The current crisis plaguing the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has become a source of concern to most politically-conscious Nigerians.
This is because at a time the party is expected to get itself prepared to constitute a formidable opposition to the incoming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, its members and organs appear to be at daggers drawn.
This suggests that they are yet to recover from the defeat suffered by the PDP in Nigeria’s last general elections.
The fierce infighting currently rocking the ruling party is one that centres on agitations for the ouster or continuity of the Adamu Mu’azu-led National Working Committee, NWC, of the party.
This contentious battle for the soul of the party has invariably revealed that much of the PDP bunch are actually of the fair-weather stock.
What initially began as a call from individuals within the party for the resignation of the PDP National Chairman, Mu’azu, has assumed a life of its own with various organs and caucuses of the party joining in the agitation for not just Mu’azu’s sack but the ouster of all NWC members of the party.
The argument is that the embattled top officials have no business leading the party in view of the heavy defeat it suffered at the 2015 polls.
Meanwhile, this call, particularly the one that affects the National Chairman, predates the March 28 presidential election.
Days before that decisive poll, many party stalwarts alleged that Mu’azu was not truly committed to the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The former governor of Bauchi state was called a ‘mole’ and a ‘saboteur’, said to be actually working for the victory of his Fulani kin in the opposition APC.
Regardless, the Presidency at that time passed a vote of confidence on the ‘Game changer’, urging him to remain on the saddle.
In a twist of fate, that purported vote of confidence has turned into a vote of no confidence as Nigerians are now treated to a clash between Jonathan’s men and Mu’azu’s NWC.
Perhaps, if this was just the fixture, the heat on the present PDP leadership would have been more bearable.
Unfortunately, their ordeal is worsened by the interest of the very powerful bloc of governors serving under the platform of the PDP, who appear determined to send Mu’azu and his team out of the Wadata Plaza.
Their interest may have been heightened by the pervasive speculations that one of their own, an outgoing governor in one of the South Southern states has been pencilled down to replace Mu’azu.
The animosity is so bad that last week, the main headline across major newspapers was that Mu’azu and some members of the NWC were walked out of a meeting of PDP governors which reportedly took place at the Abuja lodge of Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio.
Indeed, the PDP is notorious for booting out its national chairmen at the slightest provocation.
Pundits are already considering it a miracle that Mu’azu is still sitting giving his ‘offence’ of leading the party to a massive failure at the polls.
His nickname of the ‘Game changer’ must be playing out in his favour as Audu Ogbe, Vincent Ogbulafor, Bamanga Tukur and his other predecessors got disgraced out of office for alleged offences less grievous than superintending over the defeat of the party that is fixated on ruling Nigeria for a minimum of 60 years.
Yet, Mu’azu does not see why he should tread softly as his NWC issued an unusually strongly worded statement on Saturday accusing associates of President Goodluck Jonathan of actually being responsible for the party’s defeat on March 28.
According to the statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, the NWC said it was “aware of the clandestine activities of such aides and associates of the President including their unholy alliance with some elements in other parties to undermine and weaken the PDP by attacking its leadership.
“The NWC is aware that these same individuals who mismanaged the presidential campaigns are now desperately seeking to cause crisis in the PDP with a view not only to divert attention from their misdeeds but also to ensure that they remained politically relevant by hijacking the party structure for their selfish purposes.”
While the dust raised by this release was yet to settle, the presumed Jonathan’s aides fired a deadly salvo where they alleged with ‘evidence’ that shortly after the announcement of the outcome of the last presidential election, there was a “shameless stealing of party funds by officials entrusted with running the affairs of the party.”
The Presidency officials presented internal vouchers to Sahara Reporters showing that the party’s NWC members, on April 8, 2015, shared among themselves over a quarter of a billion naira in unexplained fees.
According to them, Mu’azu was paid N100 million in the bazaar while a deputy national chairman, Uche Secondus got N40 million. The rest NWC members reportedly had N30 million wired into their accounts from the sleaze.
But the party’s leadership immediately issued a strong denial through Olisa Metuh, saying, “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that this national leadership has remained very transparent in all its dealing since coming into office. No NWC member has been involved in anyway in any sleaze or embezzlement of party funds. Also no member of the NWC has ever been accused of embezzlement of funds in any ministry, department or agencies of government at any level whatsoever.
“We state clearly that we have not been given any money rather this NWC generated billions of naira from the sale of forms from where we funded our candidates for governorship and state assembly elections in all the states of the federation in addition to funds released to key leaders including NWC and BoT members to prosecute the campaigns in their various areas. The NWC is willing and ready to make this account public in line with the freedom of information law,” it asserted.
Howbeit, it is clear that all is not well with the party Nigerians are relying on to effectively checkmate the All Progressives Congress, APC-led federal government due to come on steam from the 29th of this month.
Analysts are of the view that this is not too much an expectation considering that the party as well as Mu’azu told Nigerians to expect them to give the incoming party as much opposition as it had given the PDP all this while.
Hence, the present state of the PDP cannot but worry Nigerians. What is happening in the current ruling party plays out the aphorism that success has many relatives while failure is an orphan.
Experts believe that had the general elections gone the other way, all the internal squabbles currently threatening to tear the party apart would not have arisen.
In fact, they believe that Mu’azu would have been toast of the town by now. To that extent, Senate President, David Mark, may not have adequately captured all the politicians who should be in his category of fair-weather friends. The Senate President had stated during the celebration of his 67th birthday in Abuja that those who defected from the PDP, after the party lost the Presidential election, are “fair-weather friends”.
In a manner of speaking, he may really need to widen the scope to include those who would want to rock the boat whenever the tide gets against it.
Mu’azu may have had this in mind when he said in a statement issued in Abuja last Saturday that “The developing culture of using and dumping has reached fratricidal proportions in the PDP and it must end.”
He added that “You cannot be changing chairmen and NWC every year and still have cohesion, which is a vital ingredient of winning”.
The Game changer further advised that rather than use the result of the 2015 presidential election to blame one another, the party should use it as elixir to reinvent itself so as to reclaim power in 2019.
It remains to be seen what the party will do with this admonition.
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