and led into the October 1917 revolution by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin which he consolidated until his death in 1924, from the word go, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was hijacked by those who did not form it. From G-18 to the larger G-34, neither Olusegun Obasanjo nor Goodluck Jonathan was near the groups that would later transform into the PDP. Those who formed the two groups were Dr Alex Ekwueme, Malam Adamu Ciroma, Muhammed Abubakar Rimi, Chief Bola Ige, Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Professor Jerry Gana and the like who sought to form a formidable political party to lead Nigeria in the wake of the 10-month transition unfolded by General Abdul Salami Abubakar, the man who succeeded Abacha.
General Abdul Salami was looking for a candidate his military constituency could trust. Naturally, he consulted Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Theophilus Danjuma, among others, and together they all conspired to hoist the good old despot, Obasanjo, on the country. Obasanjo was aware of the desperate attempt by the Abdul Salami regime to rekindle a tottering national unity and re-establish a consensus in the face of deep social division, political mistrust and bitterness left by the dictatorship of General Abacha who had just died in the Presidential Villa.
Accordingly, Obasanjo was spirited out of prison where he was serving life term, pardoned and put at the head of the presidential ticket of the PDP culminating in his election in 1999. Notwithstanding his two terms in power terminating in 2007, Obasanjo failed to make the desired impact. Aware of this, he sought to amend the constitution and extend his tenure, and when this failed, he chose as his successor the ill-prepared and sickly Umaru Musa Yar’adua. From those times, the affairs of PDP began to be personalised. Obasanjo was PDP; he sacked Solomon Lar and brought in Audu Ogbeh and then Gemade. He was the leader of PDP and its chairmen served at his pleasure. But Umaru Yar’adua had a completely different orientation and he distanced himself from political authoritarianism, calling himself a servant-leader.
Enter President Goodluck Jonathan, who now intends to completely use the PDP and state institutions to displace his opponents and eliminate opposition to his undeclared ambition for second term in 2015, which, although denied, is thick in the air. Even the veteran dictator, Obasanjo himself, has been upstaged from any kind of control of the ruling party: first he resigned as chairman Board of Trustees from where he wanted to control the presidency itself and this was followed by the sacking of his protégés.
At the heart of the crisis of the PDP therefore is Jonathan’s unyielding ambition to hang on to power beyond 2015 in spite of the commitments he and his party had made to other tendencies in the party. The rejection of zoning of power and the repudiation of the single term pact are clearly unacceptable to the northern wing of the party.
Thus, events unfolded rapidly inside the ruling party last week as this wing of the PDP finally broke off from the rest. At the party’s convention on Saturday, 31 August, 2013, seven of its governors, in broad daylight, walked out of the leader of the party and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR. Instead of them to go home, they went to the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre and announced the birth of what they called The New PDP.
Is the formation of the New PDP by the likes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Muazu Babangida of Niger, Ahmed Abdul Fatah of Kwara and Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers and a host of others the logical outcome of the consultations embarked upon by the five PDP governors? If so, it complicates the calculations for 2015, especially for those rooting for a president from the North.
Going by the experience of one of their buddies, Atiku Abubakar, it is expected that by now stalwarts of the New PDP know exactly what they are up against. Firstly, there cannot be reconciliation with the old PDP, except on their terms, whatever they are. These terms vary: Is it simply the replacement of Tukur as chairman of the ruling party? Is it a reaffirmation in public by Jonathan that he will not run for the presidency in 2015? Is it the re-admission of Rotimi Amaechi into the party and his recognition as the chairman of the Governors’ Forum? So far these are some of the demands variously made by those in the New PDP? Is it the resolution of one or two or all of these that will pacify the rebels?
Secondly, they must have known by now that all the institutions of the state are going to be mobilised to deal with them, including EFCC. Is this something they are ready to stand up to? This is because after they left the convention Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the chairman of the Old PDP, made sinister remarks and promised resistance, though the mere fact that it is Tukur that is now resisting means that the carpet is moving under his huge, tired feet. Tukur was quoted as saying: “The PDP does not recognise any parallel party. Those who staged the walk out…are all self-seeking and treacherous individuals pursuing neither regional nor religious agenda, except their own agenda, their own self interest”. Who really is treacherous against whose interest?
Doubling up as a judge, Tukur continued: “Their attempt to create a parallel party is illegal, unlawful and there are no crises within the party whatsoever…. The PDP is studying the situation as it unfolds and will deal decisively as the situation warrants. It is obvious that they are creating crisis where there is none to give the impression that the party is divided. This in their thinking will allow them persuade loyal members of the National Assembly to cross carpet with them. We will resist this”. But the repeated establishment of reconciliation and disciplinary committees contradicts Tukur’s denial of the burgeoning crisis in the party.
Those in New PDP, in addition to their age old ideology of “food is ready, come and chop”, are finally admitting that their party has failed the country. To save political careers and stave off enormous losses in 2015, its founders understand that it is time to widen the dining table to accommodate more people to “come and chop”. Will the New PDP stay outside the old one? Will the New PDP led by Atiku maintain its solidarity with Obasanjo? Or will they go to APC, PDM or VOP? Just how long is this walk? Time will tell.