PDP’s Second Chance At A New Life – Azu Ishiekwene

Agency ReporterDecember 8, 2017

0 2 minutes read

The party would have been over by now. Peoples Democratic Party stalwart, Raymond Dokpesi, had, in fact, organised a mock funeral. When it seemed all but certain that the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction of the PDP was going to have the last laugh at the Supreme Court, Dokpesi registered the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA), as a fallback.

The party would have been over by now. Peoples Democratic Party stalwart, Raymond Dokpesi, had, in fact, organised a mock funeral.

When it seemed all but certain that the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction of the PDP was going to have the last laugh at the Supreme Court, Dokpesi registered the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA), as a fallback.

That move was viewed with spite and suspicion, but at the time, I think mercy killing for PDP ought to have been seen as an act of generosity. The party had been hemorrhaging for years, and actually lapsed into the final throes of death after its defeat in the 2015 general election.

Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in May, however, the PDP has a second chance at another life. But PDP being PDP, the headline at this week’s convention of the party is power sharing. It’s a do-or-die affair not only for the eight main contestants for the post of Chairman and other executive positions but also for their sponsors inside and outside the party for whom this convention is a continuation of war by other means.

The contest for the soul of the party this weekend is fully charged, especially with the defection, yet again, of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and the interim Chairman Ahmed Makarfi not ruling out interest in the PDP’s presidential ticket.

For a party coming from the brink and with less than two years to the next general election, the haste to get a new executive is understandable. In the winner-takes-all climate of the presidential system, particularly our own presidential system, it’s a miserable thing to be out of power.

Beyond power-sharing, however, I’ve been looking in vain for signs that the party has learned its lessons, without which it might continue to languish.

Contest for power will always be nasty. But PDP is where it is today not because it did not have power but because it got careless with it. If the convention will be a chance for a fresh start, it is yet to show from the posture, tone, and actions of the leaders of the party.

Much like in the past when “share the money!” was the refrain from the rank-and-file in my village each time PDP was mentioned, the leaders of the party appear so obsessed with recapturing power in 2019 that the party may just be about to repeat the same mistakes that brought it down in the first place.

The biggest prize at Saturday’s convention, it seems, will go to anyone who promises to bring the PDP back to power in 2019. On Tuesday, Makarfi even begged Atiku to make it happen again. Before that, former President Goodluck Jonathan said he would not sleep until the party is returned to power.

The crisis in the party – to zone or not to zone, to micro-zone or not to micro-zone – is all about who becomes the party’s presidential material for the next election.