Daniel Chibu
At the end of the French Revolution, a great number of the Bourbon royalists took refuge in various countries to escape from the concessionary policies of Louis XVI and the orgy of violence by the republicans. They were, however, restored 25 years later in 1814. But their mentality remained the same. Therefore, Napoleon Bonaparte’s former chief diplomat, Charles Talleyrand, said the Bourbon royals learned nothing and forgot nothing.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held great promises when it came to power in 1999. Although it achieved a whole lot, given the decay, high debt profile, and international pariah status it inherited from the military mal-administrators, many PDP leaders and Presidents soon became power-drunk. Impunity and political debauchery reigned. Founding fathers like Alex Ekwueme, Abubakar Rimi, Sunday Awoniyi, etc, were soon relegated. PDP lost its soul and direction. Presidents sacked and installed national chairmen at will. The party eventually crashed to a humiliating defeat in 2015.
Did PDP suddenly lose power? Hell no! From 214 seats in the House of Representatives in 1999, PDP climaxed at 263 in 2007, then the downward journey started: 208 in 2011 and 137 in 2015. From the apex of 87 senatorial seats in 2007, its share shrank to 71 in 2011, and 49 seats in 2015. From the 28 states it governed in 2003 and 2007, it shrank to 23 by 2011 before hitting the lowest (13 states) in 2015. President Muhammadu Buhari hardly scratched the ground in 2003 and 2007, but got 12 million votes under a newly registered Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011.
So, the signs were all there for years only that the hunting dogs refused to heed the calls of the owner and got lost in the wild. Yet PDP carried on like the lord of the manor, with a false sense of invincibility. They ill-treated their members and called their bluff. They could not even invest in the image management of the party, or money voted for that purpose was embezzled. Sometimes, I tell myself that the masses could have revolted and PDP chieftains possibly exiled had one-tenth of the killings, looting, bigotry, injustice, human rights abuses, decimation of democratic institutions, and grinding hardship under this incompetent APC administration occurred under the PDP.
Has PDP learnt anything yet? Nay! Even after the 2015 losses, it still carries on with its reprobate party management style, with the national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and a few governors running the party like a fiefdom. Against all sane counsel, Secondus and two governors foisted Ali Modu Sheriff on all party major stakeholders as national chairman of the PDP. It predictably turned to a huge fire that nearly consumed the PDP and those who fetched the fire.
Of course, between the loss of power in 2015 and the Modu Sheriff era, very many of those who benefitted most from the party as ministers, Senate presidents, Speakers, heads of MDAs, etc, had bolted. The PDP National Assembly caucus became the nurse of the dying PDP. It was the National Assembly caucus, led by Chief Ike Ekweremadu, that became a major source of bounce-back. The role of the House of Representatives caucus in PDP’s time of greatest need stands out for commendation.
What is their reward today? The Secondus-led PDP National Working Committee (NWC) has suspended part of the cream of that struggle at the drop of a hat. Their offence? They were elected by their colleagues to lead the minority caucus in line with the House Standing Rule. Yet only four years ago, the PDP was gallivanting all over the place, blasting the APC for attempting to foist leadership on the APC (majority caucus) in the Senate and House of Representatives. One would expect the PDP to show some example. Unfortunately, PDP’s leadership is exhibiting the same anti-democratic tendencies it accused the APC of. Order 7, Rule 8, of the House Standing Rule clearly provides: “Members of the minority parties in the House shall nominate from among them the Minority Leader, Minority Whip, Deputy Minority Leader, and Deputy Minority Whip.” Consequently, the House minority caucus, comprising eight political parties, PDP, APGA, AA, ADC, PRP, APM, SDP, ADP, and LP, chose their principal officers. One hundred and eleven out of 147 members signed the letter conveying to the Speaker the choice of Hon. Ndudi Godwin Elumelu (Minority Leader), Hon. Toby Okechukwu (Deputy Minority Leader), Hon. Gideon Gwani (Minority Whip), and Hon. Adesegun Adekoya (Deputy Minority Whip). For performing his role as a presiding officer by announcing the list, PDP lawmakers ensured a melee.
The practice over the years is that once the party zones the offices, members of each geopolitical zonal caucus in the Senate or House would hold election or choose by consensus from among themselves their colleague to fill the position allocated to them. They are the ones that would take the nominee to the party. They would then write to the presiding officers. So, except in 2015 when the APC leadership sent names to the presiding officers on its own, it has never happened in the history of the National Assembly.
It is easily recalled that although former Speaker Yakubu Dogara yielded to political pressure to announce the party’s nominated majority leaders, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, stood his ground and recognised only those elected by the members by themselves. But in 2019, APC has done things differently.
PDP’s claim that it held an election for its members to choose the leadership of the minority caucus does not add up. One, the meeting that produced him and others as leaders of the minority held on July 1, but the letter by the PDP nominating them to Speaker, which he displayed to the press, was written on June 21, 2019. It was received by the Speaker’s office on June 26. So, one can at best say that the NWC tried to legitimise an already completed illegitimate action.
Again, the PDP must understand that much as it constitutes the majority in the minority caucus of the House, it is Minority Caucus in its entirety. The smaller minority parties claim they were not involved in the said meeting.
On another note, why should Chinda and Secondus, both from Rivers State, hold two of the three most important offices of the PDP at the national level? What is now the difference between Secondus and President Muhammadu Buhari?
Lastly, the recent suspension of Elumelu and his colleagues portrays the Secondus-led NWC as lacking in strategies. PDP is becoming a one-man show. Otherwise, experienced party stakeholders, with parliamentary background, would have advised them on the folly of that decision. Somebody should remind PDP that it is now an opposition party. Why are PDP leaders not mustering and growing the party’s forces, but dispersing them?
•Chibu writes from Abuja.