PDP'S SELF DESTRUCTIVE QUARRELS AND GROWING IRRELEVANCE
AYO OLUKOTUN
Nigeria presents itself to the world in fascinating contrasts and as a study in unrealized expectations and beckoning greatness frustrated by adversity and self-inflicted wounds. Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg alluded on an optimistic note, to one dimension of the Nigerian paradox when he told a workshop in Lagos on Wednesday that despite the biting economic hardship "after being here, there is no way that this place (Nigeria), doesn't end up shaping the way things get done around the world".
It does not appear that Zuckerberg was merely speaking to please his growing clientele in Nigeria; rather he seemed earnest, echoing statements which several world leaders have made about Nigeria's manifest destiny. If the country will eventually transit from the current wilderness of deferred greatness to the world stage however, it must get among other things its democratic governance right, by alternating power smoothly between its major parties in free and fair elections. It is in this context that we worry about the looming erasure from the political map of the country the People's Democratic Party (PDP). Of course, it is easy to say good riddance if the PDP expires as a result of external pressure and ongoing bickering considering its many blemishes. In fact, several politicians and sympathizers of the ruling All Progressive Congress are already gloating at the travails of the PDP if for no other reason than that it would mean that a major rival has gone into extinction. It is difficult nonetheless for a true democrat to rejoice at the probable emergence of a one party state however virtuous that one party is. As this writer suggested in "PDP: An opposition party absent from duty" (The Punch, 6th May, 2016), democracy is the better and healthier for it when it is served by two major parties each with roughly equal chances of winning or losing General Elections. True, and as some politicians are already strategizing, another party may rise up from the ashes of the PDP but will such a party have the spread and the forte of the imploding PDP?
As known, the gravity of the current fractionalisation of the party is evident in the holding of rival primaries by the two major factions for the forthcoming Ondo State election, suggesting that the schisms are deep and hard to reconcile. Similarly, the crisis has thrown up a plethora of court cases and rival court rulings to the extent that it will be almost impossible to hold a National Convention without one side obtaining an injunction to abort it.
The unravelling of what was once proclaimed as Africa's largest party, projected to govern the country for 50 or so years carries with it a hint of tragedy mutating into farce as one observes the combatants displaying fervour at tackling their opponents without a trace of embarrassment or awareness that both parties in the fray are sealing the doom of their party. This blissful or pretended ignorance reminds one of Professor Larry Diamond's comment in his seminal book on Nigeria's First Republic that when actors driving on a narrow lane show no awareness of the fragile terrain in which they are acting, they provoke a Samson option in which all contending parties face destruction. It is possible of course as some have speculated that one of the disputing parties is merely playing the spoiler with instigation from the ruling party, becoming defiant in order to bring about a mutually assured destruction of the PDP.
Before carrying the narrative further however, this writer craves the reader's indulgence to enter a short take. Leading the commentariat at The Punch Newspaper is Prof. Niyi Akinnaso, famed Tuesday Columnist and until recently when he retired from the United States the occupant of two prestigious Chairs at Temple University, Philadelphia, one in Anthropology the other in Linguistics. Naturally, I pay close attention to Akinnaso's responses to my column and was very pleased when last week he wrote an incisive rejoinder to my piece on global and national dimensions of leadership diminution (The Punch, August 26, 2016). Applauding the cross cultural and comparative scope of the essay, Akinnaso went on to say that in order to avoid the ruling APC basking in the glow of belonging to an elite group of nations with diminished leadership, it is important to point up mitigating factors which cushion the citizens of advanced democracies. These factors according to him include systems in which the rule of law take pre-eminence, world class infrastructure and effective institutions. A citizen of the world, Akinnaso is right on the money in appreciating that while leadership diminution is global, its consequences vary depending of the level of political and economic development of respective countries. Hence, however incompetent or unpopular President Francois Hollande of France gets, the state structures in France guarantee minimum benefits and standards of living to French citizens. Obviously, we are not so lucky in these parts because we are citizens or subjects of ephemeral state structures belonging to nations waiting to be built. But now we must quicken the pace of construction and redemption of past failures so that Nigerians don't suffer too much.
To go back to the main discourse, it will be unfortunate if the PDP lapses and pushes itself off the national stage because of real and contrived problems. Tensions and conflicts are to be expected in all organisations large or small; the larger, the more likely they will incubate conflicts. Indeed, some conflicts can be creative if they lead to organisational renewal or bring about an important reformulation of strategies, goals and tactics. There is no hint however that the conflicts in the PDP, denaturing and festering, have anything to with noble visions or ideals that can restart the party. Hence, at a time when Nigerians are in need of an effective opposition to both act as a check on the ruling party and to sign post better days to come, the PDP, or some of its leaders regale themselves with tactical victories obtained at the cost of pushing their party more and more into ruins.
Ordinarily, the statement credited to Deji Adeyanju, Director, New Media of the PDP on Thursday to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari should pay close attention to the economy or resign should have attracted some mileage. But if Buhari wants to be cynical, his spokespersons can ask Adeyanju whether he is speaking for the Ahmed Makarfi faction or the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party. In other words, nobody can take seriously a party so divided and which has made political differences of combatants a priority issue. It is possible that the PDP wary of the consequences of their collective abasement and their impact on our fragile democracy will allow common sense to prevail and build bridges across the current divides. If this happens quickly enough, the party may yet be rescued from its current suicidal journey from irrelevance to extinction.
In the unlikely event that the party overcomes its current troubles, it will wobble on as an inconsequential player in the scheme of things. However that goes, our democracy needs a vibrant opposition party to move the country to the next stage of democratic consolidation.
No comments:
Post a Comment