The interest I have in what is happening in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against the background of the controversial election of the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is not so much based on how a particular political party conducts its internal affairs than how such affairs directly affect the entire system of election in an ideal democratic set up.
It is sad that Nigerians are daily being treated to the theatre of absurdity by a party that has gradually symbolizes electoral malfeaces, all in the name democracy.
And in any case, as a public affairs commentator, individual affair that does not have any much impact on Nigeria as a nation, would not worth as much as a whisper from me. What PDP, at the centre of the nation’s affairs and controlling a large chunk of the 36 states, does or does not do is not just a matter of whisper but a loud cry, in view of the implication such action would have on the nation from within and outside.
As a matter of fact, the manner in which the 36 wise and well-educated governors conducted themselves at the election of one of them to lead them, the way the same group of privileged few went about displaying rancour and bitterness and, above all, the way the PDP has come out to take side speak volumes about how the party has been mesmerizing Nigerians and, some gullible international communities on the previous general elections it “won.”
The party has clearly shown that it has all along been a master of the-more-you-look-the-less-you-understand on elections. The party’s sense of maneuovering and intrigues in broad day-light when it comes to election appear not to have any equal.
From all indications and from what is happening, PDP has obviously turned the spirit of election from what we were taught in school to something strange: the party has clearly shown its stuck-in-trade of pre-determining the winner of elections, against the spirit of election that says that one goes into it with the mind to win or loose.
In other words, PDP has shown that a pre-determined candidate would always win an election either by hook or by crook, and, indeed, more by crook, even crudely. And that where the pre-determined-to-win candidate is defeated by a stroke of hard luck, the party would resort to crudity and out-of-the-system manneuovres.
Of course, like I said, it doesn’t really matter who won the NGF chairmanship election between governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state and governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state, but the way events are turning, it looks as if the power-that-be are insisting that since it is governor Jang they anointed, it is him that must win the election.
Even if it is Jang that won the election, why is the party in a haste to suspend Amaechi, using an old petition as an alibi?
If this is not the height of political crudity, would someone tell me what it is?
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