By Emeka Alex Duru
With the submission of report by the Governor Bala Mohammed-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Review Panel, the politics and intrigues surrounding the presidential ticket of the leading opposition party, may have tactically taken off. With the development, the future of the party, is also at stake. The committee was, which submitted its report on Wednesday, March 17, was set up to study the circumstances that led to the party’s loss of the 2019 election and proffer solution for a future victory. The crux of its recommendation was to throw open the party’s presidential ticket to all members irrespective of their geo-political zones. “We think that every Nigerian, from every part of the country, should be given the opportunity to choose the best candidate, through a credible primary election; as a way of institutionalising a merit-based leadership recruitment process for the country”, the panelists submitted.
The committee added: “In line with certain unwritten conventions of the nation’s history, many people think that, for fairness and equity, the Northeast and Southeast geo-political zones that have had the shortest stints at the Presidency, should be given special consideration, in choosing the presidential flag bearer of the party for the 2023 elections.
“While we admit that this is a strong argument, we should not lose sight of the fact that Nigeria is endowed with many capable and very experienced leaders in every part of the country.
“Moreover, the exigencies of the moment demand that nothing should be compromised in choosing the leader, with the attributes to disentangle the country from its present quagmire.
“Therefore, we think that every Nigerian, from every part of the country, should be given the opportunity to choose the best candidate, through a credible primary election; as a way of institutionalising a merit-based leadership recruitment process for the country.
“The summary of our report is that the party must promote practices that will deepen democracy, promote national unity and inspire greater faith in our country, especially, among the youth and the several stakeholder groups yearning for inclusion”. Other members of the committee are Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe; former Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, Senator Stella Omu and Emmanuel Agbo (Secretary). This may signal the end of zoning principle in the PDP leadership recruitment process, if the party’s hierarchy accepts the recommendation.
Whither the PDP?
The extent this report will go in cementing or widening the cracks in the party, will play out with time. But already, there are echoes of frustration in the South East and South-South where the party has had its strongest support since its formation in 1998. Members from the two zones are insinuating being used and dumped by the party they had worked for all the while. A founding member from Anambra State who pleaded anonymity confided to our reporter that in the event of the party leadership accepting the report, chieftains from the East may consider mass defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC). “We cannot work for a party that does not consider our interest and that of our people. Enough is enough”, he fumed.
National Chairman Uche Secondus, who received the report said the PDP is leaving no stone unturned to ensure it regains federal power, adding that the report is going to be the takeoff point and keystone to subsequent actions ahead of 2023. He added that relying on the recommendations of the report, the National Working Committee of the party will work with think tanks, consultants and all critical stakeholders of the party to enhance the new PDP narratives that will help address the yawning absence of leadership in the country. Such declarations are hardly lacking in PDP.
From inception in 1998, PDP has not been found wanting in advertising its intention at giving Nigerians a platform for attainment of enduring democracy.
The problem, however, is that at the point of delivery, when it matters most, it is usually another story for the organisation that prides itself as the largest political party in black Africa. On such occasions, members speak in discordant tones, the Umbrella, its logo, literally gets torn and its enticing motto – power to the people – gets compromised or totally jettisoned. And the hawks, usually in its fold, take over. This is the challenge facing the PDP in handling the Governor Mohammed panel report.
A party and its ideals
At its formation on July 29, 1998, the facilitators of PDP were guided by far reaching visions. They had dreamed of a party that would put the Nigerian nation on a new phase of political engineering.
They had declared to put in place a political platform that would ensure a “re-creation of civil political institutions, reconciliation of Nigeria, rekindling of the spirit of unity and brotherhood in the polity and the revitalization of powers of the people to build a prosperous industrial democracy”. They had also aimed at bringing together all patriotic and like-minded Nigerians into a single formidable party capable of renewing and refocusing the loyalties and productive energies of the nation to work for national reconciliation, economic and social reconstruction, respect for human rights and rule of law and to restructure the country in the true spirit of federalism.
Their objective was to erect a frame work that would ensure a just and equitable distribution of power, resources, wealth and opportunities to conform with the principles of power shift and power sharing, rotation of key political offices and equitable devolution of powers to zones, states and local governments so as to create socio-political conditions conducive to national unity and to defend the sanctity of electoral democracy.
The encompassing principles of the party were adequately complemented by an embracing motto – Justice, Unity and Progress, while the slogan of the party, instructively acceded “power to the people”. To add up, the PDP had in its fold a generous spread of the nation’s first rate politicians. It also appropriated to itself the tag of the largest party in black Africa. In a way, its claim of greatness had paid off initially as it had garnered many electoral victories, though, often questionable in some cases.
Darkness falls
But side by side its victories at the polls, the party, in irony of sorts, got enmeshed in crises, most of which were traced to the contradictions by its successive leadership especially in the conduct of its affairs.
By 2015, Nigerians had had enough of the untoward activities of the PDP. In the general elections of the year, the party was decisively routed by the then fledgling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Dazed by the unexpected blow from APC and faced with the unenviable choice of playing the role of the opposition in the odious winner-takes-all Nigerian system, PDP has been in disarray, ever since. Consequently, some of its chieftains, not prepared for the new under-dog status of the party, left for the APC with their supporters. How the party goes about the contentious zoning principle will determine how far it would go in 2023.