PDP: Muazu’s Burden

I

n its frantic efforts to
reposition the crisis-ridden People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2015 general elections, the National Executive  Committee (NEC) of the party a forth night ago appointed a new national chairman, Alhaji  Adamu Muazu. The two-term governor of Bauchi State took over from Alhaji  Bamaga Tukur who was pressured to resign from office following the crisis that  characterised  his 21-month tenure which led to the defection of five PDP governors and 37 members of  House of Representatives to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Since the  formation of PDP in 1998, the position of the national chairman of the party has been a  hot seat that has left its occupants bruised, tainted, ridiculed, humiliated and deflated. With this appoiontment, Muazu is now the tenth national chairman of the self-styled  largest party in Africa while his predecessors  include, Late Solomon Lar, Bernabas Gemade, Audu  Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali, Vincent Ogbulafor, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Hilaru Bello, Kawu Baraye and Bamaga Tukur. Regrettably, most of the past chairmen of the party could not complete their tenures because of one crisis or the other.

For a party that has witnessed several crises  within its fold without the consequences of ceding power to the opposition parties both at the state and federal levels, PDP was not perturbed when some party chieftains began to complain of the high-handedness  and poor leadership style of Alhaji  Tukur whose primary mission was to protect the interest of Mr. President who literally imposed him on the party. Those who had issues with the president were either suspended or expelled  outright in total violation of the party’s constitution. All efforts by aggrieved members to  return the party to the path of sanity and rectitude were rebuffed by the beneficiaries of the impunity that was brazenly exhibited by the war-like Tukur.

By the time Tukur and his co-travellers realised the havoc they had caused in the party  the PDP has been reduced to weeping giant with the limbs of mosquito,  a badly perforated umbrella that has left its members at the mercy of climate change. This is the party that Muazu inherited from Uncle  Tukur.

Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa  State was one of the  vocal PDP chieftains that told the world  that their beloved party was on the edge  of a precipice  under the draconian leadership of Uncle Tukur, thus pleading with party members to save the PDP from impending doom. Because they spoke the truth they were  regarded as rebels and treated with disdain by the presidency and the leadership of the party. It was for this reason that some of his colleagues decided to take their destines in their hands by decamping to the rival APC rather than facing the obvious.

As one of the principal actors in the defunct new PDP, Lamido almost wondered aloud the possibility  of repositioning the PDP before the 2015 general elections when he paid a courtesy visit to the new national chairman of the party.

Hear him: “I hold nothing against Aljhaji Tukur because I respect him as my elder. But one cannot be happy seeming party members suspended and chased away by  the leadership.

“The PDP failed under the last leadership. If governors and National Assembly members were leaving and you said you were not worried, then you should know that some thing is wrong with your.

“Many of our members were unjustly insulted, humiliated and abandoned by immediate past leadership of the party. The G-7 Governors were made to feel unwanted, pained and traumatised.

“I  don’t  know whether  to congratulate  you or commiserate with you on this appointment because your job is a very difficult one.

“You  have to be courageous enough to say it when things are going wrong. No matter what  anybody  does, I will not leave the PDP because the  party made  me minister and a governor.

“We will stand by you and support you. When the issues are about  peace and stability of the party, then we are  with you. But if you try  to do otherwise, then you may count us out”.

Indeed, Muazu has started well by appealing to the five governors and others who defected to APC to return to the party. For  acknowledging the fact that the past leadership was not fair to many of the defectors is highly commendable.

“We are going to look at the various events and actions that  were taken  in the  recent past. Whatever   injustice done to members would be corrected. We will apologise to those the party offended”, he said.

Muazu who stated this when he received Governor Lamido on courtesy visit told his guest that he  would set up a reconciliation committee to address  the grievances  of party members across the nation.

Of course, the major task before Muazu is to restore peace in the PDP. No human organisation can make appreciable impact when it is engulfed in crisis. Although some people  are of the view that the president will use his enormous  powers as enshrined in the constitution to commandeer  victory to the PDP, political  pundits have dismissed  this  line of thought as counter- productive and retrogressive, which  is capable of truncating the nation’s fledgling democracy.

Another issue that should be tackled by Muazu is internal democracy. Not a few Nigerians believe that he will be greatly influenced  by the national leader of the party in course of his duties. As the national chairman he should ensure that the interest  of every  member is protected  in accordance with the constitution of the party. No  member of he party, no matter how highly placed should be given automatic ticket for any elective position.

The party members should be subjected to electoral process in pursuit of their political ambitions.

Also, the new national chairman should  call on the president to urgently wade into crisis  in Rivers State as a result of the glaring partisanship  of the state police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu in the discharge  of his duties. This has become imperative given the  fact that the National Assembly after a thorough  investigation into  the political crisis  in Rivers State passed a resolution for his immediate  redeployment to forestall  a state of insecurity.

Again, the recent resolution by the  National Executive Committee (NEC) of All Progressives Congress (APC) on the crisis in Rivers State should  be seen as a wake-up call to the president to save Rivers people from bloodbath. Rivers people are part  and parcel of  the  Nigerian State.

Finally, political observers are skeptical about the possibility of bringing back the defectors to PDP. While it is widely believed that Nigerian politicians are morally bankrupt, it will be politically suicidal for the decfectors to dump a party that served as a   soothing balm when they were bruised and traumatized by their former party. Who says that the PDP will not chastise them with scorpion this time around if they hold on to the principles that conflict with the political interest of the  oga-at-the-top? The chair, we wish you a peaceful tenure  in Wadata plaza.

Reward Akwu