Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1994, an American writer, defined politics as “a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles; the conduct of public affairs for private advantages”.
The above quotation aptly captured the role of the People’s Democratic Party (PD) in the nation’s space in its 16 years’ occupation of power stool. In all of this time, the party ruled the country with impunity and led the people into abject poverty while a few in the corridors of power lived like lords.
In all of these years, when the party spoke, it fronted people-oriented policies and made numberless promises that never were kept. Like Bierce pointed out, all the activities of the PDP were for private advantage.
Since the party got trounced last year during the presidential election, things have never been the same for it.
Many leading lights of the party have since dumped the organisation and have anchored in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). However, a few of them have adopted a “wait and see” approach, not wanting to be hasty in jumping ship.
The party also suffered huge losses at the state level as the APC captured many of the states hitherto controlled by the PDP. Today, the PDP is picking its pieces in a bid to see how it can rise from the ashes of humiliation it has been thrown into.
While trying to remain relevance, the elected state governors on the PDP platform recently went for a man with controversial badge as the party’s national chairman. The essence, it has since been made public, is to give a financial base to the PDP since it has lost the federal purse, and contribution from the member-states may no longer be huge, occasioned by the peanut federal allocation to states unlike the bumper that was the case in the Jonathanian era. The new chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, has deep pocket and is said to be willing to bankroll the party’s programmes.
As part of the efforts to reposition the party, Sheriff, last Wednesday convened a meeting of former governors and deputy governors under the PDP platform. The meeting was to beg the “Yesterday Men” to remain in the party and to work for its revival and survival.
However, beyond the meeting, pundits believe that the PDP leadership has an onerous task if the party must bounce back.
It would be recalled that it was one of their own that propounded the theory of “yesterday men” in Nigerian politics. Reuben Abati, an aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, had urged expired forces in politics not to meddle in the business of governance. At that time, certain of the former leaders of the party had expressed their reservation over the state of affairs in Jonathan’s administration.
Today, the PDP may have realised the importance of “yesterday men”.
But analysts noted that the depth into which the PDP has descended and its perception in the eyes of many Nigerians may not be changed by mere meetings and the congregation of spent forces who themselves contributed hugely to the series of misfortune that befell the party last year.
According to them, the electorates voted for Buhari because they had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the Jonathan government had outlived its usefulness having consistently failed on its promises to deliver the democracy dividends.
The PDP image, pundits noted, went deeper down with the revelations on the way the people’s money was shared away by the party’s chieftains and their cronies.
“I think the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the level of stealing that went on in Jonathan’s administration which had the signature of the presidency. The PDP government was insensitive to the plight of the citizens. The party was wasteful; much money was spent yet we could not see anything. They were preaching the need for people to tighten their belt, yet they were sharing money among themselves. I don’t think that the PDP should be allowed to come back to power in the nearest future,” Ayodele Thomas, a trained psychologist, told BDSUNDAY
“Although I am not also certain that APC will survive more than one tenure by the way things are going now, my thinking is that a new party will emerge out of the present APC and PDP to wrest power from the APC in 2019. But nothing; I repeat nothing, gives any indication that PDP can come close to power soon.”
Among those who attended Sheriff’s meeting were former state governors whose shadows are still being seen in the current administration in their states.
In some states, the major problem the incumbent governors are contending with is how to wean themselves off such former governors. Some state governors of the PDP whose elections were challenged in the court had such problems because of the obvious maladministration of their predecessors.
During the gubernatorial election last year, there was massive voter apathy in some PDP states; it was a subtle protest against the disappointment the people suffered in the hands of the former governors. The thinking in many places is that there’s no point continuing the old order. Today, some of the non-performing former governors have found their way into the Senate and many Nigerians are embittered about such brazen impunity and elongation of malady.
Analysts are of the view that the PDP may not make any progress if it is hoped to ride back to the Aso Rock Villa on the back of such former state chief executive officers.
So, rather than gain mileage by gathering the old woods, Sheriff should begin to think toward exorcising the party of the spirit of “dead men”.
Zebulon Agomuo
