19 Mar 2005 |
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| To say that the PDP, the People’s Democratic Party or the People’s Destructive Party, depending on which side of the divide one finds oneself, is an organisation of incongruous bed fellows, would be stating just the obvious, and hence a gross understatement. From its days as an organisation known as the G-34 to the election rigging party and sundry seemingly intractable party wranglings, the different forces that people the PDP, fondly called the largest political party in black Africa, like the jungle law of survival of the fittest, each interest had often gone for the other’s jocular with a ringing familiarity of party politics in Nigeria. The PDP is a cult; there is no doubt about it. Even to the unsuspecting onlooker, cult activities and their attendant outcome have blossomed in Africa’s largest party. And like every other cult groups, their punishment is selective and meted at the will of the ‘capone’, the elders and other influential members will eat their young with as much interest as batting an eyelid. Nigeria, being the most populous black nation on planet earth, we are told can not afford to become a failed state a la Somalia or Afghanistan. With its abundant human and natural resources, the consequences will be chaos unlimited to its immediate neighbours in West Africa, then Africa itself with an amazing ripple effect on the world economy. With we are imagining is a kind of Tsunami, a devastating wave with crippling economic consequences. The International Community is aware and will do everything possible to avoid this. But what about the PDP? The largest party in Africa is gradually but steadily crumbling, and no one seems in the least perturbed. We have come a long way from the days when the nascent democratic experience stood on the tripod of the PDP, the AD and the ANPP, and have swiftly moved to a near one party state, the tripod dangerously leaning toward the PDP angle with the other two stands mortally wounded (it is said in some quarters that the burial rites of passage of the AD are already being prepared since a dirge is already being song for her, while the ANPP, being anything but all Nigerian in name, is confined to the backwaters of Shari’ a inspired states of the North, who see the party as their only stage to attaining political relevance.) The PDP, through an infamous rigging formula that made the exercise of 1982 look childish, brutish assassination of undesirable party members, INEC connivance spiced with Police brutality, swooped with an eagle-like predatory instinct over the Southwest, leaving only the carcass for AD to feed on. The same story of intimidation and harassment saw the ANPP loosen its grip over most of the North Central and North Eastern states. There in lies PDP’s greatest misgivings. The first shot was fired in Anambra. In a bizarre display of Hollywood scripting, a PDP elected governor was abducted by the Police with the blessing of the presidency, in an audacious but nonetheless shameless assault on democracy and all its tenets. In a swift reaction, but to the utter dismay of the civilised world, PDP termed it a family affair, a quarrel between two irascible brothers, and ordered them to go home to ‘settle.’ Chinua Achebe, a globally revered literary icon from Anambra state lamented on how things with active connivance from the president had decided on the plunder and pillage of his state. The actions and inactions of the PDP in Anambra has been a constant reminder of how depraved the human mind can go when obsessed with ephemeral lure of power. With frightening regularity, we have witnessed the House of Assembly members and Senators with a common denominator, being thrown out of the National Assembly thereby exposing the charade that was the last general elections that the PDP claimed victory; many are still pending, like the one against Mr President at the Supreme Court. What a show of shame! Some of these Uba candidates had produced spurious evidences that were most unfortunately corroborated by INEC, the body that should have been the unbiased umpire. They forgot the truism that the mandate of the people can be defiled for a while, but truth ultimately prevails… Then there is Joshua Dariye, the executive Governor of Plateau State, a PDP controlled state. It started with sporadic riots, of course politically fuelled by the power hungry elites of the state using the indigene/settle phenomenon as a veritable portent powder keg. Then the state of emergency and the sacking of Dariye and the State House of Assembly for six months. Presently, the Governor is having a running battle with the courts on charges of money laundering and sundry economic crimes, with the London Metropolitan Police and EFCC as chief prosecutors. With the immunity clause on public officers being the main albatross, it may end up being another PDP victory or is it victory to the PDP. Who says the PDP isn’t marching forward. Audu Ogbe, the erstwhile chairman of the PDP was a man who believed in party discipline, at least to a reasonable measure. Audu Ogbe is not particularly me idea of a hero figure, because I consider him very guilty of all the perfidy that our nascent democracy has suffered, particularly the excesses and infamy that characterised the ‘419’ elections, and his entire chairmanship of the PDP. However, the manner of his removal speaks volumes of the power play, intrigues and obsession that is the PDP. In a rare show of bravado, Ogbe had written to OBJ on certain issues of national interest, Anambra being the main topic of the menu. Whether the said letter was consciously leaked to the press or not is a topic for another day. But I am sure Nigerians would never have known where the party chairman and the president stood on these burning issues. Because Ogbe dared looked the maximum leader in the face, it no longer mattered if he were the chairman of the party; his days as PDP helmsman became numbered. From intimidation to forced resignation, Ogbe left the PDP, probably a worse place than he met it. Retired Col. Ali of the infamous ‘Ali must go…’ is now the new chief. Ali, a former OBJ appointee, has completed the rounding of the PDP party machinery for the Khalifa. As supreme leader, party issues will be ratified by OBJ, who is now seemingly above the law, before implementation. Viva PDP. Being an ex military man just like his boss, Ali understands what discipline is all about. Little portions of opposition must be stifled before they become over bloated. Other seemingly intractable issues must be decisively dealt with. There in the military style expulsion of Gov. Chris Ngige and Chris Uba as members of the ruling PDP. With this expulsion, two likely scenarios may play out: Uba may continue with his penchant for the destruction of life and property in Anmbra state with unbridled enthusiasm, now that he is no longer confined by the weak dictates called the PDP constitution. With the Police on his side, and now and estranged member of the PDP brotherhood, there will be no more family affairs to settle ‘amicably.’ For Gov. Ngige, this could well be the final chapter in the well orchestrated script to strip him ultimately of everything power, in all its strapping. Standing alone in the scorching tropical sun, at the mercy of the supremely powerful forces arrayed not just against his soul, but that of Anambra state, he may likely run into the inviting arms of any of the already mortally wounded parties earlier mention, a canon fodder for impeachment by a PDP dominated State House of Assembly or simply resign, convinced that he has given his all in this fight for truth and justice. Either way, Gov. Ngige is doomed as he dances the last refrains of the dance of Fate which ironically, he wittingly or unwittingly set in motion. The PDP chicken is gradually coming home to roost. The elections of 2007, with the desperate and disparate moves of the main contenders such as IBB, Atiku and Marwa, way well be its swan-song. The consequences are unimaginable with frightening repercussions on this great nation called Nigeria. Now may well be the right time to start composing a dirge for the People’s Democratic Party, Africa’s largest political party, for when crocodiles decide to start eating their own eggs, what would they not do to the egg of an ostrich…? God is watching us. awaiykaen@yahoo.fr |
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