Abuja — PDP national chairman Vincent Ogbulafor stirred a controversy recently by saying that his party would rule Nigeria for 60 years. Not minding the criticisms that statement attracted, Ogbulafor edited it at a rally of the party in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Saturday: the PDP will rule for the next 100 years, he said.

There is nothing wrong in a politician prophesying about his party's fortune. But Ogbulafor's campaign message exposes itself to several misinterpretations: The ruling PDP has, in the last nine years, not demonstrated that it is a democratic party. It has had little tolerance for the opposition that Ogbulafor accused of not working hard. PDP is often synonymous with election-rigging; its thugs in association with INEC and security agencies prevent voters from exercising their franchise. Its winner-take-all policy threatens to turn the country into a one-party state. Yet, had democratic elections been permitted, the PDP's rule would have been limited to four years. If the party's leaders think, however, that they can retain power by hook or crook, then anything can happen. Those who make peaceful change impossible, John Kennedy warned, make violent change inevitable.