by Louis Achi
…for the PDP to move from a moral high ground and properly assert its authority as the pre-eminent political party in Nigeria, it must sternly practice internal and inclusive democracy and a politics consistently anchored on principles.
The ACN is clearly piqued at PDP’s continual dismissal of the embryonic political coalition, APC, as a group of strange bedfellows. While the ruling party clearly has an undeniable point here, this has not diluted the venom of the opposition as enthusiastically expressed by Lai Mohammed: “A happy family needs no advertisement, because people know a happy family when they see one. A happy family needs not draw attention to itself because happiness cannot be hidden. What the PDP is mistaking for happiness is a form of manic disorder… The PDP knows for sure that the coming into being of the APC signals its death knell.”
Cut to the bone, the ACN’s tirade touches the core of the ruling party’s dilemma which I will call the “Tambuwal Syndrome.” In medical-speak, a syndrome refers to a group of signs and symptoms that together are characteristic or indicative of a specific disease or disorder. Backtracking, the controversial emergence of Honourable Aminu Tambuwal as Speaker of the 7th House of Representatives against the ruling party’s preferred candidate/zone —Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola/South-West — was supremely symptomatic of its internal dissonance and contradictions. It could be recalled that backed enthusiastically by the opposition ACN and others, Tambuwal trounced the ruling party’s favoured candidate Adeola by 252 votes to 90.
After an emergency meeting, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party noted “the unfolding development with great concern”. It could also be recalled that the three-hour session of the PDP at its National Secretariat discussed the House of Reps fallout and how to manage the yawning gap created by the action of the anti-zoning members. The PDP, in a statement signed by its then National Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, said zoning remained an integral part of its constitution. Baraje said the NWC was consulting other organs of the party to re-assess the situation and would soon “come up with an appropriate policy in due course”.
Although Tambuwal adroitly tracked back to seek the ‘forgiveness’ of his ruling party, clearly the damage had already been done and so much of PDP’s latter-day internal controversies apparently stem from that defiant gambit — the “Tambuwal Syndrome.” However, at a deeper level, this syndrome is also seen to encapsulate the northern angst against the southern presidency of Dr. Jonathan; a scenario the region perceives short-changed them from their more familiar power perch. Rightly or wrongly, many locate the ratcheting-up of security challenges, especially in the northern region, as a veiled response to the North’s sense of denial. Again, many also see the quirky North/South-West romance, a major plank of the former’s power retrieval plan, also as fallout of the region’s political quandary.
On the flip side, many analysts would also gleefully point at the same presidency which they allege also trumped the zoning policy of the ruling party. Moving forward, against the dictates and imperative of party supremacy, is the PDP waking up and now reasserting itself? The more recent Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s saga appears to be pointing that way.
Again, against the tacit wish of his party, PDP, and the founding compact of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), a constitutionally irrelevant association anyway, Governor Amaechi stood for re-election as NGF chairman backed by the opposition and several PDP governors and was declared winner, willy-nilly factionalising the body with Plateau State’s Governor Jonah Jang leading the splinter group recognized by the presidency.
The suspension of Governor Amaechi clearly speaks to the crying, if tardy need, for the ruling party to demonstrate an important sense of truly being in charge of its own destiny. The PDP national chairman Bamanga Tukur recently captured this essence when he called for the enthronement of party supremacy in the affairs of the party, explaining that at all times, the party as an institution is more important than the president, governors and the members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
Taking in the large picture, for the PDP to move from a moral high ground and properly assert its authority as the pre-eminent political party in Nigeria, it must sternly practice internal and inclusive democracy and a politics consistently anchored on principles. Having emerged the dominant party since the 1999 elections, the PDP lacks excuses in the last 14 years not to put Nigeria firmly on the track of democratic growth grounded on party supremacy. If recent moves at its high command are indicative that at last the party is quickening to the imperatives of genuine democratic leadership then it is threading the highway of reining in recalcitrant members and finally burying its nemesis: the “Tambuwal Syndrome”.
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Read this article in Leadership Newpapers
