Needless Quest For Worthless PDP Chairmanship.

By Peter Claver Oparah.

I have been crossed with all the huffs and puffs of some Igbo politicians in their quest for the position of the PDP National Chairman, a position that keeps receding as the speculators and political mercantilists in Igboland intensify their campaign for it. I am crossed that Igbo are being led to fight and struggle over nothing while the spoils and offices have been shared out among other tribes in Nigeria. Watching the deadly quest for space with which the crust of Igbo political buccaneers struggle for the PDP chairmanship, one would be led to believe the post has improved from its ineffectual role of servicing the territorial and imperial needs of whoever emerges the president under the PDP. The present battle for the PDP chairmanship demonstrates the sorry state of Igbo politics and shows the depth Igbo, as a race has been crashed into by eight unending years of barren, selfish and fruitless politics in the PDP. It shows the level of decay Igbo politics has plunged into and the generality of Ndigbo, who are living to witness the present rat race for a position, with no clear identifiable benefit for Ndigbo but the upping of the selfish interests of whoever gets to nip it, are helpless so long as it is embedded in the bizarre cannibalism that is being passed off as our politics.

I don’t really know the benefits derivable from such a vacuous position as the PDP chairmanship, the same way I am flustered that a brood of later-day Igbo mercantilists, masquerading as politicians, who have wasted their most productive years, playing a satellite role for politicians from other climes, are now making that position that has no executive commanding effect, as the best thing God could deign to bless us with. I am yet to know how the people that occupied that office helped the North Central political region, where it is domiciled for the past eight years and I am yet to know the level of satisfaction an average Middle Belter derived from that position that was tossed around like a terrible coin by the former malevolent dictator, Olusegun Obasanjo till he rested it on the laps of his choice valet and a soulless marionette, Ahmadu Alli. I am yet to hear any of the warring subalterns from Igboland, who have now happened on the national chairmanship of the PDP as the just reward for our race after eight years of unprincipled servitude to the PDP, tell us how that position can enhance the bad and sorry fate of Ndigbo. I am yet to hear how the PDP chairmanship translates to the political eldorado of a people who have been provoked repeatedly by the annoying effort of the same PDP to humiliate and deny Igbo their basic rights.

But it bears no further stressing that the PDP chairmanship for which choice Obasanjo lackeys in the South East have lined up, has no relevance to Ndigbo and does not suffice as an alternative to the positions which the same PDP denied Ndigbo in sharing their undeserved booties; fruits of their gregarious electoral fraudulence and thievery for the past eight years. The PDP chairmanship is an exclusive party position that exists at the pleasure and whims of the presidency. A PDP chairman is as removable as the presidential dishwasher and except for the mess of porridge the occupier curries while servicing the fawning needs of the president; there is no great merit traceable to that position. As has been shown by Obasanjo, the PDP chairman exists at the pleasure of the president and thrives in whatever he deems his business so long as he panders, soullessly to the idiosyncrasies and fun of the president. The president requires no more than convening choice minions to Aso Rock for the PDP chairman to become jobless. If in doubt, ask Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade and Audu Ogbeh and there is no direct connect between what happens at the presidency and what the PDP chairman does. As has also been shown by Obasanjo, the more malleable and twistable one is, the more he is adapted and suited for the PDP chairmanship. The more one wears the garb of a marionette, with unquestionable, sheepish and undiluted loyalty to the president, the more one is deemed suited for the PDP chairmanship and the more one has the proclivity to stupidity and profane nonsense, the more he fits into the PDP chairmanship. I would not be surprised if the person that eventually emerges the PDP chairmanship turns out to the most stupid, the most malleable and the most vacuous among the lot that have donned their Christmas bests to contest for a come-and-chop position as the PDP chairmanship.

I am often amused at how the brood of pitiable menservants that dominate and make up the South East PDP makes the best out of any bad position that stands to enhance their equally pitiable interests as perennial crumb-pickers and irreverent boot-lickers to any person that can engage their demeaning service. I am amazed at their recovery rate when they are mauled by their counterparts from other parts of the country in any contest for forte. They are always quick to dress the horrible mess they are given and put such up as the best thing that can happen to Ndigbo. That was the case when the PDP deftly ignored their Igbo partners in sharing the loot that emanated from the unprecedented electoral fraud of April 2007. All the known profitable, influential and effective positions were shared out and Igbo never got anything worthwhile. Instead, they were told to wait for the chairmanship of the PDP and before long, this cabal started cavorting the dust bins and disused waste dumps for relevance for a position that is reserved to choice courtiers of the president. Having been grossly defeated by their counterparts from other zones, those that have earned medals of servitude to cabals that decrement Ndigbo, especially that of Obasanjo, dusted their weary campaign efforts and soon, Igbo was thrown into a frenzy for the contest of a position, which had yet to be vacant. Because a serf is carved in amenable and highly elastic frame, they are being made to expend so much blood, so much passion and so much acrimony over a position that lacks any definable power and which has been made increasingly tentative as they struggle on.

My take is that whoever wants is at liberty to advertise himself as presidential cook but he should not try to enfool Igbo by making such position look as our best. Since Ndigbo seems to have nurtured the ethos of individual enterprise and profiteering, I have nothing against any scavenger of Igbo extraction, engaging in any enterprise to improve his gluttonous rating among his co-scavengers but let such person not try to enlist Igbo in that self-serving business.  I have no qualms with any club of prurient lackeys electing wherever its bread is best buttered but the long-suffering, hard working and conscientious Igbo should be spared of the further humiliation of being dragged to honour such business.

If the PDP, in its crooked wisdom believes that its mealy-mouthed Igbo wing should fill its chairmanship position, with the known demeaning attachments to the post that makes it malleable to the whims of the president, so be it but that should not be made to look like a substitute to the constitutional rights and positions accruable to Ndigbo, which have been callously denied them, especially in the last eight years. The PDP chairmanship, let the issues be ironed out, cannot and will never equate to the constitutional positions from which the PDP screened off Ndigbo in its booty-sharing session, even with their claim of total Igbo support.  The PDP chairmanship is not a constitutional position that we should break our heads just because some political urchins with remote-controlled mindsets see it as another way to enhance their profiteering enterprises. Fact is that Ndigbo are being made to undergo their worst ever circle of marginalization because they have demonstrated the most acute sense of political myopia where they should have demonstrated the most tactical sense. Our cheap and unappreciated tagging with the loose, inchoate and clueless club called the PDP tops for this short-sightedness and is responsible for our present bad fate. 

 Peter Claver Oparah.

Ikeja, Lagos.

 E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 14.02.2008 20:59

Ochi Dabari  Villager

# 2 Peter, Your article on the zoning of the PDP chairmanship contained some valid points but failed to link in any way to the PDP consitution. From the most that I know of the PDP consitution, a lot of power resides in the position of Chairman. It is most similar to the Presidency of the ANC in South Africa. The ANC President is almost more powerful than the President of the country, assuming the latter is a member of the ANC. That's why there is now a death struggle between Zuma and Mbeki. Many of the middlebelters who held the position of the PDP Chairman, from Solomon Lar to Audu Ogbe understood that position, and tried to implement the rules as are in the consitution. The same may not be said of Ahmadu Ali, who deferred to Obasanjo as if the 2 were still at the army barracks. I am aware that the "malevolent dictator", to use your own words, changed the consitution of the PDP, and even before then kept referring to himself as the Leader of the Party. There is no position like the Leader of the Party in the PDP constitution; Obasanjo knew that, and the past chairmen knew it. Those who challenged it were shown the way out, and for Ali, it was a case of subservient yes-sir yes-sir all around. The PDP is a bunch of jobbers, who will belong to any association, so long there is something to chop. Those who could not stomach it left the party, and are now in the forefront of the war against Obasanjo, to leave the headship of the BOT. Come to think of it, the chairman of the BOT should be under the party Chairman, but Obasanjo has his unwritten rules, which now say that the BOT chair is bigger than the party Chairman and even the President of the country. Anenih, while he was BOT chair was not higher than the Chairman or President of the country, so why is it now that things will be different? Obasanjo needs to make himself as relevant as possible, to cover his fraud and the fraud being perpetrated by members of his family, that's why. Yar'Adua has not started to behave like Obasanjo yet but we must watch him. Once the courts confer legitimacy on him, he may begin to bare his fangs. We need a strong PDP Chairman that should remind him that he is a member of the PDP and therefore subject to the laws of the party. If this position has been zoned to the southeast, you should be part of the programme, if possible, to identify such a man or woman. I think the last Senate President is in that mould and needs support to get the position. A govt is made up of checks and balances. Such checks should come from the party too. We cannot afford to have the situation as it was under Obasanjo, or we will continue to be raped by fraudsters and incestors. ochi Posted by Ochi Dabari| 14.02.2008 23:56

bobuzoechi  Villager

# 3 Ochi has said everything. For the fact that Obj in his eight years misrule rendered the Powers of the PDP party chairman worthless and powerless does not make that position to be so. Now that we have a president who anchored his government on rule of law, I think the new PDP chairman will explore those powers attached to his position as written in the constitution of the PDP. The new party chairman will be able to curb the president’s excesses each time he goes off track and remind him he is a party man. And don’t forget the Party chairman will have greater say when it comes to ministerial and ambassadorial appointments. If Yaradua maintains his rule of Law policy and IF the next Party Chairman is not Obasanjo rubberstamped hand-puppet and remote control, the Igbo’s will benefit a lot from that position. I have my mind were Ochi is pointing at.. ANYIM P! Posted by bobuzoechi| 15.02.2008 06:31

PAPIG  Villager

# 4 Did i just hear you describe the PDP chairmanship as worthless? You certainly do not live in Nigeria. At least the PDP chairman is guaranteed a piece of the action in terms of sharing the oil money from the Niger Delta and even getting a piece from loots recovered from previous looters. Have we heard the full account of the Alamieyeseigha loot? What about Tafa Balogun's? Forget about the Abacha loot as no Nigerian official can give an account of where it is now domiciled. With OBJ as the chairman of the BOT, the chairman of the PDP will be in vantage position to get his or her own fair share. Until Obasanjo, Maurice Iwu, the looting governors and legislators are subjected to a comprehensive probe, this position would remain one of the most lucrative post in the annals of this lootocracy otherwise called the PDP government of Nigeria. We the people of Nigeria including myself have sold our souls to the looters. The devil himself is more benign than the looters of Nigeria and the citizenry have chosen to go to sleep. Posted by PAPIG| 15.02.2008 19:41

i-go-better  Villager

# 5 I put my signature on all points raised in this article. The mental agony these expired political fugitives from Igboland are puting us through needs urgent drastic remedy. When Obj visited Enugu in one of his do-or-die campaigns, he asked Igbos to show gratitude and vote for his PDP because he made one of their sons (Andy Uba) his main houseboy whose duty it was to see him to bed with lullabies and to wake him up. He received a very lively applauds for just that in 8yrs of unparalleled boom! Why then would anyone be surprised at these same people's excitement and elation at the wonderful opportunity of becoming the PDP Chairmanship Clown. Interestingly for this Chairmanship post, all you hear is, Obj annointed, IBB choice, Northern choice, even Anennih choice etc; nothing like Ekwueme choice, Ohanaeze candidate, Onoh etc ..., which means whoever emerges is already in unavoidable bondage and would have no meaningful impact on the socio-political upliftment of the Igbos. What a shame! They used the renegade Professor (an Igbo) to meticulously rig election for them and they meticulously 419ed his Igbo tribe during the sharing of the spoils. Igbos need to do something urgently, but what? Posted by i-go-better| 16.02.2008 20:24