who were there was unmistakably gloomy. Even peripheral observers could not help asking themselves what manner of national convention the PDP leaders were holding. The whole atmosphere seemed like a celebration of pyrrhic victory in which democracy lost its heart and soul to its unrepentant enemies. Funnier still, even as the PDP conquerors were speaking of the party as “one family”, Nigerians could not help capturing the mood of delegates who had to surrender to blackmail of the Genghis Khan invaders, who demand absolute capitulation or instant death of your reputation or means of livelihood! Any critical political observer knows that the whole event was a farce, because it tuned out to be the automatic endorsement of those leaders the new conquerors of the party were determined to impose on the PDP membership. With the unceremonious sack of the former party Chairman, Mr. Audu Ogbeh in a barbaric fashion, and his National Working Committee (NWC) members before their term ended legally, Col. Ahmadu Ali and his newly handpicked members of NEC and the NWC were imposed on the party. Unarguably, that assault on the party’s internal democratic norms marked the beginning of the current crisis of confidence within the PDP and the strained relationship between the President and his deputy. However, the recent national convention of the party was the most unexciting political event Nigerians have ever witnessed within living memory. A national convention with an election agenda in which candidates for “elective” offices were determined in advance leaves lingering doubt whether the event should be dignified with the term “democratic election.” In Gen Obasanjo’s contorted version of democracy that he has imposed on the PDP and which is different from the one he preaches to international audiences, the will of the people no longer counts. In other words, even if you have the mandate of our people, that does not count as long as he doesn’t like your guts. Since the beginning of this bizarre development in the PDP, the new leadership has not found anything wrong in alienating its key members, including active founding fathers, despite the potential damage to the future of the party. The party is unmistakably suffering shrinkage of popular good will as a result of its new anti-democratic tendency. When dictatorship sneaks at the door, democracy takes a quick flight through the window. The new dance of shame in the PDP is so glaring that even leaders of the Western nations are steadily joining the chorus of skepticism and cynicism about whether Nigeria is moving in the right democratic direction, especially in the desperate efforts to mangle the constitution to assure a third term agenda, because of the ridiculous conviction that President Obasanjo is Nigeria’s divinely inspired Messiah to deliver it from its moral stagnation and bad leadership. One feels sorry for Nigeria when a leader acts or behaves according to this absurdly extreme conviction. In their post-convention speeches, both President Obasanjo and PDP Chairman Col. Ahmadu Ali (rtd) were wielding the big stick to those who dare oppose or challenge their undemocratic style of acquiring power and influence within the party. As expected, the Movement for the Defence of Democracy (MDD) and its like-minded ally, the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) had received blistering attacks from the two PDP leaders for having the audacity to question their unfair and unjust behaviour towards other key members of the party. Instead of acknowledging what led to the emergence of MDD and MRD, the President and his Chairman cast aspersions on the integrity of their membership. The President accused the MDD and MRD leaders of opposing the anti-corruption crusade and the economic reforms, in order to win the sympathy of the international community with the purpose of diverting the attention of Western nations from his assault on internal democratic culture. Such desperate propaganda tactics, however, can hardly survive on the foundation of falsehood and deliberate deception. The Western nations are more politically sophisticated than what the President and his PDP hatchet men imagine. Their embassies have their ears to the ground and can make their own deductions of events in the country. In this regard, they don’t need to be spoon-fed with propaganda garbage of describing opponents of civilian dictatorship under Obasanjo as enemies of the anti-corruption crusade, economic reforms and the unity of Nigeria. Originally, the new PDP leaders had treated MDD and MRD members as political ciphers that don’t deserve the scantiest attention. And if a whole President could devote his energy to launching a verbal offensive on the leaders of MDD and MRD, it means that the two movements command more credibility and popularity in the eyes of Nigerians than Gen. Obasanjo would have the courage or humility to openly acknowledge. Despite their diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, members of the two movements are united by the common sentiments of restoring the glory of our democracy, which is currently under mortal assault by those who want to justify their injustice under the fake credentials of superior morality. Let us be honest with ourselves and establish the connection between the present chain of events and the President’s style of leadership. Like the late President Richard Nixon of the United States, President Obasanjo has fallen into the category political leaders that maintain a permanent mental ledger of the wrongs ever done to them by others. In fact, no leader in recent Nigerian history can excel Gen. Obasanjo in the relentless application of vindictive energy against perceived enemies, including those who had used their political good will and personal resources to bring him to power in 1999. It is high time we called a spade a spade. Contrary to most editorials and opinions of columnists, it is unfair to collectively blame Atiku Abubakar and Gen. Obasanjo for the needless diversion of energy, which their strained relationship is causing at the expense of urgent national issues, crying for attention. Blaming the victim along with his aggressor is not a fair assessment of the political crisis in the PDP. President Obasanjo’s openly malicious opposition to Atiku’s presidential ambition and his malevolent devotion of vindictive energy against the Vice-President because of the rankling memories of 2003 PDP national convention should be largely blamed for the current crisis in the PDP. In fact, even Atiku’s courage of exposing a coup plot brought to his attention in secret, in demonstration of his loyalty to the President, to the constitution and the survival of our democracy, was not enough to convince Gen. Obasanjo to sheathe his sword of vengeance against his deputy. Therefore, it is unfair to blame Atiku Abubakar for the frightening level the PDP crisis has reached. If President Obasanjo had not adopted the policy of vengeance since his re-election in 2003, the present political crisis in the PDP and the emergence of MDD and MRD would have been absolutely unnecessary. The President should have left Nigerians to decide the fate of Vice - President Atiku Abubakar’s presidential ambition or any other aspirant for that matter. Gen. Obasanjo has the record of betraying friends and the application of this personal foible as a state policy would inevitably lead the country to a crisis it can ill afford as it currently did. His insatiable thirst for revenge against even those who express mild disagreement with him has taken the shine off our democracy. Instead of counting the blessings of democracy through improved quality of life, what Nigerians are witnessing today is a President who desperately adopts a divide-and-rule tactics of breaking the cohesion of a pan Nigerian alliance against his dictatorial tendencies. Signed. IFEANYI EBERE JR, Dept of Political Science, Abia State University, Abia State.
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