Opinion: PDP and the revolt of the ungodly

by Emma Okah

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While Jonathan has shown maturity in resolving the issues raised by the rebels, he must bear in mind that the only thing that will pacify them is if he declines to contest in 2015. Should he refuse to throw in the towel, he must be ready for a showdown and he has all it takes to come out victorious.

The ugly events of Saturday, August 31, 2013 at the Eagle Square, Abuja, venue of the Special Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 2013 did not come to many as a surprise. This is because, apart from the fact that 2015 is around the corner, the PDP is a mini-Nigeria, reflecting the country at its best: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Sadly, majority of Nigerians are selfish and unpatriotic. Many prefer the easy way or the short path to success. Many more Nigerians too have lost their sense of shame. Irrespective of how highly placed, not a few of them have exhausted their moral endowments and sense of integrity.

We say this because all the major players in the present PDP crisis including the new “righteous men and women” are not new to the party and the processes. They are equally not new to the ways things had been done in the party in the past. All of them have had opportunities to do things right in their small world but their actions show that all monkeys still look alike. The only difference between now and the way things were yesterday is that the hunters are now the hunted.

President Jonathan alone is not the problem of Nigeria. Every Nigerian has become a problem in various unique ways. He did not create Nigeria’s perennial problems. He did not invent ethnic and religious politics. Jonathan did not bring about corruption and impunity in our national life. He did not invent the crooked ways of doing things in our political parties. Everything done today had been deeply rooted and tormented our national aspirations before Jonathan came into office. The only thing which we require of him is to show leadership and be ready to lay down his life as he battles the forces that have held the nation down too long. Therefore if Jonathan fails at the end of his tenure, it is not because he was generating national crisis or pulling the pillars that hold the country together but for failure to dismantle the forces of darkness in Nigeria. It is for this reason that many think Jonathan has no choice on this challenge. He must choose to be a leader, a president, commander-in-chief and not a weakling, a “bra-wearing” general.

Back to the events at the PDP convention. What are the issues involved? The Atiku group has lined up series of allegations against President Jonathan and Alhaji Tukur, PDP National Chairman. They are calling for internal democracy within the party, freedom from EFCC investigations, resolution of the Nigeria Governors Forum crisis,

return of party structure in some states especially in Rivers State to Amaechi and Adamawa to Nyako, etc.

A new twist is that the rebels are asking Jonathan to drop his presidential ambition come 2015. To many watchers, this last condition is the real reason why the rebellion was conceived and executed in the first place.

If that is true, then why would anybody deny the other an opportunity to take advantage of a constitutional provision in a free country?

This is the strange disease that has afflicted our nation in its democratic experience. This again is what we call the Nigerian way of doing things. This is the same thing that Late General Andrew Azazi talked about in analyzing the factors that have created and encouraged the insurgency in the Northern part of the country. To understand Azazi correctly is to say that Nigeria is after all, not a free country as we pretend to be. Atiku had cut for himself a heroic bend. Any man who has done much for himself does not need to show the desperation of today. By demonstrating a rash thirst for power, Atiku clearly makes it easier for people to believe Obasanjo, rightly or wrongly, when he said that Atiku was not fit to be a president of Nigeria because of corruption and the economic abuses he inflicted on the nation.

But given Atiku’s antecedents, the least he can do is to diminish his image by promoting a parallel PDP, an action which is clearly illegal and only justifiable in a jungle.

Ironically some of the governors who are promoting the rebellion against PDP are tyrants in their states. They have not only ruled like emperors, they have oppressed their opponents, killed internal democracy and operated like feudal lords in their states. As 2015 draws nearer and their tenures expires, they need a soft landing, assurances of freedom from EFCC investigations etc. This is the fear that has driven them into rebellion.

I was amused to see Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State who looked odd and emaciated join his friends from the North to rebel against his brother Jonathan. Amaechi cannot lay claim to be a democrat going by his antecedents in Rivers State. How time flies. Is this not the same man who in 2010, arrested, detained and arraigned 13 of his political associates for holding a meeting in a parallel PDP

secretariat in Port Harcourt? Then it was right to suffocate his fellow PDP members who were ferried to court in “black maria”  but today Amaechi is setting up a parallel PDP secretariat and he wants to be applauded. This is the dubious character of those who are fighting today. When it suits them, they justify evil and enjoy it but when the game changes, they suddenly become saints and condemn acts they had initiated and executed with relish in the past.

While Jonathan has shown maturity in resolving the issues raised by the rebels, he must bear in mind that the only thing that will pacify them is if he declines to contest in 2015. Should he refuse to throw in the towel, he must be ready for a showdown and he has all it takes to come out victorious. The truth is that many of those fighting him and the party are selfish and have no regard for the welfare of the average Nigerian. They are corrupt and ungodly people who should not be allowed to eat their cake and have it.

Sadly, the Presidency has not developed sufficient media fire power to sell the regime’s transformation agenda and diffuse tension. The result is that even in areas where he has shown strength, the biased media is not seen to be telling the good story. The media needs to show patriotism at this time so that the nation can survive.

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Read this article in the Sun Newspapers

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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