The sad turn of events in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with the suspension of key members of the Abubakar Baraje-led splinter group, is another damaging commentary on the abysmal failure of the PDP to meet the very basic requirements of discipline, unity of thought and action. It is also a sickening reflection of the despicable depth of politicking which testifies to the incapacity of the governing party to even self-govern. That the crisis is a self-aggrandizement and personality cult rampage; totally unconnected with any well-formulated political ideology to transform Nigeria, is even more shameful. Contrary to public expectations or the demand of these trying times, the PDP has become one more source of disturbance and distraction, turning its internal troubles, fueled by ego and vanity, into the trouble of Nigeria and its people. This demonization of democracy is evidently a betrayal of the Nigerian people.
The PDP crisis that has brought the Bamanga Tukur leadership into a serious face-off with the group of seven (G-7) aggrieved governors came to a climax on August 31, 2013 when the governors and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and their supporters stormed out of the party’s mini convention to announce a break-away faction led by Baraje. Since then, the PDP leadership has been locked in frenzied but obviously haphazard efforts to mend fences with the G-7, as senior officials like BoT Chairman, Tony Anenih, continue negotiating conditions of their return to the mainstream PDP. But Tukur vehemently opposes the negotiations and wants his pound of flesh from the G-7.
Against this background, the suspension of the National Chairman of the splinter group, Baraje, the just reinstated PDP National Secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and the National Deputy Chairman of the splinter group, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja signals that Tukur is winning the argument and pushing ahead with the new strategy, to develop parallel PDP networks in all the states controlled by the rebel governors. In a sinister maneuver to torpedo the court ruling, the PDP leadership in a letter dated November 12, 2013 and signed by Tukur, informed INEC of the suspension of Baraje, Sam Jaja, Oyinlola and Kazaure from the party, for “anti-party activities.” But barely 24 hours after his suspension, Oyinlola, in two separate letters, alerted the PDP and INEC of the November 6, 2013 court judgment and asked that he be accorded immediate recognition and treated as the administrative and accounting officer of the PDP.
As the crisis persists, it is pertinent to note that democracy is not just under assault, it is now being put to the kind of shame that threatens its existence. Inadvertently or not, the fact remains that the country by default is headed towards a protracted legal fracas. The nullification of the judgment of the Federal High court by the Court of Appeal – a superior court of competent jurisdiction – has grave implications, not the least is that Oyinlola remains PDP national secretary and only the Supreme Court can reverse that decision. It is therefore a fact of law that any other person parading himself as national secretary of PDP is liable for contempt of court. The ruling further complicates the case for the name of the PDP as both sides await court verdicts over who is the legitimate PDP.
With this confusion, comes a predilection for unsavory consequences. It is an irony of fate that the PDP which was quick in implementing a court order removing Oyinlola from office has not shown the same urgency in reinstating him. This absence of stately comportment by persons, who, by authority and common trust are supposed to be custodians of the rule of law, is hugely disturbing. It heightens impunity, which gives vent to incessant high level official rascality, by mediocre politicians, who, willfully or ignorantly, lack the requisite knowledge, capacity or temperament for governance. While the crisis has engendered debate about the future of the PDP and the democratic process in Nigeria, it has also exposed the so-called largest party in Africa; as nothing other than a special purpose vehicle for political contractors and sundry jobbers and predators for acquiring power for its own sake, reducing government to a big business, and impoverishing the people so mindlessly they have neither chance nor voice to dissent.
Honestly, it is no use trading arguments because the crisis does little credit to the image of Nigeria’s democracy. Ordinarily, the crisis should be the internal affair of the party; too trivial to be the concern of a whole nation, and too inconsequential to emasculate the destiny of a people. In civilized democracies, where democratic values have been sufficiently implanted in the soul, mind and spirit of the people and imbibed as tenets and societal norms, this would pass for mere mundane issue. That will exclusively be a party affair or in PDP’s familiar term “a family affair” that has little or nothing to do with the generality of Nigerians. It is a sad commentary on the character of Nigerian politicians that the crisis continues to dominate the air waves. Needless and distracting, it is deafening and getting volatile by the day, threatening the fabrics of Nigeria. This escalation is unpatriotic and unacceptable. It should stop immediately.
What Nigerians expect from the party that has monopolized power at the center are policies that will directly impact on their lives and conditions. Since the beginning of the current democratic dispensation, life for ordinary citizens has been generally difficult, compounded by ravaging poverty and increasing despondency. Nigerians are in dire need of life-changing policies. They look endlessly to the PDP not just to legislate happiness, prosperity and life more abundant into Nigeria but also to reflect their mood and circumstances in carriage and comportment. If the PDP is truly representatives of the people, sobriety would be palpable in the conduct of its official business to reflect the mood of a people in despair, bogged down by poverty, unemployment, diseases and a decrepit state of infrastructure.
The PDP will stand or fall on account of how it eventually faces its own internal contradictions. The party has become a burden, overbearing and suffocating in its excesses to the point that it has suffered a colossal loss of credibility. This is not only bad for the party; it may actually cause the President outright loss of goodwill and electoral value in 2015. The party needs to do more to show that it represents the best of democratic ethos and Nigeria’s values. Nigerians have had enough of this negative politics; they neither need nor deserve the marauding gang of PDP opportunists driven by the modern madness of primitive material accumulation and conspicuous consumption. What is required of the PDP leadership is to end the desperation over 2015 and concentrate on governance and service delivery to the people. Nigeria needs peace but it can never be achieved by Machiavellian tactics that keep the people asunder in order for certain persons to remain in power.