The recent Supreme Court judgment that gave the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the Peoples Democratic Party recognition as the authentic leaders of the party has thrown up a wide range issues. One of the issues is the pronouncement through proxies, that some of the nomadic politicians hitherto in the party but defected to other parties, especially the ruling All Progressives Congress, are likely to stage a come back to the PDP very soon.
The chairman of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, should not give preferential treatment to the given to returnees as against those who remained in the fold of the party in spite of all odds.
There is no point in giving recognition to those who left the party and called it all sorts of names. I fully agree with the Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who said there would be no special recognition for the nomadic politician. This is perfectly in order, and a way of separating real politicians from those looking for greener pastures.
This measure should be applied to any person who left the party during the storm, irrespective of his or her status. .
It is also imperative for the leaders of the party not to give the party’s ticket to anyone that defected form the party. Rather, the leaders should stand behind its core members.
The era of big shots no longer has a place in the current Peoples Democratic Party. Those who believe that they can leave the party for another and then return because they held political office under the PDP and now want to be accorded undue advantage are under a big illusion as that cannot happen again in PDP.
Only genuine, consistent party men should be given the ticket in 2019. This would the nomadic politicians stay in a party, build it up.
The leaders of the present leadership of the PDP should encourage genuine internal democracy in the party. The PDP should remain focused as an opposition party that wants to wrest power from the ruling party in the 2019 election.
Credible and unblemished persons should be given the ticket of the party in any future election. The party should evolve a systematic way to avoid any kind of wrangling in the party. Everything should be done in a democratic way.
The Supreme Court verdict should mark the turning point for PDP, in its quest to recapture power at the centre in 2019. It must go back to the dark days, when things were done in the improper way, and resulted to the party losing the election and becoming the opposition. People who did not believe in the ideology of the party were given tickets, and enjoying the benefits, dumped the party.
This type of people should no be accorded any special treatment Makarfi has said. Once you rejoin the party after leaving it, you must take your place at the end of the queue. This will greatly help in curbing defection by nomadic politicians in the various parties in the country.
► Usman Santuraki wrote from Santuraki Close, Jambutu, Jimeta-Yola