PDP

PDP: Who Is Reconciling Whom?

Emman Abashi

It is unarguable that the President manifested statesmanship by his sense of reconciliation and an abiding commitment to democracy in accepting the verdict of the National Assembly on the third term issue. His position has certainly assisted in dousing the ill-feeling against the way third term was mishandled.

It is great that in response to his avocation of reconciliation in the aftermath of the third term fiasco, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has commenced a reconciliation process. This must be certainly heart warming for all lovers of constitutional democracy and the imperative of virile political parties thereto.

But the magnitude of the reconciliation the PDP is embarking on has to be put in its proper perspective for it to be well managed. This is not the impression one gets with the mad rush to announce names and assign them to various zones with the mandate to effect reconciliation. This is at variance with purposive conflict resolution. You cannot leave the key players at tic center and hope to achieve reconciliation in the zones and regions. Unlike conventional architectural design, this building must start from the roof. How do you achieve reconciliation in Kano, for instance, by talking to Musa Gwadcbe and Na' Abba without first reconciling the President and the Vice-President?

So also should a real and long lasting reconciliation start from the current EXCO members mending fences with northern members of the PDP whom they invariably vilified by their attendance and anti-Northern sentiments at the Enugu meeting of Southern leaders last December PDP members from the North can tolerate such vilification from members of other political parties or organizations but not their own party Comrades. There is, therefore, need for Bode George, Tony Anenih and Ojo Maduekwe to reconcile at this level.

Party Chairman, Ahmadu Ali should also reconcile with members of the PDP whose organization he portrayed as a garrison one without freedom of dissent and principled debate. He also needs to reconcile with the Sanate, the symbol of our democracy, whom he called stupid and foolish.

The third and final segment of that would be the composition of the reconciliation team. The Minister in the Presidency in charge of FCDA, Nasir el-Rufai is one member whose inclusion is difficult to understand. This is someone who publicly denied being a politician and claiming to be standing on a higher pedestal than party politics. This is also the same el-Rufai who poured tar on the entire Senate by claiming they demanded bribe to confirm his appointment as a minister. And he is now being called upon to reconcile the members of an institution he does not believe in, has no regard for and holds in utter contempt.

Lastly, some of the members of NEC on the list certainly lack the political pedigree and even the stature to be able to handle reconciliation meaningfully. How would some of them approach Alex Ekwueme or Solomon Lar or Abubakar Rimi or Jim Nwobodo and all such people with towering standing in the politics of PDP and tell them their mission is reconciliation? It won't work.

So, it seems the process as set in motion has failed to take into account the background of the reconciliation, the actors to be reconciled and the aim in mind.

With respect to the background, for example, there does not appear to be a proper categorization of who is to be reconciled with who. The exercise is not bearing in mind the different categories of the actors and factors in conflict as to warrant reconciliation.

In this regard, one must bear in mind that there were those who, in 2003, worked against Obasanjo and found third term linchpin for further antagonism. This group would include Abubakar Rimi, Ghali Na'Abba among others.

Then, there are those whose power agenda or interests were in danger of being blocked from materializing and for whom third term also provided a basis for escalating the relationship with the President and, by implication the party, Vice President Atiku Abubakar" would top this list.

And there are those who were genuinely aghast with the moral bankruptcy of the entire third term agenda such as PDP members in the National Assembly.

These arc the various categories one can decipher in the reconciliation project, particularly how each and every one of these actors were affected by the crucial role played by operators in the entire third term politics in such a way that brought about the imperative for reconciliation. These operators were those who came in within the last one year and who obviously lacked the knowledge and appreciation of the various nuances foregrounding the POP in the context of the June 12 blunder, Abacha's misrule and the subsequent imperative for elite consensus in Nigerian politics. These party operators ended up totally insensitive to the chemistry of the PDP in pursuing the third term agenda, becoming over zealous, individually and collectively, in apparent desire to claim glory for achievement of the agenda. In the end, they made very unfortunate statements, some of such statements obviously intended to capture the attention of the President. This is the only way to understand some of the utterances of, say, the Party Chairman about the party being a garrison organization or referring to senators as being stupid and foolish for rejecting third term. These operators ended creating the impression that they had been foisted on the party with the sole agenda of foisting third term on the country. They ended up culpable for the disaster which now calls for reconciliation.

The totality of the submission is that reconciliation is very desirable and vital but it has to be well managed so that all actors would speak out boldly, frankly but truthfully and without malice. Members of the PDP have been truth shy in the last two years. The consequence of that is what the party has to manage today. Managing the consequence well is of vital importance. This is because in Nigeria of today, the PDP is the only alternative to the PDP. A diseased PDP is a weakened democracy and, therefore, a very weak Nigeria.