Port Harcourt — Somehow, we must be grateful to political parties in Nigeria that they have not left us in the dark about their cluelessness. At each turn, they remind us that they are utterly incapable of attending to their problems and so can’t be reasonably expected to bother about the cost of bread or fuel. As I write, the three major political parties – PDP, APC and the Labour Party — are mired in crisis and leadership struggles that even motor park unions manage to avoid. The PDP, formed in August 1998, has not regained consciousness after losing power at the centre in 2015, in the first such setback by a ruling party in Nigeria. It quickly became a victim of the history it created!
We woke up the other day to hear that the acting national chairman, Illiya Damagum, had suspended the national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba and the national legal adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade. In a swift retaliation, the national publicity secretary declared Damagum and the national secretary of the party suspended. The root cause of the crisis is the situation in Rivers State. Indeed, what we have in Rivers state will confound the most brilliant political scientist. You have a state governor from the PDP, a legislature controlled by the APC and local government councils led by the Action Peoples’ Party! A political potpourri that is laughable if not for the serious consequences it portends. PDP chieftain and former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said “only a miracle can get the Peoples Democratic Party back on track.”
The APC is not in safer waters. Formed in 2013, the APC currently controls the presidency and majority of states and seats at the National Assembly but its troubles have been festering since the current dispensation began some 17 months ago. The chairman that led the party to victory in last year’s presidential election, Abdullahi Adamu was forced to resign a few months later following accusations of “running a one-man show.” His successor and former Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje is dogged by allegations of corruption which his political opponents have deployed at every turn. The chairman of the ruling party suffered the indignity of handing over to the opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party on completion of his two-term tenure as Governor of Kano State. At a point, Ganduje was reportedly suspended by members of his ward in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State but this was later dismissed. Neither the APC nor Ganduje is sleeping with two eyes closed!
The Labour Party is the biggest disappointment of them all. We considered it a breath of fresh air in a polluted political environment. It came into existence in 2002, from a previous life as Party for Social Democracy. LP quickly assumed messianic airs and concretized its credentials when Peter Obi, unable to get the presidential ticket on the platform of the PDP, defected to it in May 2022. Riding on the crest wave of goodwill and “our-mumu-don-do” sentiments, LP won six seats in the Senate and 34 in the House of Representatives to emerge a major power broker in the 10th National Assembly. It also snatched Abia State from the PDP, while Peter Obi came 3rd in the presidential poll, with many of his supporters swearing that the man was denied the chance to occupy of Aso Villa by a twisted political system.
But the Labour Party has itself excelled as cheer leader of the same flawed political system given the twists and turns in its internal wranglings. Obi’s people want the national chairman of the party Julius Abure to step down accusing him “of clinging to power and prioritizing personal interests over the party’s well-being.” However, on the eight of this month, the Federal High Court, Abuja division, declared Abure the subsistantive chairman and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise him. The court ruling has left Obi and his supporters with the short end of the stick.
If you have noticed, the crisis engulfing Nigerian political parties is not about ideas and ideology. It is about personalities – the one who controls power and the purse. Our political parties display well-designed emblems and flags which espouse their so-called aspirations and ambitions for us. But I’ve learnt to look beyond the flags. Fayose says it’s only a miracle that can save the PDP. Actually, it is Nigeria that needs a miracle.
