Uche Igwe
The
appointment of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu as the new Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party has been commended by many as the beginning of good
tidings for the acclaimed largest party in Africa. Mu’azu is said to be a
consensual nominee of the governors and other powerful members of the
party who pressured the former chairman, Bamaga Tukur, to resign. True
to the speculations, the former Governor of Bauchi State has already
promised to reconcile and reform the party. He has announced that he
will ensure that the party conducts free and fair primaries and will not
interfere with the party structures and the running of the party at the
state level. True?
Mu’azu has begun to match his words with
action by visiting former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta to
hold consultations. He has also appealed to the five governors who
recently defected to the All Progressives Congress, to return to the PDP
and allow him to address their grievances. But how far can the new
Chairman go with his promises? Many optimists insist that the acrimony
within the ruling party will soon be over. They have their right to hold
onto their point of view. However, I disagree with them. Rather, let me
say without any ambiguity that even though Mu’azu has come on board
with some goodwill and charisma, he cannot and will not be able to do
much. I will give you three reasons.
The first reason is because it is a bit
too late in the day. President Goodluck Jonathan and other leaders of
the party allowed the crisis to fester for too long. Mentioning the name
of the President is deliberate here. There are those who may want to
crucify me for doing just that, anyway. This is because they will prefer
to hold Tukur accountable and blame him for all the problems that have
bedevilled the PDP in the past few months. Sure, they are partly
correct. Tukur was part of the problems. He was very high-handed in his
leadership style and those who know him well say he is also a selfish
politician, who wanted to unduly leverage on his position.
However, it
is obvious that most of the actions he took might have been cleared by
the President or those who are working for him. Put differently, Tukur
did not and could not have acted alone. So, whatever has become of the
PDP of late is a clear reflection of the kind of politics that Jonathan
is playing. He is clearly a man who is reluctant to play politics of
inclusion and compromise.The backing that Tukur gave to the
emergence of the Godswill Akpabio led-PDP Governors’ Forum, the
factionalisation of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and the arbitrary
suspension of governors from the party could not have happened without
the blessing of the President. The latter day insistence of Tukur to
remain in office clearly showed that he was sure he was “innocent” and
only acted as directed.
The last minute efforts of the President’s men
to save Tukur’s job, the political horse-trading that culminated in his
removal and the eulogies poured on him on the day of his resignation by
the President further validate this point of view. It further showed
that the President allowed Mu’azu’s candidature to sail through
reluctantly. Now that the party has been clearly balkanised and some
people have joined the leading opposition party parties, it will be
extremely difficult to get them to come back. More so, they are aware
that it will take just a little time before the President’s overbearing
political influence will come on Mu’azu, just like Tukur.
The second point is about the promise of
Mu’azu to conduct free and fair primaries which sounds like a fairy
tale and runs contrary to the style of the party. Who will allow that?
For those who know the internal workings of the PDP, if the party goes
ahead to conduct free and fair primary elections today, many of the
current gladiators, including the President and many of the governors,
will lose out. By making such a promise, it is either that the new PDP
Chairman wants to display political naivety or treachery or he may be
planning a rebellion. Everyone is aware that if Jonathan decides to
contest a re-election, he may not favour “free and fair” primary
elections.
That will be too risky. Rather, he may press for a consensus
option. There are many of the governors who are openly and vehemently
opposed to his candidature, yet they have remained in the party. If the
party decides to go into primaries, that will be their best opportunity
to get back at the President with a majority of delegates under their
control.Some governors serving their last term
are all warming up to possibly go to the Senate, while many senators may
want to return. Look at Enugu and Akwa Ibom. That could be part of the
reasons that inspired their support for the new chairman. So, how can
Mu’azu think of a level playing field? Is he new to the tactics of the
PDP? Anyway, it may not take long before Mu’azu will be caught in the
web of political intrigues if he really wants to deliver on his promise
of transparency.
My third and final point is that Mu’azu
has come on board with a credibility baggage. His choice as chairman
attracted condemnation from a wide spectrum of the media and civil
society. So, making someone like that a face of the reforms in a
political party that is in dire need of rebranding may turn out to be
counterproductive. In a typical Nigerian political setting, any day
Mu’azu begins to disobey those who appointed him, they will simply
deploy the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against him. That
way, they can easily force him out. Being in such a predicament will
serve as a constant check on the excesses of the new chairman.Finally, even with all the constraints
that he may face in accomplishing his promises, Mu’azu has bounced back,
according to one of his fans. True.
He will at least repair his
political profile which suffered an enormous setback after he was
defeated at the Senatorial election by the current Minister of the
Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed. As a nominee of the governors,
he will likely have some cash at his disposal too. The only weapon of
the PDP in the next elections will be how much cash and patronage that
it is willing to deploy. Mu’azu will partly superintend over that
exercise and will likely be better off financially for it. There are
insinuations that the PDP leadership is already shopping for judgments
that can be used to bargain and intimidate its membership from defection
to the APC. It has allegedly invaded the Senate to ensure that the
disgraceful defections planned in the coming days are aborted.
It has
even got a few members of the House of Representatives to begin to run
back and forth to alter the current majority of the APC. Money and
patronage at work. Beyond all this, every other expectation for reforms
under the current leadership in the PDP will remain a pipe dream. I
congratulate Mu’azu. But, like his predecessor, Tukur, it is his own
time to “chop”. Beyond that, he is no messiah for a party described by a
former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, as irredeemable. Forget it.
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