Once upon a PDP: How are the mighty fallen!

 Obasanjo  that God will ask him to give account of how he  spent  his eight years governing Nigeria" . "If the people cannot say you should account for your stewardship, God definitely will call you to give account of it one day…", he deadpanned. Unfortunately this is one admonition those close to the President, even those who dragged a reluctant (?) Obasanjo out into partisan politics only a fews years ago, no longer have the guts to tell him.

They had drawn out a hugely respected man whose last thoughts were about politics, into the presidential election of that year believing he would, forever, be beholden to them. How time changes and what a lesson for the future?

In his usually perceptive column, Azubuike Ishiekwene in the Punch of Tuesday, 2 January 2, 2007 attempted to bring both numerology and futurology into projecting a picture of Nigeria in 2007. Illuminating as the effort was, I see it as pure Afghanistation. No, the newly appointed Punch Director, (meanwhile, congrats), is eminently capable of, and has many times damned the consequences of his deep, incisive and penetrating write-ups, even not shying away from naming names. But for the salvation of this country in the year of our Lord 2007, for its overall peace we do not have numerologists, futurologists, not even a Dan Brown of the Da Vinci Code fame, but our own  Olusegun Obasanjo to plead with, to beseech and, if need be, to propitiate in the manner of a Yoruba god.

Besides the Almighty God, Obasanjo holds the key to whatever happens to Nigeria , to our well-being or otherwise in 2007.

Why do I think so?

Readers of this column must by now be quite familiar with my views (partisan?) on and about the political party the President leads. The party, even till this time of writing, arguably remains the largest political party in the country. Which is why the other parties are strategising towards a united front. The fact of its size should not surprise us because politics in this clime is defined by patronage. It is apposite to quote  the President's views  on the PDP not too long ago.

The brutally frank man that he is,  Obasanjo, while addressing their Third National Convention in Abuja on 31,  March 2001, remarked as follows 'The PDP is no more than a dynamic amalgam of interest groups. What has held us together, if anything at all, is that our party is in power and there is strong expectation of patronage; Our party lacks cohesion'.

 He then went on to itemise the essential characteristics of a political party, properly so called, as 'cohesiveness, an organisation propelled by strict discipline, ideology-based human ideas and solidarity with a socially motivated unity of purpose'.

I suspect the speech writer must be one of those who have since been hounded out of the party because nothing in the present day PDP remotely looks like those a fore-mentioned characteristics of an ideal political party. Except, of course, that at the last Presidential primaries of the party in Abuja , we saw a elusive cohesiveness clobbered by none other than the ever hard working Chairman of the EFCC. Through some 'deu ex machina', we suddenly began to see presidential hopefuls who had traversed the length and breath of the country, some taking chieftaincy titles the meaning of which they know not, dropping off like over-ripe bananas. Party supremacy, indeed.

Also believing that any PDP candidate for any position is a sure to win, we now read daily of characters, who a few weeks ago almost shattered our auditory nerves, claiming they were progressive politicians running helter skelter into the PDP ,forgetting that even founders and, indeed, financiers of the party have stories to tell. We can only wish them the luck they so richly deserve.

PDP's capacity for malfeasance is as stupendous as its size. We saw, for instance in Edo state, the miraculous excavation of an old inquiry at the ministry of solid minerals and, pronto, all the ambitions of a former minister did not only evaporate, but a powerful chieftain of the party who might have been minded to flex muscles could hardly say a thing. Like it or not, we must give it to this party.

The president, we must also acknowledge, has mastered his politics and its nuances very well.Therefore, if he  would deploy this obvious imperial strength into ensuring that the PDP, both as party and as individuals, behave rationally, then he would have doused a huge proportion of our fears in this election year. I do not intend by the above to over- simplify individual ambitions and the fact that all politics is local. Which is why the president is still pleading with the vanquished Bode George inspired group to collaborate with Senator Obanikoro in the Lagos state PDP. Inspite of the fact that such scenario is replicated in a few other  states, the fact of the president's proprietorial hold on the party, if genuinely deployed would go a long way in ensuring that 'ilu a roju', literally translated as the country will be peaceful.

I am, by no means, a mono-causalist. I do appreciate that there are, besides Mr President, many individuals as well as agencies of government, that will play significant roles in the processes leading to, and the actual general elections. However, I have seen enough of this country to know that when a Professor Iwu claims that he would rather die than mess up the elections, he is only grandstanding.

What would he do, for instance, when and if police state commands get a directive to co-operate with each state chairman of the ruling party. And it would not be the first time if depositions during the Buhari VS Obasanjo post -2003 elections suit are anything to go by. What would he do when, or if, his men and the hundreds of thousands of his ad hoc staff get overwhelmed by gun – totting "kill and go" police men who do not need fresh orders to kill.

Of course he would only throw up his hands and bemoan his luck. That is even if INEC has not, long before the elections, deliberately screwed up the registration exercise that all they need do is allot votes as directed. And of course, being a professor, he will ensure that there is no issue of unexplainable 600,000 votes in Katsina state this time around.

With the kind of powers our extant constitution confers on the president and given the need for a trusted successor, the President would be severely tasked to allow things play out normally. But it is not beyond him.

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It is in this respect that we plead with President Obasanjo, with an eye on posterity, to play the statesman.

We are equally aware that in the days immediately before the elections, the police will be assigned a minder or minders, even if a trusted Inspector – General is in place. But even in the face of the best preparations, the wish and will of the people can still make nonsense of projections. This is why it is necessary that the police must not be put to any sadistic use.

What I am trying to say here is that between the interest of an individual or even that of a political party, the long term interest of Nigeria should be allowed to predominate in 2007. Granted that the president thinks his party would rule for decades, it is not unheard of in history that even popular Heads of State are defeated at elections. Both Prime Minister Churchill and President Bush 1 are ready examples. Both went to war and achieved victory but directly after these achievements they were voted out of office and their countries did not go up in flames..

Nigeria, many have said, cannot afford another civil war. The president knows this better than any other Nigerian. The ferocity of the primaries in most of the political parties is a pointer to the fact that where a party may accept defeat where it is genuine, it would be different by far, where it is obvious that it has been rigged out.

Indeed, a chieftain of one of the political parties has sounded it loud and clear that the United Nations and some countries should be invited to monitor the elections, a proposition which Prof. Iwu, going by his pronouncements, is not well disposed to.

All these boil down to is a plea to the President and Commander-in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, our own Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to give us, this year, a decent and acceptable general election that will propel this nation to an era of rapid socio-economic development and into our rightful place in the comity of nations.

He can do it".

Unfortunately, he didn't.

On the contrary he superintended over the most eggriously rigged election in the history of Nigeria, so rigged the chief beneficiary of the electoral heist, that is, President Umar Yar' Adua, could not hold back from publicly disavowing of its integrity .

So much for PDP and its owners who once behaved like they own the very land on which ordinary Nigerians thread.

History never forgets.