A 2005 Hausa anti-PDP mobilisational song proclaims: “shegiyar uwa, mai kashe ‘yan ‘yan ta, PDP”. Meaning, ‘PDP bitch of a mother who kills her children’. This assertion was justified with a roll call of founding members of the party that are now estranged. The list includes late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Chief Solomon Lar, Alh. Abubakar Rimi, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Chief Audu Ogbe, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Alh. Musa Musawa, Alh. Habu Fari, Alh. Saidu Barda, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande, Alh. Lawal Kaita, Dr. Iyortchia Ayu, Alh. Musa Gwadabe, Alh. Bashir Dalhatu, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Alh. Umar Gali Na’Aba, Sen. Musa Bello, Prof. Musa Yakubu, Alh. Bello Kirfi, etc.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
This rendition is, in so many ways, the PDP’s 10 year membership account (1998 – 2008). What may be missing is the fact that Alh. Atiku Abubakar joined the list of estranged party members in 2006 at a time when he was the sitting Vice President of the country in a PDP government. A second reality is that some of the people listed above, including Alh. Abubakar Rimi and Dr. Alex Ekwueme returned to the party before the 2007 elections. Dr. Ekwueme chaired a so-called reconciliation committee, with no outcome.
Thirdly, some notable ANPP Governors such as Alh. Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State, Alh. Adamu Aliero of Kebbi State, decamped from ANPP and joined the PDP just before the 2007 elections. Today, they are all Senators of the Federal Republic and Alh. Aliero is now a serving PDP Minister. Governor Sani Yerima of Zamfara State maintained dual identity as a member of ANPP and a campaign ally of PDP. His successor in Zamfara State, Governor Aliyu Shinkafi, although elected on the platform of ANPP is today a member of PDP.
The fourth issue is that some PDP children (sorry, members) that served under the Obasanjo PDP administration are being hunted by the Yar’Adua PDP Government. Chief Liyel Imoke, now PDP Governor of Cross River State still has his case to be determined by the PDP controlled House of Representatives over his role as a Minister of a PDP controlled Federal Government between 2003 – 2007. Mal. Nasiru Ahmad el-Rufa’i faced a public trial by a PDP controlled Senate over his role as Minister in PDP government. He is now being hunted by EFCC on matters of land administration.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Bode George and some other functionaries of the party are facing court trial over their role in a PDP administration. Mal. Nuhu Ribadu, who is considered by many, especially Civil Society Organisations, to have contributed to the process of sanitising governance in the country through a courageous fight against corruption, was first removed as Chairman of EFCC under a controversial circumstance. This was followed by his demotion from Assistant Inspector General of Police to Deputy Commissioner and subsequent attempts to get him expelled from NIPSS. And now he is facing police disciplinary panel. From all these accounts, one is inclined to check if former President Olusegun Obasanjo has joined the list of estranged members of PDP.
Ordinarily, the trial of public officials should be welcomed especially if they have to do with issues of accountability and recovery of public funds. Admittedly, the case of Fani-Kayode and Liyel Imoke present a legitimate scenario for investigation. This is because there are clearly specific allegations that require recourse to judicial process to establish the veracity or otherwise of the charges. Unfortunately, with the charges hanging over the head of Chief Imoke, he was still fielded as gubernatorial candidate by the same PDP, whose members in the House of Representatives have raised criminal charges of embezzlement of public funds against him. Imoke has since been declared winner of the election and is today the PDP Governor of Cross River State.
The case of Mal. Nasir el-Rufai is fascinating because, so far, no substantive issue of abuse or misuse of public resources has been established. What appears to be the case is a machinated strategy to, if you like, demolish the man, having demolished powerful interests as Minister of FCT. Otherwise, how could one explain the desperation by EFCC to have him abandon his studies in the US and come and answer charges against him based on a petition over revocation of PHCN plots? Is the EFCC the appropriate agency to deal with such a matter?
One would imagine that these are civil issues that fall within the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The issues, which by far would have elicited EFCC investigation and possible prosecution, bordering on the management of proceeds of sales of federal government houses are not the issues. Mr. Remi Babalola, as supervising Minister of FCT had reportedly informed the Senate that the proceeds from the sales, amounting to N46 billion was intact and has since been lodged with the CBN.
Clearly, without any doubt, the nation is faced with a one party dilemma, PDP. It is a dilemma not only because it is the ruling party, but because it is unleashing a strong political trait that by its conduct is presently and potentially disturbing. US President-elect Barrack Obama in his book The Audacity of Hope has argued that ‘whether politics encourages the trait or simply attracts those who possess it is unclear. He further argued that ‘someone once remarked that every man (and of course woman) is trying to live up to his (and her) father’s (and mother’s) expectations and make up for his (and her) father’s (and mother’s) mistakes’.
The simple deduction to be made here is that the PDP Federal Government is only trying to live up to the expectations of its mothers and fathers and perhaps entrench further their mistakes and consolidate their access and unlimited control and abuse of public resources. Borrowing from Obama, this is the Nigerian malady! There are two fundamental reasons why we should all, as citizens, be concerned.
The first is the amorphous nature of the power structure in the party. No one group can be identified as being responsible for decisions of government. As a result therefore, the President, Alh. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, ultimately has supreme authority. State Governors exercise utmost authority over the administration of their states. Local Government Chairmen are paramount rulers and are unaccountable to their Councils. The democratic thrust which should drive governments at all levels is absent. The key function of a political party as a mediating structure between citizens and their government is completely undermined.
Of course, it needs to be recognised that contemporary situations present the party as a governing apparatus with the function of mobilising public support and encouraging popular participation. However, this role is to be carried out by distinctively non-governmental structures and private citizens. The President, state governors, local government chairmen and other government officials exercising dual mandate is an aberration and represents systematic recline to authoritarianism.
The second fundamental reason is that the influence, strength and authority of the party are derived mainly from its control of governments at all levels. Through the control of governments, it is able to exercise almost an exclusive monopoly over the management and utilisation of public resources. Supposedly, the influence of a party or government should derive from the quality of services, which should come from programmes of government. In the Nigerian reality, abuse rather than service, primitive accumulation, graft and looting of public treasury by government officials is the order.
Since the coming into office of the Yar’Adua administration, Nigerians have heard a lot about envisioned programmes but seen very little. NEEDS II remains a pipe dream, seven-point agenda is a nullity and vision 20-2020 is a delusion. Rule of law, zero tolerance against corruption, etc. are locked in the minds of Yar’Adua and Aondoaka. Today poverty levels have remained officially at fifty-four percent (54%) and 35% of Nigerians live in extreme poverty. Infant mortality, since 2006 has remained at 110 out of 1000 live birth and maternal mortality is 1000 per 100,000. Unemployment is embarrassingly high. These issues are not regarded in any sense as priorities for Yar’Adua’s PDP government.
Perhaps, what we have either as political party, represented by PDP or its leaders as represented by Yar’Adua and his team is a reflection of what we deserve as a nation. In which case, we have then lost the right to complain or even agitate for change. There is very small probability that Nigerians will, in the near future, get a representative government, at least reflective of their aspirations, needs and desires.
The prospect for change is bleak because the structures and agents to facilitate it are absent. The people are being sacrificed by so-called political parties led by PDP on the altar of exigencies for resource control, access and abuse. Elections have become genocidal traps resulting in almost civil wars. The recent Plateau election and the killings that followed is a signal of the dangers ahead. The main issue is over control and access to local government resources. Jos North Local Government, which was the theatre for the November 2008 Plateau State election violence received N149.5 million and N152.2 million in October and November 2008 respectively from the Federation Account. There is also internally generated revenue, which although at the moment is very marginal is potentially promising.
Lives have been lost in clearly avoidable battles for the spoils of the local government. Those who lost their lives might not even have seen the candidates (in reality or in pictures) and may not have had any prior benefit of understanding or being informed of the programmes of these dare-devil candidates who costs the lives of hundreds of innocent citizens.
As we move into 2009, interests are going to be re-formed, re-enforced or at the least revived. Fundamentally, the interests would be about resource management, access and control. Will it be driven by the present PDP trait, with potentials to sacrifice the lives of citizens, including those of its members? Or will it be driven by the search for alternatives, the desire to restore hopes and the quest for a new beginning for a country that is so resourceful and locked by a culture of waste and indifference? Above all, will Yar’Adua and his PDP team seek re-election? Will there be elections in the true sense of it? Or are we going to have another replay of the 2007 elections? What will post May 29, 2011 Nigeria look like?
Unfortunately, ANPP is reduced to the ghost of Alh. Muhammadu Buhari, AC is an expired identity and all the other countless mushroom so-called parties are in INEC’s archive. What are the options before Nigerians? Are we going to have one party, or even one candidate electoral scenario? One of the mushroom political parties has already declared that it is not contesting the presidential election in 2011. Is the nation going to witness another one-cap-fits-all situation as happened under Gen. Sani Abacha?
There are no easy answers to these questions. Time is beckoning, patriots are being sought for and Nigerians are hungry for change. The capacity of the nation, its citizens and organisations to produce change and guarantee happiness, dignity and freedom for citizens is being called to question. Like Mahatma Ghandi has argued, “happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”. As a people and a nation we must commence the search for happiness with a determination to ensure that what we think, say and do are in harmony and become a cardinal objective for our political engagement towards 2011.
Help us God.
Salihu Moh. Lukman
No. 3 Oshogbo Close, Area 11, Garki, Abuja
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });