The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worsened last week when a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja under Justice Okon Abang declared Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the national chairman of the party. Its judgment also nullified the appointment of Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the care-taker committee national chairman and set August 15th 2016 for hearing of the application to stop the party’s national convention slated for August 17th 2016. These came at a time when stakeholders in Nigerian politics started seeing signs that the country’s biggest opposition party may be finally putting its house in order and performing a vital role in deepening democracy.
Next to a coup, the worst threat to democracy is the absence of a coherent opposition. An opposition mired in deadly power struggle within itself is an immediate danger that needs to be tackled expeditiously. The first port of call would have to be the judiciary where three sister courts of coordinate jurisdiction sitting in Port-Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja, declared three different verdicts on the same leadership tussle within weeks of one another.
These disparate judgements cannot all be correct and even without imputing criminal intent on the judges, their decisions only serve to confuse the PDP members and all Nigerians as well as ridicule the judiciary. Already, there are open threats to defy the courts. According to a press statement by the Makarfi faction’s spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, “Justice Okon Abang can give Ali Modu Sheriff thousands of court orders and that will not stop us from going ahead with the planned national convention and other activities we intend to carry out.” The National Judicial Council must hasten to get to the roots of this seeming shenanigan as well as the charge by President Muhammadu Buhari that the third arm of government is slowing down the war against corruption.
Politics-wise, we commend the staying power and courage of PDP members, including those currently battling for its leadership, who identify with the party after the inglorious defeat by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections. Nigerian politicians rarely accept the role of opposition since it hardly pays. The party’s membership should, therefore, be encouraged and empowered to stay the course and offer constructive criticism in the overall interest of Nigeria. All obstacles on its path to performing the role of a credible opposition must be removed without delay.
Self-examination remains the greatest tool for the erstwhile ruling party to discover its major mistake(s) and this reveals impunity as the single biggest factor leading to its ouster from power at the center. The lack of internal democracy that characterised and eventually crashed the PDP machinery needs to give way to the rule of law and respect for ethics and morals. Overbearing organs such as the National Executive Committee and the National Working Committee should return power to the ordinary members if it is to gather any strength in the years ahead or even possibly before the next national convention. Ahead of the now contentious August 17th national convention, the PDP allocated 11 party positions to the North while the South got 10. Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, chairman of the zoning committee, said the party resolved that the chairmanship be zoned to the South since the May 2016 national convention of the party zoned the 2019 presidential ticket to the North.
These steps show a serious attempt to undo the undemocratic deeds that preceded the PDP’s defeat in the last polls.
The new PDP leadership to come on board should also accept responsibility in whatever other ways it may have contributed to the woes of Nigeria which is currently in a sorry state. Condemning the ongoing war against corruption as biased or partisan suggests lack of repentance. As the political organisation in power between 1999 and 2015, it must have a larger proportion of its members indicted than others. The party should comprehensively apologize to all Nigerians and henceforth commit to focusing only on the real problems bedeviling the people and proffering cogent and competent solutions to the issues facing the nation. They should learn to show more restraint and maturity as they point out the weaknesses of this administration and proffer sound solutions and better alternatives to their policies and programs.
With over 70 per cent of Nigeria’s 188 million population below the age of 35, any serious opposition party can raise followership by transforming into a youth-oriented party. The PDP could, therefore, use its 16 years experience in power to cultivate, empower and mentor the teeming young generation to become the centre of focus for the new rebranded party that Nigeria needs to serve as opposition.
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