How time changes, and fast. Of course, the changing time has a way of favouring some and making others reeling in confusion and or self-delusion.
For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the changing time seems to have boxed it into a dangerous corner. As a matter of fact, there used to be a time, not too long ago, when the party prided itself as the largest in Africa. So large and cohesive it was that its leaders had the confidence that it would be at the centre for at least, the next 50 years, calling the shot for this country.
That were the days of Dr. Alex Ekwuemes, the days Adamu Ciromas, the days of late Solomon Daushep Lars, the days of late Abubakar Rimis, the days of Chief Olusegun Obasanjos, the days of Chief Barnabas Gemades, the days of Chief Audu Ogbes, the days of General Ibrahim Babangidas, the days of Alhaji Atiku Abubakars, the days of Chief Tony Anenihs, the days of Alhaji Bamanga Tukurs and many other founding fathers.
These were the days when the PDP determined the fate and direction of the country, not necessarily because it was in power, but because of the sheer strength and nation-wide-spread of who-is-who in the country.
Time was when the whole country would literary shake whenever the party was having just a mere National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, not to talk of Convention: when Nigeria would catch cold simply because the party sneezed.
The party began to lose it clout from the very moment Dr. Goodluck Jonathan mounted power as President of the country and as national leader (of the party). Jonathan began to assemble his own kind of leaders for the party, away from the ideals of the founding fathers. So fast the party degenerated and so high-handed the leadership turned, under Jonathan that it approached the 2015 general elections in tattered. The general belief that gave the party’s leadership some forms of confidence was that enormous funds it stashed away in various places would, as usual, give it the power. Another hope was hinged on the rigging machinery which one of the chief defectors to All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Rotimi Amaechi said was all over.
Remember Amaechi saying before the elections that they, the leaders of PDP which he was part of, used to count ballot papers into ballot boxes inside aircraft, away from the votes which electorate would be busy queuing up at polling centres to cast.
When eventually the nemesis caught up with Jonathan after losing, for the first time in our political or electoral history, to an opposition party, the APC, the emptiness of the PDP came out clearly in the daylight.
The national chairman that led the party to the electoral waterloo, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu threw the party off his back and ran as fast as he could to where he could breath fresh air.
With the disappearance of Adamu Mu’azu, Chief Olisa Metuh, the party’s national publicity secretary assumed a defacto chairmanship, even though Secondus was at the background begging to be recognized as the national chairman.
At another point, a rabble rouser, Ahmed Gulak surfaced and declared himself as the national chairman. With knocks here and faltering steps there, governors under the party ignored five dark horses who showed interest to lead what remained of the party and settled for the former governor of Borno state and also a onetime Senator, Ali Modu Sheriff for the chairmanship. The governors were able to convince members of the National Executive Council and some other party organs to buy into their position.
The choice of Modu Sheriff has since raised some dusts across the country, and even within the circle of the PDP.
One of the points being raised against Modu Sheriff, according to no less a personality than the national auditor of the party, Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju, is his alleged sponsorship of the original Boko Haram that had since developed into an international terrorist gang.
Adeyanju said: “it is being erroneously speculated in some quarters that our new national chairman is a Boko Haram sponsor. Let those speculating this come out with concrete evidence and if they don’t have one, they should keep quiet and stop spreading such dangerous rumour.”
What those who floated Modu Sheriff don’t know is not the point bordering on sponsoring of Boko Haram or not sponsoring it, but on the mere fact that he has been linked to it in the first place; false or otherwise. The ‘allegation’ puts him in the public domain, as a suspect.
If today or during the day PDP held sway, the same Modu Sheriff was made national chairman of APC, it was obvious that PDP would have gone to town to confirm its allegation all along that APC is a Boko Haram party. At a point during the last campaign, some uncultured people went into social media to even tag Muhammadu Buhari as leader of Boko Haram.
In any case, if it were not that PDP is completely bereft of earth-shaking personalities, Modu Sheriff of this world would not be so close.
It is a clear case of smaller, less powerful animal feasting on the carcass of a huge, powerful animal…which passed on by miscalculative steps. To think that the rabble rouser, the boisterous ragamuffin, the garrulous, misguided, disrespectful, wayward Ayo Fayose was one of the main architects of the emergence of Modu Sheriff speaks volume about the level to which PDP has sank.
I really, truly and honestly grieve for PDP as a body. This is no fun. [myad]
