Before I proceed, I reckon that some disclosure is expedient. Between 2003 and 2011, I had a political appointment with the People Democratic Party (PDP) formed government in my home state. I got the appointment to work as a professional, did my job just as that and returned to my professional life at the end of the administration that I served. So although I am not a politician, I moved in political circles in the past and still have politician friends across every political divide.
In spite of the fact that I am not a politician, I have deep-seated political convictions some of which I will presently discuss. One of such is that I do not share the widespread believe that the PDP is the worst thing that has happened to Nigerian politics. I have two reasons for this. The first is that I have come to understand that Nigerian politicians are the same. They are in political parties for the convenience of the moment, not for any ideological considerations. For example, imagine how progressive a party with an Okorocha, who have traversed all the parties in Nigeria, could be. Every party has its own fair share of good, bad and ugly members and so the difference between them is like that between six and half a dozen.
The second reason why I do not share the random condemnation of the PDP is that a number of people elected on the platform of the party have shown some promise. No matter what anyone says, there were steps that President Obasanjo administration took that would have moved Nigeria forward were they sustained. The PDP also produced the likes of late Umaru Yar’Adua, Donald Duke, Bukola Saraki, Rotimi Amaechi, Sule Lamido , Godswill Akpabio who are acclaimed shown some level of performance.
I do not share the sentiment that the current crisis in the PDP would invariably be the end of the party. I think that such presumptions arise from either mischief or some amnesia, which is shocking. I would expect politically conscious Nigerians to remember that the PDP is a party which is almost perpetually in crisis. I do not have the confidence to say that the party has witnessed deeper crises than the current one but I know one or two that could pass as equally serious, but the PDP has always found a way to bounce back. In 2007 for example, the crisis in the party was as bad as for Vice President Atiku Abubabar and his supporters from all over the country to be de-registered. Atiku and his people then moved over to the Action Congress of Nigeria, only for them to come back to the PDP after the general elections. Do we even remember the number of National Chairmen that the PDP has turned over? So how would anyone, including members of the opposition All People Congress (APC) even imagine that this would sound the death knell on the PDP and brighten their chance? I consider this to be the greatest mistake that any party with the intention of snatching power from the PDP could make.
I am convinced that the PDP will resolve the current imbroglio. Why am I so sure? I know because this is just about the interests of the individuals concerned. It is neither about the common man nor our orphaned and thoroughly abused country. It is about the egos of those who aspire for office in 2015 and those who support them. When they speak about northern presidency, they do not mean it for the interest of the north, it is not for the betterment of the common man on the streets, and this is about the aspirations of certain men. It is neither about improved healthcare delivery nor the reduction of the education deficit that the country suffers from. It is about securing the political future of some politicians and at some point, all those interests would be taken care of, compromises will be made and the PDP would be on the march again!
To even think of it, such turmoil is not unheard of in a democratic culture even if I concede that motives differ. We should all still remember the bitter feud between former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown which rocked the Labour Party in the United Kingdom to its roots and eventually led to the ouster of Blair, arguably the most colourful British Minister in the recent past. We also remember that South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) had its own share of internal rumbling. This was essentially between former President Thabo Mbeki and the current President Jacob Zuma, who was his deputy. So that big parties quarrel and bicker is a matter of course and that such conflicts would be settled especially when there are no ideological foundations to them is definite. Am I then saying that there are no ways opposition political parties and perhaps the country could benefit from implosions like the one we currently have within the PDP? No, I am not saying that but I do think that an opposition party which intends to leverage on such events must be very deliberate about it.
It is this purposefulness that I have not seen in the politics of the APC. For a recently registered party, one would expect the APC to concentrate on selling itself to Nigerians who desire change. I would expect mobilization of the suffering common people, across the country as well as the deployment of the enormous media resource at its disposal toward the promotion of the ideals of the APC and the urgency with which Nigerians must consider its proposition. Rather than do this however, the APC has continued in the disheartening habit of taking the Nigerian electorate for granted by its flirtations with the new PDP forgetting the enormity of the resources at the disposal of the PDP with which it could rein its estranged members back into the fold.
I gave up on the seriousness of the APC about the 2015 elections when I first read about the party’s desire to work with members of the new PDP. Really? So the APC is as desperate as to welcome anyone who is estranged from his own party no matter where he is coming from? Even if someone as conservative as Godswill Akpabio picks a quarrel with the President today, the APC will go after him? Do they really think that these new PDP people are about to leave the PDP? Do they realize how much they promote the course of the PDP by the press statements that they issue in support of the new PDP and the junketing of the past few weeks? Where will they hide their faces when the PDP elements resolve their crisis and it becomes obvious that they have wasted their time courting people who never intended to leave their party ab initio.
And by traveling to see the Obasanjos, Babangidas, Abdulsalamis and what have you of the world, the APC is sort of promoting the same old politics of servitude, the same politics of godfathers, which we must jettison to promote a systems that respects the will of the people. That is the way a progressive party should go such that even if it does not win the 2015 elections, it would continue to get itself in the minds of the people and position for future elections. This power at all lost idea is as conservative as the word could ever come.
On a final note, the only way in which the APC would be able to acquire any capital from the current PDP crisis and possibly benefit from it is to face its own challenges and show Nigerians the prospects that it holds for the future of the country. The APC must stop this opportunist participation in the PDP crisis, embark on own membership drive and sell themselves to the electorate before night falls. Adedokun is a Lagos based Public Relations practitioner.