PDP and Obasanjo: toggle between Statesmanship and politics

Statesmanship Is Harder Than Politics. Politics Is The Art Of Getting Along With People, Whereas Statesmanship Is The Art Of Getting Along With Politicians. – Fletcher Knebel

When the People’s Democratic Party PDP was at incubation stage in 1998, then retired General Olusegun Obasanjo was languishing in jail in Adamawa state.

When some 34 courageous Nigerians led by the second republic Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme took that historic bold step of confronting the military and successfully pressurizing them into retreating to the barracks for democracy to find space, Obasanjo was in captivity.

As a younger political journalist covering the first ever National Convention of the PDP in Jos, Plateau state capital in 1998, I recall vividly the shock that greeted the convention arena when the then ruling military mafia under the watch of the two Minna Generals Ibrahim Babangada and Abdulsalami Abubakar successfully manoeuvred the convention to turn the table against Dr. Ekwueme for a fresh from prison former Military Head of state Obasanjo.

The then political class was taken aback as they did not anticipate it but they had very little window with the military who were being helped to go.

The military cabal did not feel power could be entrusted to anyone outside ‘their family’ and added to that was a calculated design to assuage the nerves of the South West geo political areas which indeed was very restive over the annulment of June 12, 1993, Presidential election perceived to have been won by one of their own, Chief Moshood Abiola even though the region did not originally want him.

That became the first step to ensure that full democracy as envisaged by the PDP founding fathers never materialized. It was also a clear indication that the outgoing military desired more than a passing interest in the evolving democratic system.

Obasanjo then became the huge beneficiary of the struggle of these great Nigerians even though he was not part of the conception as he became the democratic President in a PDP platform for eight years.

The foundation of what was to come both in PDP and in Nigeria’s democracy was laid under him. Soon after he was sworn in, Obasanjo did not conceal any sign that he was going to tinker with some democratic ingredients.

The party became his second point of call after injecting crisis in theNational Assembly for obvious reasons, he ensured the removal of the first National Chairman late Solomon Lar, and opposed late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, the popular choice of the party leaders for Lar’s replacement.

When Chief Audu Ogbeh emerged National Chairman, the same Obasanjo facilitated his exit for having the audacity to have a different view from his own on the Anambra state crisis where the then Governor Chris Ngige was having issues with Chris Ubah an ally of Obasanjo. Under Obasanjo’s tenure, no PDP National Chairman lasted through their statutory tenure all because the President’s personal interest clashed with the party interest.

The first time the party convention tried to take the right step to democratically elect its national officers, not through imposition was in 2007 when two Ebonyi state sons, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and Dr. Sam Egwu went round the country soliciting for votes from delegates but at the convention ground the delegates already set to cast their votes with pundits favouring Anyim ahead of Egwu ( Obasanjo’s choice) but Baba would not take that and he truncated it and installed instead Sir, Vincent Ogbulafor an original All Nigeria Peoples Party member who was not in contention and who was just coming into the country from abroad where he went for an eye surgery. Since Chief Obasanjo left office in 2007 there has been no political stability both in the party and the country.

The choice of obviously a disinterested sick former Governor of Katsina State Umaru Yar Adua as his successor against all protestation from the party created the lingering instability that eventually led to the defeat of PDP in 2015. Ditto the choice of Yar Adua’s running mate, another clearly unambitious then Governor of Bayelsa State, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan against Governor of Rivers state Dr. Peter Odili who indeed worked for it.

These were among many Obasanjo decisions that brought the nation’s democratic journey to its current near comatose state.. Yar Adua’s death brought Jonathan through doctrine of necessity and shortened the PDP zoning arrangement, an action that basically caused the defeat of PDP more than any other variables.

It’s therefore against this backdrop that the attitude of Chief Obasanjo on PDP is not only baffling but disappointing. Regardless of the empirical evidence catalogued above showing that the design and the sowing of the current PDP crisis gown was actually made inside Chief Obasanjo’s political workshop, he is also on record as the highest beneficiary of this platform more than any Nigerian dead or alive.

Chief Obasanjo’s recent utterances on the party including tearing of membership card are like an old boy of a College desiring the demise of the college where he was the head boy just because the current Principal and management of the college are not agreeable to him.

Many political watchers had thought that Obasanjo would be more interested in creating institutions and structure to sustain our democracy but all indicators point to the road that the elder statesman is not interested in an enduring democratic institution.

It’s disheartening that Chief Obasanjo should be openly celebrating the demise of a platform that gave him such a huge opportunity in life. Even if the current leaders angered him is it enough to throw away the baby and the bath water?

What would he gain if PDP dies? Even if the actions of a Buruji, a Fayose, and a Jonathan among others caused him to tear his membership card and denounce the party, has Obasanjo forgotten that all these characters were brought into national limelight of the party by him? Or is he confirming the views of some school of thought that he has refused to forgive the party for truncating his third term ambition.

One had expected Obasanjo to pick some lessons from what is currently going on in America where a crazy billionaire came and hijacked the Republican Party and has been throwing stones at anything that passes on his way to the White House , but rather than throw away their party, the Republicans including former Presidents are only denouncing the individual Donald Trump and holding on to their cherished party.

Not even the National Working Committee of the Republican Party who midwifed the Trump emergence are being attacked, rather the people have been careful to save their party and are only punching at the individual who is seen as the problem.

Chief Obasanjo’s seeming excitement at the fate of the party that gave him platform to rule this country for eight years, an accomplishment no other Nigerian has gotten is distinctly not statesmanlike and very uncharitable.

Something certainly is wrong with a nation whose elders are not statesmanlike in conduct and whose interests are often not national. God bless Nigeria.

 Source: New Telegraph