by Alexander O. Onukwue

One advantage of supporting people to run for elections is that, regardless of whether they win or not, you would gain some lessons from their experience.

Ayisha Osori, former CEO of the Nigerian Women’s Trust, and an experienced lawyer who has practiced in Nigerian and in New York, ran for the 2015 House of Representatives elections to represent one of the FCT’s constituencies, after which she produced a no-holds barred account of her journey in ‘Love Does Not Win Elections’.

She ran under the PDP, which, at the time, was the ruling party in the country.

On reading Ayisha’s book and realising the interests of the President in such elections, Ms Osori’s ambition looked dead on arrival. By her account, she was told repeatedly that it was in the best interest of the President (Goodluck Jonathan) to grant automatic tickets to all incumbents, especially if they were indigenes, for the FCT House of Representatives elections. The unpopular Honourable Jephaniah Jisalo had been in the House from 2011, and despite the feeling of discontent amongst constituents, there could not be enough done for Ayisha to scuttle the wish of the President.

The 14 votes she got at the primaries was her return, after spending more than N15m through the twelve week process. It was a crushing defeat for one who had put in effort to go extra miles, visiting communities who had never seen their representative again after campaigns.

It brings one to question the forces that would stand in a political ambition, if there will ever be internal democracy in the Party system of Nigeria’s politics.
Ayisha was convinced that her votes had been manipulated at the primaries to the favour of Mr Jisalo, even as key figures like Senator Bala Mohammed and Senator Philip Aduda hovered around the entire process. It was not reward for hardwork, she was allowed to fight but the battle was not fair.

The PDP, as a whole, has barely recovered from the losses of the 2015 elections, and it would certainly have spelt the end of the party if the Supreme Court had decided otherwise on July 12.

Now with a chance to rebuild, will they now ensure that there will be internal democracy in the party?

Will the Party machinery allow everyone to cast their seeds equally into the field and see whose germinates and yields the best fruits? Unless this is done, it will not be much different again in 2019, meaning people of the Osori calibre will continue to have the doors in their faces, regardless of their proven pedigree and abilities.

Editor