By Femi Melefa

“TRUTH was visibly in detention outside the convention grounds. The uniforms and costumes on display were like feathers on drunk clowns. The dance-steps betrayed no emotions beyond celebrations of folly in the theatre of collective deceipt(sic ) And the floodgate of words conveyed a loss of memory and seeds of distrust. (Tunde Adeniran, “The Convention” in Beyond Finalities) Professor Tunde Adeniran should, in better climes, not be a hard-sell to members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or any political party for that matter as he can be described suitably as: “the best qualified, most experienced, tried and tested”. But sadly, as he had experienced within the party he helped to found, these attributes are not sufficient to earn him the coveted Chair of the largest party in Africa. He had, in the past, submitted himself for the position of its National Secretary but found that there was a wide gulf between the art and science of political science and politicking! As a Professor of Strategic Studies, he was, no doubt, stunned by the shenanigans of his party leaders represented by the then President Goodluck Jonathan who “talked” him into stepping down for Col. Olagunsoye Oyinlola (retd.) at the point where the delegates were poised to vote for the candidate of their choice. Adeniran’s eminent qualities stood and still stand in sharp contradistinction to the ailments that robbed the PDP of the Villa seat, and which require urgent redress for the immediate future. At his official declaration of intent to have a go at the PDP National Chairmanship, the likes of Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Hon. Maina Waziri to mention but a few, did not restrain themselves from the truth in the analyses of the loss suffered by the party. They more or less re-echoed the submission of Tunde Adeniran in his Manifesto, namely, that “The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has suffered maximum damage especially from impunity and a culture of unredeemed imposition. (Our) impatience with due process and unrestrained disregard for the fundamentals of internal democracy have been at unacceptable costs to the stability and fortunes of (our) great party.” The recent judicial resolution of its leadership crisis is a testimony to the general malaise that afflicted the party. The cleavages and wound created by the crisis will take a while to heal. It is no wonder, therefore, that Adeniran makes rebuilding the party, reconciling all members and “strengthening the party’s conflict resolution mechanism” among others, his cardinal philosophy. Sadly, Governor Ayo Fayose’s recent declaration of intent to run for the Presidency in 2019 on the platform of the PDP appears to have trivialized all the efforts being made to reposition the party as a viable alternative to the APC. Fayose is the Chair of the PDP Governors Forum. He is from the South-West as Adeniran and commonsense should have indicated that the PDP cannot possibly produce the President and National Chairman of the party from the same geo-political zone, let alone the same state. But Fayose has over the years earned himself the sobriquet of enfant terrible. It, however, behooves Adeniran to put his conflict resolution skill to the test by reaching out to Fayose for whatever it is worth in order to prevent him from throwing a spanner in the works. It is not sufficient in Nigeria to parade all the leadership qualities that define the Professor. Yes, he was one of the founding fathers of PDP, chairman, presidential inauguration committee 1999, headed the most transparent electoral panel of PDP’s national convention, former Minister of Education, Nigerian ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, to mention but a few. But all these will amount to nothing if spoilers are permitted to continue with the old politics that ruined the party. If the truth must be told, the failure of PDP commenced with the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo. Under him, the State Governors seized control of the party, a situation the then Vice-President Abubakar Atiku read so well that it almost cost Obasanjo his second term bid. Atiku simply parleyed with the governors in his bid for power. Deploying his Machiavellian skills, Obasanjo overcame the “coup.” But the bitter taste of Atiku’s loss lingered and he exacted his pound of flesh when Obasanjo lusted after the Mugabe approach. He has since used every opportunity available to him to deny the Third-Term bid! Obasanjo ignored the time-tested approach to the emergence of national leadership when he ignored the party and imposed the late Umaru Yar’Adua, notwithstanding the latter’s health challenges and gifted the nation with Goodluck Jonathan as Vice-president. He even made a comical description of the situation and I wondered if anybody was impressed with his theatrics. By any stretch of the imagination, if the South-South were to produce a Vice President and due process or appropriate consultation was made, Jonathan would probably have come from the rear in terms of choice. The party suffered another imposition with impunity. The result was the death of Yar’ Adua and the enthronement of a President that lacked any charisma. His laize faire attitude to leadership worsened the position of the party. Jonathan preferred Bamanga Tukur as party chairman against the North-East zone’s preference, Dr. Musa Babayo. Not done, he agreed to Olagunsoye Oyinlola as National Secretary at the venue of the party convention, forcing the more cerebral Adeniran to step down, and promising to compensate him. Perhaps, the worst part of all these was his reliance on Dasuki and Deziani to control his electoral funding machinery. His choice of Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) as his image maker may have worsened the situation. FFK was lampooning Jonathan and his wife Patience and it beats anybody’s imagination that he could make that decision. Jonathan was never really in control of his government but ironically he had the artery of the party well controlled albeit with painful consequences. His politics was bizarre. He got himself involved in the Governors Forum, preferring to recognise Jonah Jang who lost the election to Bukola Saraki, the Governors’ choice. Under his nose, the PDP stalwarts began to move in droves to the then seemingly amorphous party, CPC-AD, which birthed the APC. Jonathan pandered to the drumbeats of the Niger Delta militants who threatened his life if he didn’t contest the Presidency after the end of his term. That undemocratic act prevented a viable option from emerging from the North, a region with a far bigger electoral fortune. And, while all these were going on, Jonathan began to romance Alhaji Modu Sheriff. The entire nation was shocked to watch Modu Sheriff grinning from ear to ear at the Palace of the Nigerien President when Jonathan visited Niger Republic. The consequence of that dalliance was Modu’s emergence as PDP Chairman, an aberration that was distractive and fought to the Supreme Court. The task before the PDP is enormous but if it gets its act together, the failure of the change mantra should provide it the necessary fuel to reach its desired destination come 2019. This is where Tunde Adeniran’s vision of PDP for “A new Beginning” comes in. His manifesto contains all the ingredients required to reposition the party. But like I mentioned earlier, will the PDP follow democratic norms in the election of its chairman? Will the moneybags in the party who are desperately angling to control the party give him the opportunity? The PDP should this time get its act together and right too and elect a chairman who is really tested and who has the integrity to deliver. If that is done, and I believe it is achievable, the APC would have to do more than it is currently doing to continue after 2019.

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Melefa is a public policy commentator