11 November 2008
editorial
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is rolling out the drums to celebrate its first full decade as a political party.
It appears that not many Nigerians outside its fold will be joining the celebrations given what many may say is a lackluster performance by the self proclaimed biggest party in Africa. Indeed many party faithful may even ask what is there to celebrate given the way the party has alienated so many of its founding fathers and abandoned the ideals for which it was set up. Ten years in the life of a political party may be too short but it still provides an opportunity to comment on the road taken or not taken.
The party itself began as an amalgam of different political groups that came together to form a political party to contest for offices when the military announced plans to hand over power to civilians shortly after the death of former military ruler General Sani Abacha in 1998. The nucleus of the PDP was the G34,a grouping of politicians and technocrats who opposed the Abacha government. The new party became one of 3 registered by the outgoing military government. It then went on to win the presidency and a majority of the governorship seats in the election conducted in early 1999. The party went on to consolidate its hold on power in the elections of 2003 and 2007 but with less consensus and more controversy than the first election supervised by the military in 1999. Beyond a common interest to capture and retain political power, the PDP does not seem to have any deep philosophy that elevates it above the other political parties in the country.
The supremacy of the party over public officials who contested and won elections under it was gradually eroded to the point that at different levels the party became an appendage of the local government chairman, state governor or the president as the case may be. Soon enough the party's internal democracy was replaced with the autocracy of the public office holders with the party officials at their beck and call. Election into party positions and primaries for general elections have since become so lackluster and predictable as incumbent political office holders determine everything in the party. That is why it remains unthinkable that what happened in the ruling African National Congress in South Africa where a sitting president was defeated in the contest for the leadership of the party could ever happen in the PDP as we know it.
Another worrying trend is the accusation against the ruling party that it seems to be undermining the opposition parties to the extent of promoting a culture of a one party state in Nigeria. This accusation is hinged on the way the party is implicated in the crisis affecting the main opposition parties. There is also the way it co-opted some of the main figures in the opposition parties like the late Bola Ige and Ahmed Abdulkadir of Alliance for Democracy on the one hand, then Mahmud Waziri of the ANPP shortly after taking power in 1999. There is also the recent luring of some ANPP bigwigs under the guise of a Government of National Unity. The danger of this approach is to create the notion of no alternative to the ruling party, a situation that is totally alien to true democracy.
It is however not too late for the ruling PDP to reinvent itself and lead by example. The recent attempt to woo back some of the leading party members who opted out of it during the Obasanjo presidency could provide that opportunity. Similarly the party should preach and practice true internal democracy in such a way that credible leadership is allowed to emerge at different levels of the party. In its relation to other political parties, the PDP should allow Nigerian people to decide which party they want to rule over them and should allow some of their hard sell candidates to be defeated in elections that adhere to the minimum standard of democracy. The party should also be doing something more ennobling than just planning to build a 10 billion Naira secretariat at a time when the president elected under its party is talking of austerity measures in the face of lean resources. Taking that path could allow the PDP to develop the moral authority needed for it to lead Nigerians to its vision of a better tomorrow.
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