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THE NEW PDP (nPDP) AND THIER CHANCES
*THE breakaway of a faction has lifted the whole power play in the PDP party to a new crescendo. The stake is upped and each one is fighting for its own survival.
The way the situation is now, it is either going to be a zero sum game, where the winner takes all or the loser crashes. In the alternative, a much more subdued PDP will emerge. The situation is already creating orgasmic reactions from the opposition parties. How did things get to this sorry pass? The seed has been sown right from the time of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo as president of the country.
Arbitrariness was the order of the day. People were appointed and removed at the whims of those in authority. During Obasanjo's tenure alone, the PDP had five chairmen of the party and five Senate presidents within eight years - indeed a world record. In the process, so many members were alienated. The same methods were used to impose Yar'Adua and Jonathan as president and vice president, respectively.
Many of them, including Atiku, left for other parties. The short span of Yar'Adua's reign did not allow us to assess the extent he would have gone in the use of presidential powers but a few people like El- Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu got a taste of it. Jonathan came as a gentleman, ready to compromise with everybody, unfortunately, already aggrieved members, having learnt their lessons under Obasanjo, plotted to regain control of the PDP. Jonathan does not have the military background and ruthlessness of Obasanjo and in attempting to use Obasanjo's strategies to make the party toe the line, he is finding great resistance.
That is the situation of the PDP. In a very simplistic manner, the problems of the PDP can be solved if all of the participants agree to subject themselves to a true democratic process, beginning from the state level. If the wishes of the PDP in terms of the majority are allowed to reign, then everybody can go to sleep. Unfortunately, this has not been possible -Anambra, Rivers, Adamawa - to mention but a few states, are still deadlocked on who their true representatives should be. Therefore, as the party cannot carry out genuine democratic elections within, the fight must go on.
The battle is now between Jonathan and Atiku's faction. Will Atiku succeed? Why is he - Atiku- still insisting on being a member of the PDP? What does he stand to gain? Will it not be better for him and acolytes to go and form a party of their own instead of the roforofo fight they are staging? Or is the whole thing just a gimmick to gain control of the ruling party, as that is where the juice is? Time will tell. There is no need over-flogging the issue that President Jonathan and his political strategists mismanaged the affairs of the Rivers State crises. A simple sincere face- to-face discussion with Amaechi would have put the whole thing to rest. Allowing the interest of the President's wife to interfere with the interest of the party was a big mistake.
Amaechi knows that his political survival is at stake if allowed to be bullied into submission; his political career will be over. He is, therefore, like a goat that has his back on the wall, he either wins it or lose everything. He has teamed up with the North whose politicians want the presidency to revert back to them. How will the PDP handle the issue of Amaechi? It is a sore thumb and must be delicately handled. It must be noted here that, if Amaechi is persuaded to revert back to Jonathan, the remaining governors will be from the North, it will then, become a North - South thing.
Can Amaechi be prised away from the group? Amaechi, from his antecedents, is a very good political strategist. How will the Jonathan group appease him? We are reading from the papers that the elders of the PDP are meeting to find a solution to the whole crises. Where were these elders all these while? Why did they allow the situation to get this far? Was it in their interest to allow the crises to degenerate to prove their importance to the party? If they have not found solutions to the party crises all these while, how can they do so now? Do they belong to factions in the PDP?
The elders will have to clarify their stand and unless they tackle these issues sincerely, no headway will come out of it. Basically, the whole thing is a chess game. According to a Chinese proverb: "No one walks out of his home without a purpose". What do the rebellious governors want? Sule Lamido's ambition to be president has been in the grapevine for some time now, prodded by his principal, Olusegun Obasanjo.
*THE breakaway of a faction has lifted the whole power play in the PDP party to a new crescendo. The stake is upped and each one is fighting for its own survival.
The way the situation is now, it is either going to be a zero sum game, where the winner takes all or the loser crashes. In the alternative, a much more subdued PDP will emerge. The situation is already creating orgasmic reactions from the opposition parties. How did things get to this sorry pass? The seed has been sown right from the time of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo as president of the country.
Arbitrariness was the order of the day. People were appointed and removed at the whims of those in authority. During Obasanjo's tenure alone, the PDP had five chairmen of the party and five Senate presidents within eight years - indeed a world record. In the process, so many members were alienated. The same methods were used to impose Yar'Adua and Jonathan as president and vice president, respectively.
Many of them, including Atiku, left for other parties. The short span of Yar'Adua's reign did not allow us to assess the extent he would have gone in the use of presidential powers but a few people like El- Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu got a taste of it. Jonathan came as a gentleman, ready to compromise with everybody, unfortunately, already aggrieved members, having learnt their lessons under Obasanjo, plotted to regain control of the PDP. Jonathan does not have the military background and ruthlessness of Obasanjo and in attempting to use Obasanjo's strategies to make the party toe the line, he is finding great resistance.
That is the situation of the PDP. In a very simplistic manner, the problems of the PDP can be solved if all of the participants agree to subject themselves to a true democratic process, beginning from the state level. If the wishes of the PDP in terms of the majority are allowed to reign, then everybody can go to sleep. Unfortunately, this has not been possible -Anambra, Rivers, Adamawa - to mention but a few states, are still deadlocked on who their true representatives should be. Therefore, as the party cannot carry out genuine democratic elections within, the fight must go on.
The battle is now between Jonathan and Atiku's faction. Will Atiku succeed? Why is he - Atiku- still insisting on being a member of the PDP? What does he stand to gain? Will it not be better for him and acolytes to go and form a party of their own instead of the roforofo fight they are staging? Or is the whole thing just a gimmick to gain control of the ruling party, as that is where the juice is? Time will tell. There is no need over-flogging the issue that President Jonathan and his political strategists mismanaged the affairs of the Rivers State crises. A simple sincere face- to-face discussion with Amaechi would have put the whole thing to rest. Allowing the interest of the President's wife to interfere with the interest of the party was a big mistake.
Amaechi knows that his political survival is at stake if allowed to be bullied into submission; his political career will be over. He is, therefore, like a goat that has his back on the wall, he either wins it or lose everything. He has teamed up with the North whose politicians want the presidency to revert back to them. How will the PDP handle the issue of Amaechi? It is a sore thumb and must be delicately handled. It must be noted here that, if Amaechi is persuaded to revert back to Jonathan, the remaining governors will be from the North, it will then, become a North - South thing.
Can Amaechi be prised away from the group? Amaechi, from his antecedents, is a very good political strategist. How will the Jonathan group appease him? We are reading from the papers that the elders of the PDP are meeting to find a solution to the whole crises. Where were these elders all these while? Why did they allow the situation to get this far? Was it in their interest to allow the crises to degenerate to prove their importance to the party? If they have not found solutions to the party crises all these while, how can they do so now? Do they belong to factions in the PDP?
The elders will have to clarify their stand and unless they tackle these issues sincerely, no headway will come out of it. Basically, the whole thing is a chess game. According to a Chinese proverb: "No one walks out of his home without a purpose". What do the rebellious governors want? Sule Lamido's ambition to be president has been in the grapevine for some time now, prodded by his principal, Olusegun Obasanjo.