From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The understandable jubilant mood at the headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) when news filtered in that a Rivers state Court of Appeal had ruled in favour of Ali Modu Sheriff as the authentic chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP), confirmed the speculations that the ruling party may be the unseen hands in the intractable crisis rocking the main opposition party.
The dramatic sealing off of the International Conference Centre (ICC) Abuja, venue of PDP stakeholders’ meeting, by the security operatives, further fuelled the insinuations in some quarters that the APC was bent on “sabotaging, destabilizing and ridiculing the PDP,” using Sheriff as the agent provocateur to achieve the purpose ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Interestingly, many PDP stalwarts have been accusing the ruling party of being behind the party’s travails since losing the 2015 presidential election.
The allegation
During the recent nearly aborted stakeholders’ meeting of the PDP, chieftains of the party, speaker after speaker, underscored what they called a well-orchestrated plan by the APC-led government to ensure that lasting peace did not return to the party’s fold. They lamented that the ruling party wants to gag and cripple every opposition ahead of the 2019 general elections.
In fact, while the Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose, who also doubles as the Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum went spiritual, praying for the conspirators to meet their waterloo, other stakeholders like the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and other state governors, declared total war against any seen and unseen forces, the principalities and powers behind the PDP recurring crisis.
In Fayose’s words, “Senator Sheriff in collaboration with the APC-led federal government has barricaded the ICC, venue of the scheduled stakeholders’ meeting of the entire organs of the PDP. Sheriff and his APC collaborators cannot stop the will of the people.
“Nigerians can now confirm that Sen. Sheriff is a mole in the PDP to destroy the only strong opposition party in the country. Anybody behind what is happening in PDP now should know that there is vengeance of God and I want to inform them that very soon God will visit them one by one. Every morning when I wake up in my room, I carry enough Bible bullets inside my pocket to fight APC,” Fayose quipped.
Similarly, while frowning at the actions of the police, Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ekweremadu said: “Such flagrant manipulation of critical institutions of democracy was not only dangerous, but bad news for the nation’s democracy.
“We are aware that all the institutions of democracy are being manipulated and harassed in this country. The national assembly and the press are not left out, The INEC has been captured and now a part of the APC. Our judiciary is being insulted and assaulted every day. Their houses are attacked very late at night and the judges are harassed. So, we are not surprised at the sealing of meeting venue. But what remains is for us to remain resolute,” he intoned.
The PDP chieftains were perhaps very much right in confirming the culpability of APC in the party crisis considering PDP’s antecedent in manhandling, frustrating and killing opposition parties during its 16 years of hegemony from the national to the grassroots.
Under the PDP-led government, there were no vibrant and or active opposition parties to play the real ombudsman role as it allegedly did everything humanly possible to destroy, incapacitate or win them over as puppets through lobbying or intimidations.
In fact, until the emergence of a coalition of political parties that formed the APC, the trend was for the many opposition parties to collectively or individually endorse PDP candidates. The reality was that other political parties were tools in the pockets and at the disposal of the PDP for manipulation at the time.
APC denial
On the surface, analysts say, there seems to be indications of some levels of complicity of the APC in the crisis especially as it is difficult to believe that only Sheriff could wrestle the other faction of the PDP, comprising the best politically sound minds Nigeria can boast of, to the ground, without the collaboration of the ruling party.
Similarly, observers of political events in the country are also finding it hard to believe that Sheriff could possess the “high-level legal network and connection more than the octopus-domineering serving PDP governors and other political heavy weights in positions of authority without the collaboration of the ruling party.”
But APC is insisting that it had no hand in the PDP crisis. In a swift reaction, the national leadership of the party dismissed and disassociated itself from the insinuations and allegations, saying that the ruling party has no hand in the “intractable rifts” rocking the opposition party.
The National Publicity Secretary of APC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, argued that since PDP was not the only opposition party in Nigeria; the ruling party could never have hatched any plan to cripple it, let alone plot against other opposition parties, urging the PDP to look inward and put its house in order, instead of blaming the APC.
“I am yet to understand the claim by the PDP that the APC is causing their problem. They should understand that there are couple of things we should not play with. Essentially, they should be careful how they challenge the credibility of institutions, they cannot claim to be democrats but whenever a ruling goes against them they begin to attack the court and bring down the credibility of the court.
“By alleging that some people influenced the court means that the court did not act on its best judgment. By so doing the PDP is undermining the credibility of the court, which does not augur well for our democracy.
“I have been hearing this allegation that APC is behind whatever that is going wrong in PDP but I want to categorically put it on record that APC is not interested in what happens in the PDP because it is none of our business. And for their information, PDP is not the only opposition party in the country since Nigeria is not a two party state.
“Why should the APC preoccupy itself with just one of the several opposition parties? The PDP should not just generalise that APC influenced court judgment or behind the sealing off of ICC, the venue of its stakeholders’ meeting,” he noted.
Speaking further on the unhealthy state of the PDP, the APC spokesperson expressed concern why the party in power for 16 years should crumble after losing a presidential election, blaming PDP for building individuals instead of institutions.
“We still have a long way to go as a country in strengthening the political party institution to play that parental role to the government. I have not stopped wondering why one electoral defeat should lead to the death of PDP which has been in existence since 1999 as a very strong and formidable party.
“It does not happen anywhere in the world except in a country like Nigeria. It ought not to be that one electoral defeat should result in the collapse of a strong party like the PDP. It is not good that the PDP could not find the shock to withstand just one electoral defeat,” he wondered.
The reality
Beyond the debate, accusations and counter accusations, the realities on ground may cast strong doubt on the possibility of APC being directly involved in the PDP crisis.
This is so because, even the APC, is still battling to resolve its multiple internal crisis. From the national to the grassroots level, APC too is divided, traumatised and lacks the structural capacity to directly or indirectly plot a mechanism to destabilise the PDP.
Reacting to the allegations of APC’s involvement in PDP crisis, a member of the ruling party’s National Working Committee (NWC), told Daily Sun in confidence that the confusion in the PDP fold has made it obvious that the party is even afraid of its shadow.
“The biggest problem PDP has is lack of think-tank in its administrative structure. Members of PDP are still involved in the spur of the moment reaction like the ones from persons like Gov. Ayo Fayose.
“I thought that by now they would have realised the mistakes they made during the 2015 general elections when they created a larger than life image of the APC without realising that the party was not too strong.
“If PDP actually have a think-tank, they ought to know that APC still lacks the capacity and acumen to sought out its own internal crisis let alone have time to be plotting against the opposition. How can the APC, currently overwhelmed by its internal crisis among its members across every part of the country think of destabilising PDP?
“Those who know Nigeria political terrain would understand that the plot to destabilise opposition requires huge funds and as I speak with you, APC is still struggling to meet up with its basic financial needs including payment of salaries to its staff.
“Believe it, APC is bleeding under heavy financial difficulty, it lacks the capacity to bankroll the logistics to destabilise PDP or any opposition party. Before the PDP accuse APC of instructing police to seal the venue of the stakeholders meeting, did they take time to ascertain the level of relationship between the present IGP and Sheriff?” the APC chieftain asked.
Last line
Regardless of the debates for and against the culpability or otherwise of APC in PDP crisis , it is still difficult to rule out the complicity of the APC-led government in the crisis, especially as greater percentage of those that make up the APC are former PDP members who have sound orientation on how to crush the opposition.