How Obasanjo destroyed PDP

OUR people have a saying: “o na abu agbachaa oso a guo mile” – after the race you count the number of miles you covered. Now that the presidential race has been concluded, we can begin to ask ourselves what happened, why they happened and what they portend for our political system, democracy and good governance. A new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and brand new president, General Muhammadu Buhari, are waiting to assume power at the centre, we can start asking those questions right now.

There is a quote I found very profound the moment it was invented. Ever since, each time I apply it to an unfolding situation, it always fits. In 2001, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo was trying to get rid of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Umar Ghali Na’Abba, reportedly he told Obasanjo to his face: “Mr. President, look into the mirror. You will see the trouble with Nigeria there!” Obasanjo who ruled Nigeria for eight years with the PDPis the man who almost single-handedly destroyed the Party. Other factors that worked against the Party merely rode in the wake of his annihilating power.Why did the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lose the presidential and National Assembly elections? Why did the unthinkable happen, whereby the incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, failed to get re-elected for a second term? Why has the erstwhile “largest party in Africa” shrunk to the “largest opposition in Nigeria”? Why did the PDP which, in its heydays in power and glory used to boast that it would rule for sixty years, lose out after only sixteen years? Why did PDP suddenly die in Northern Nigeria? Why is it waxing stronger in the South East and South-South while making a marked resurgence in the South West?

The PDP was formed by the remnants of the political forces that were thrashed by General Muhammadu Buhari after he seized power in 1984. They had gathered to save Nigeria’s democracy from Abacha, who had intended to transmute into a civilian life president and become another Omar Al Bashir of Sudan or Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. They included Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Chief Bola Ige and others. Unfortunately, the military and the Northern political establishment decided to impose General Olusegun Obasanjo, who was in jail, on the party in order to assuage the hurt they inflicted on the Yorubas over their annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

When Obasanjo took over, he did not understand (nor care about) the mission and vision of that political movement. He could not institutionalise its ideals, manifestoes and programmes. Instead, he made it the hottest vehicle for achieving political power. One of the ways he achieved this was by ensuring that the burgeoning opposition parties such as the All People’s Party (APP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) never survived let alone thrived.

Obasanjo, in cahoots with General Ibrahim Babangida, sent moles such as the late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu and later on, Chief Don Etiebet, to emerge as National Chairmen of the APP, and after destroying that party, they returned to PDP. He enticed the pioneer National Chairman of the APP, Alhaji Mahmood Waziri, into what he called the “Government of National Unity” (GNU) in 1999, and the party became rudderless. Later, he did the same with the late Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, former National Chairman and later, running mate of General Buhari of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP). These were the methods he used to weaken the main opposition, ANPP.

The other opposition party and alliance partner of the APP, the Alliance for Democracy (AD),was not spared. Obasanjo, in his so-called 1999 GNU, invited Ige to become his Minister of Justice and Attorney General. But in December 2001, just when the political atmosphere towards 2003 was beginning to warm up and Ige was getting ready to revive the AD, he (Ige) was brutally murdered in the presence of his security details. Till date, the killers have never been identified and brought to book. It was one of the celebrated political murders of the Obasanjo era that he has yet to account for.

Obasanjo also infiltrated the ranks of the rather gullible leadership of the Yoruba Afenifere. He convinced them to support him and give him the home base he needed to assert his leadership in his Party. Afenifere fell for this bait, campaigned for Obasanjo and the PDP won the South West States in 2003, except Lagos, where Governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who refused to go along with the plot, held sway. The AD and its Afenifere socio-cultural guardian later collapsed. Tinubu, a very astute and visionary politician, formed a new political party, the Action Congress (AC), which later became the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which, in turn, became the locomotive or lead facilitator of today’s victorious All Progressives Congress (APC).

Before I go on, let us briefly discuss the lessons of these political crosscurrents. If PDP, as currently embodied, wants to survive and bounce back soon, it MUST resist any offer of “Government of National Unity”. It is a poisoned chalice which Obasanjo used to kill the opposition and make the PDP a self-destructive monster. Its defeat at the just-concluded election could be the elixir it needs to repower and bounce back. But that can only happen if the party shuns the temporary lures of office and favours that the APC federal government might dangle in the name of a “unity” government.

PDP and long throat politics

Take it or leave it, the APC has won the election to operate the federal government for four years. It must be allowed so to do. It can then take the accolades and blames for its performance or non-performance. The APC Federal Government will be doing Nigerian a great disservice if it adopts the “monkey come chop banana”tricks Obasanjo used to emasculate the opposition between 1999 and 2007, and PDP will be the greater fools if they fall for the trick. They will rob themselves of the bounce-back impetus. If they yield to “long-throat” temptations, Nigeria will lose the PDP as the alternative to the APC and we will return to the evils days of a dominant one party system.

Having destroyed the opposition, Obasanjo, not having the benefit of the political tutoring of the original founding fathers of PDP, could not build a party based on anything. The PDP stood for nothing. There was no PDP way of running the economy, the social services, infrastructural development; in short no PDP way of governing. PDP became relevant only as the most viable party to contest and win elections. Those who lost elections in PDP went to other smaller parties to try their luck. Whether they succeeded or failed, they ultimately returned to the PDP. That was the ignominious fate that ambitious politicians like Alhaji Atiku Abubakar suffered.

One of the reasons that PDP collapsed in Northern Nigeria was that APC in 2014, became the party where people could run to and win elections, unlike before when there were no other alternatives. Certain factors led to the APC being seen as the new preferred party in Northern Nigeria. Invariably, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had a BIG hand in it! He did it by employing the chicken’s strategy. Our people say: “ihe okuko na erigh, ya abosaa”- whatever the chicken does not eat, it will scatter. See you on Thursday.

By Ochereome Nnanna