The shocking and surprising dumping of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday by one of its presidential hopefuls, Mr. Peter Obi, has further exposed the cracks in the tattered and ineffectual opposition party. Obi probably left the party a few days to its presidential primaries owing to irreconcilable differences. Obi’s exit will have unpalatable consequences for the party. In his letter of resignation from the party and withdrawal from the presidential contest to the National Chairman of the PDP, Obi tersely stated that “It has been a great honour to contribute to nation-building efforts through our party. Unfortunately, recent developments within our party make it practically impossible to continue participating and making such constructive contributions.” He also explained that: “Our national challenges are deep-seated and require that we each make profound sacrifices towards rescuing our country. My commitment to rescuing Nigeria remains firm, even if the route differs.”
There may be other reasons why Obi dumped his party, a party he joined shortly after leaving the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), under which he governed Anambra State for eight glorious years. The next vehicle or route Obi will use to realize his vision of rescuing Nigeria is not yet certain as speculations have filled the air. Without preempting him on why he left PDP, let me start by saying that Peter Obi left the PDP because he could not see the light at the end of the tunnel and probably when he felt that the momentum was so high. He might have also seen the handwriting on the wall and decided to quit when the ovation was loudest. Although many people would be surprised at the turn of events in the PDP camp, but keen watchers of the nation’s political scene might have anticipated Obi’s masterstroke, when his supporters urged him to leave the PDP for another political platform where he can realize his political ambition. Obi probably succumbed to the promptings of his teeming supporters, who would not be part of the delegates at the PDP presidential primary which may have been technically zoned to the North, if the body language of the party is anything to go by.
No doubt, Obi didn’t see any future in the PDP, a party his South East zone has tacitly and effectively supported since 1999 when we began this political journey. Obi’s aspiration is enjoying mass appeal at the moment and Obi does not wish to fritter it away because of the PDP. After governing Anambra and redefined its politics for eight years, Obi joined the PDP to play his political game at the national stage. In 2019, he became the Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP with Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate. They did well at the 2019 presidential poll and even believed that they won but were rigged out by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Many Nigerians also believed that they were rigged out in the 2019 presidential contest by the powers that be.
Peter Obi might have seen or heard from the grapevine that the PDP presidential primary is not going to be credible, fair and transparent. The primary might have been rigged before its commencement. It is likely that the body language of the PDP hierarchy will not factor Obi in the race, not because of anything altruistic but because of where he comes from, his philosophy, geography and ethnicity. It is also likely that moneybags have hijacked the party and monetized the primary ahead of the scheduled timeframe. Many of Obi’s supporters believe that Obi did the right thing by dumping the PDP. His leaving the party is seen as good riddance to bad rubbish. Obi left the PDP because of faulty processes or what many analysts will regard as lack of internal democracy or due process. There are people in the party who believe that they would continue in the same old faulty ways of doing things and believing that with time things will get corrected. Peter Obi does not share in that vision. Obi probably decided to leave the party because he doesn’t want to be part of that old corrupt system of doing things in the party where things are done in glaring breach of the stipulated rules, where the reign of impunity and imposition of candidates is highly encouraged.
Nigeria is the way it is simply because we don’t want to embrace change. We have vehemently refused to do things the way they are done in other parts of the world. Democracy differs the world over in the way other countries operate theirs, ours appears to be the worst brand. We continue to shift the goal post in the middle of the game when we feel the likely winner will not do our selfish will. Our politicians will always change the rules of the game in the middle of it due to self-serving reasons. That has been the bane of our march to democratic rule.
He stayed eight years in APGA and he had stayed eight years in the PDP. Obi left each of these parties when those in charge are bent on changing the laid down rules, when they don’t want to do the correct things or when they want to subvert the processes. Obi strongly believes that the route to achieving one’s political goal is more important than the goal itself and he believes that the processes of achieving such a goal or vision must be correct. And if the processes are wrong, the whole thing will equally be wrong.
There is no way someone will be talking of rescuing Nigeria and at the same time, the person tolerates a primary that its outcome won’t be fair, credible and transparent. In other words, a shoddy primary will never produce a credible candidate. The thinking in certain quarters that Peter Obi is going to team up with Kwakwanso’s NNPP, or join the SPD or Labour Party or any other political platform to realize his political ambition is still within the realm of speculation.
Obi is a firm believer in change and a defender of due process. He would not like to be found in the camp of people who share the vision of impunity and lawlessness. The current implosion in the PDP will expectedly occur in the APC. The two parties which members supervised the ruination of Nigeria since 1999 are almost the same thing. They are like six and half a dozen. What is passing as primaries of both parties across the states is nothing short of imposition of candidates. Their presidential primaries will witness such imposition as well.
Since it is no longer hidden that PDP and its brother APC have collectively failed Nigerians, there is urgent need to look for an alternative route to salvage the sinking nation. After all, there are many roads to the market. There is no way Nigeria is going to fare any better under the control of failed PDP and APC. Both routes and vehicles should be allowed to die a natural death. In Nigeria, parties like Abiku or Ogbanje, come and go. Some even die without any hope of coming again. It is time Nigerian progressives form a credible coalition, under an existing political platform, to rescue Nigeria from the inept leadership of APC and PDP. Neither PDP nor APC can save the country, the crumbling edifice.