Editorial
Return Of PDP
Nigeria’s political space was once again enlivened last week as the nation’s judiciary saved the acclaimed Africa’s largest political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from itself.
Last Wednesday precisely, the Supreme Court of Nigeria ended the 14-month leadership squabble within the PDP, giving it a new lease of life ahead of the all-important 2019 general elections.
Former Kaduna State Governor and PDP’s National Caretaker Committee Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and erstwhile Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff had been locked in a protracted legal battle for the soul of the main opposition party, forcing it to lose critical elections, including governorship seats in Edo and Ondo States and legislative seats in many others.
Not only that, the PDP has been grappling with loss of high-profile membership to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), especially at the national level, after it suffered an embarrassing defeat in the 2015 presidential election.
But in what seems to be a reinvigorating tonic for the PDP, a five-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, Wednesday removed the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party and affirmed the leadership of Ahmed Makarfi which was earlier sacked by the Federal Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt.
Declaring Makarfi as the authentic Chairman of the PDP, the apex court, in its unanimous decision read by Justice Bode Rhodes Vivour, held that contrary to the majority verdict of the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, the suit filed by Makarfi’s committee before the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt was not an abuse of court process.
The court also ruled that the PDP national convention held in Port Harcourt on May 21, 2016, was validly convened and in consonance with the party’s constitution; hence, Sheriff was rightly and constitutionally removed, more so, as he was incompetent to seek election as the party’s National Chairman at the convention.
The Tide agrees no less with the apex court. In affirming the universality of party supremacy in a democratic setting, the Supreme Court judgement vindicates the Makarfi-led PDP and has put the party on a recovery path.
We also agree with all lovers of democracy and good governance that the judgement would strengthen the opposition once again and save the country’s democracy from the dictatorial tendencies of the ruling party which also has its own share of internal challenges.
While we need not recall the deleterious impact of the PDP crisis on Nigeria’s democratic project, it must be stated that since the crisis started last year, there has been no virile opposition to the APC-led administration which, the PDP alleged, surreptitiously and assiduously worked to ensure that the crisis lasted. We believe, therefore, that the judgement would, in the main, indubitably serve as a check on the excesses of the ruling APC.
Even as PDP leaders and members deserve commendation for exhibiting a sense of maturity while the crisis lasted, the judges must be lauded for upholding the law, not minding whose ox is gored.
However, the PDP will have to re-invent itself by putting its house in order, and see the judgement as a no victor, no vanquished verdict, particularly, as it has brought sanity and stability to Nigeria’s political system.
While it behooves the PDP to be united, stronger and more focused after the crisis, it should strive to serve as a shadow government to the APC administration as it prepares itself for the 2019 general elections.
The victory of the Makarfi-led committee is a victory for democracy; a victory that calls for magnanimity and the imperative to soothe frayed nerves in the party. What this means is that Makarfi must hit the ground running now by initiating genuine reconciliation of the party’s factions at all levels; local, state and national.
Makarfi, rather than make utterances that would further polarise the party must extend his hand of fellowship and display some magnitude of camaraderie to the Sheriff faction in the spirit of true reconciliation and forgiveness.
On his part, Sheriff must prove himself as a true party man by burying the hatchet, allowing PDP to stablilise and avoiding inflammatory remarks, in the interest of the party and Nigeria’s democracy at large.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
