September 4, 2013
“Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles." - Dalai Lama
The case of the crises in the Peoples Democratic Party is a case of their long series of illegality coming back to haunt them. I said it sometime ago that when you see a person(s), group or platform that lays claim to democracy and yet makes a mockery of it like the PDP does, it's only a matter of time, its consequence will come back to haunt them. And that is the exact decipher of the political mess PDP is enmeshed in.
First we were hit with the Nigeria Governors Forum crisis where the PDP-led FG recognised Governor Jang of Plateau state who had 16 votes over Governor Amaechi of Rivers state who had 19 votes. It will be recalled that this kick-started the conflagration that has now engulfed the PDP. It led to an arrant disrespect of a serving governor by the first lady (an unconstitutional entity), and the Minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike. The response of PDP as all these went on was anything but democratic; it was a continuation of their regular acts of forcing their way through. Wike left his duty post and 're-located' to Rivers State where he promised to cause mayhem in the state, that nobody will be able to sleep with their eyes closed; a threat he fulfilled well with the full backing of the Presidency. If history has taught us anything, it's that bullying your way out of every situation in a democracy always backfires. The PDP is learning that lesson the hard way now.
As the face-off between the Presidency and Governor Amaechi continued, we were hit with yet another FG-sponsored brouhaha at the Rivers state house of assembly where 5 people attempted to impeach the Speaker. And yet, the new 'speaker' was recognised.
You see, the problem with PDP is that they have a twisted understanding of the word democracy. Democracy isn't about forcing your views and wishes down the throat of others; it's about respecting the views of the party majority enough to bow to it. It isn't about forcing your way out of every situation; it's about learning to embrace dialogue as a means of conflict resolution. It's not about flinging insults and talking non-stop on the pages of newspapers; it's about sitting down to listen to the yearning of the people. It's not about suspending and disciplining people who differ from your point of view or challenge the status quo; it's about having the moral courage to accept criticism and difference of opinion.
The factionalisation of the PDP didn't just happen; it has come on the heel of a long string of irregularities sponsored and tolerated in different sectors of the country. The Student arm, NANS has been hijacked, the Youth arm, NYCN, hijacked, Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, hijacked. With all these high-profile hijacking that the PDP has masterminded, it was only a matter of time before they faced the backlash of their actions. So the split in PDP has been a long time coming.
But there's one thing Nigerians must be wary of; we must not be naïve enough to think that the breakaway faction of the PDP is breaking out because they care about the plight of ordinary Nigerians and abhor the fact that the Tukur-led PDP has absolutely no plan to lessen the burden of the Nigerian masses; No, they are breaking away because they have lost relevance in the Tukur-led PDP and want a PDP of their own where they can command enough authority to pacify their bloated egos. A look at the breakaway faction and their actions in the different posts they hold or have held, tells us everything we need to know about them. We must never allow ourselves to be so delusional that we begin to see the breakaway faction as our saviours; they are not and they never have been.
As PDP takes its final steps into political oblivion, we owe ourselves the duty of watching out for whatever party touts itself as our salvation and look deeply to see if they exhibit any of the traits that we've had to put up with in PDP's 14 years of political rape of the Nigerian masses; if any of the party(s) show even the slightest of traits that characterised PDP's 14 years of nothingness, we must ignore them, regardless of their power of oratory or political stature. We have been trapped for 14 years in PDP's web of lies, we must not walk ourselves into yet another web of deceit. The onus lies on us to awake to the urgency of now and open our eyes enough to recognise lies when we see one.
God bless Nigerians!
Ogunjimi James Taiwo
Ogun State, Nigeria
September 2013.
Follow me on twitter: @hullerj or email me: [email protected]
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