PDP as death knell of vibrant multiparty democracy in Nigeria, by Ayuba Ahmad
Barring any impediments legally imposed or by a voluntarily taken decision of its officials, the much-awaited national convention of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, would kick off this Saturday in the ancient Oyo State capital of Ibadan. Holding the convention will go ahead despite a court order issued in Abuja, earlier in the week.
Ruling in the suit instituted by a chieftain of the party, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court declared that the PDP Ibadan convention lacked all the legal requirements for its conduct.
The judge reinforced his ruling with an order stopping the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from supervising, monitoring or recognising any outcomes from the planned convention.
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Alhaji Sule Lamido had sought the stoppage of the convention because he was unjustly denied the opportunity to purchase the nomination form for the position of National Chairman of the party.
The case of Sule Lamido was merely one of the myriad crises that had dogged the party in the build-up to the convention. There was the gallop of defections of elected governors, legislators and high-profile members to the opposition APC. The cutthroat rivalries between leading lights of the party gravely accentuated the withering of a one-time awesome political platform that stood like a colossus.
The Ibadan convention, even without the legal shackles could not have resulted in a revamped PDP at the end of the day. There were several other debilitating points that could have inevitably led to the completion of the party’s demise and obliteration as a force to reckon with in the nation’s political matrix. Thanks to Mr Nyesome Wike, the FCT Minister, whose most singular mission has appeared all along, to be the asphyxiation of the PDP.
If the PDP has been taken out of contention in the politics of the country, there are no other options that can effectively perform the functions of opposition to the ruling APC. This summation is evident in the last governorship election in Anambra State.
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When the final votes were collated and announced, the PDP and the Labour Party, LP, trailed distantly behind the ruling party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. Used as a litmus test of the political weight of the so-called main opposition, it becomes crystal clear that multipartysm is very much at the threshold of its exit from the country’s democracy.
An even more significant indicator that the nation may be gravitating towards a single-party state is the evident manifestation of the inability of the opposition political parties to fuse into an alliance or a coalition that will have the capacity to give the APC a good fight in 2027. Unless a rare political miracle occurs soon, the much vaunted All Democratic Congress, ADC, palpably, looks like a stillborn.
The emerging spectacle is a reflection of the inherent character traits of the political elites. The APC, which emerged on the eve of the 2015 elections, essentially as the cobbling together of political forces of divergent backgrounds, seems today, to have become a political behemoth.
This metamorphosis of the APC cannot be divorced from the politics of seeking power wholly for the sake of narrow personal interest. It reveals graphically, the place of corruption and coercion as the real undercurrents of the power play between the elites. It is not ideologically rooted and, it is usually not driven by the altruistic purpose of rendering service for the betterment of the wider society.
For instance, a good number of those who have defected to the ruling party were reported to have been lured because of the prospects of getting reprieve from prosecution over the huge sums allegedly looted from the public treasuries while they were in power.
READ ALSO: Wike-led PDP faction expels Makinde, Bode George, others
In certain other incidents, the allure is the hope of getting “lucrative” political appointments, leading to the acquisition of immense material fortunes. There were recent widely published news reports alleging payment of humongous sums of money to those defecting to the ruling APC. According to the reports, a defecting governor is said to be given 250 Billion Naira, a Senator, One Billion Naira with a defecting member of the House of Reps getting 500 Million Naira.
Even with the Ibadan convention, the fact is that the PDP has rescheduled that stage in its transition that it is practically beyond immediate resuscitative therapies.
Empirically, a multiparty democracy does not, in itself, translate to the attainment of the fundamental goals of democratic governance of enhancing the socioeconomic well-being of the majority of the population. What is guaranteed from the existence of multiple political parties is the freedom of choice and platforms for the divergent opinions, groups and interests in the country. It safeguards against despotism and autocracy.
While some schools of thought regard a one-party state as generally having the trappings of totalitarianism, advocates of rapid development of the social and economic progress of the society, on the other hand, identify it as most appropriate for developing countries. The historically unprecedented leaps and transformations of China under the Chinese Communist Party are given as a typical example.
Once the biggest political party in Nigeria and in Africa, the People’s Democratic Party has come a full circle. It is at this stage, a wobbly, tottering political party about to be eclipsed. Its state strikes a note that is more like a funeral dirge rather than sounds of rejuvenation or revival. Sadly, there are no signs of its reincarnation in the aftermath of its demise. Thus, the translation of the present fate of the PDP to a death knell of multiparty democracy in Nigeria.
Ahead of the PDP convention, Sule Lamido said he went to the court to reclaim his right to contest a leadership position within the PDP.
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Lamido spoke on Friday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, describing the case as a personal fight for dignity, not a move against the party.
“I went to court not because I have anybody in mind, but I went to get my rights back taken by my party,” the ex-governor said.
“The issue is just about my own personality, dignity and honour being restored more than anything else or being in the court.”
The former governor expressed disappointment at the state of the PDP, lamenting that love, unity and trust within the opposition party have been eroded.
“I won the case, fair enough, but then again, it is also equally tormenting that the case I won is about my party, about our unity, family,” he said.
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