The PDP has seized on the recent fence-mending mission of its leadership to Ekiti State to describe Tinubu as a despot bent on imposing a choice on the people of Ekiti. Of course, there is neither rhyme nor logic to this baseless accusation.
In the first place, what moral right has the PDP to accuse anybody of despotic tendencies? This is a party that wanted to impose a chairman on the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), in the person of Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang, and when this failed, it suspended the winner of the NGF election, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi from the party for enjoying the support of majority of his colleagues.
A party that ordered a sitting governor not to seek re-election of a voluntary association, like the NGF, is now preaching the tenets of democracy to others. How ridiculous!
This is a party that has made it so obvious that it is bent on harassing, intimidating and preventing anybody from challenging President Goodluck Jonathan for the PDP presidential ticket in 2015. Towards this end, members of its National Executive Committee (NEC) are removed and replaced at will.
Its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, remains in office against the will of majority of its NEC members, all because of his willingness to manipulate intra-party processes in favour of Jonathan towards 2015.
All past national chairmen of the party since inception have all been imposed and removed at will by the Presidency- Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Vincent Ogbulafor, Okwesilieze Nwodo, and now Bamanga Tukur.
The so-called national conventions that produced the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and later Jonathan, were clearly manipulated to arrive at pre-determined outcomes.
We can all recall how former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva was brazenly prevented from asserting his right to seek re-election as the party’s governorship candidate, while the favoured candidate of the Presidency, Seriake Dickson, was foisted on the party and is today the governor of the state.
In Kogi, aggrieved PDP candidates, who were manipulated out of contrived governorship primaries, are still in court seeking justice.
We can go on and on citing instances why the PDP has no moral right to preach intra-party democracy to anybody.
But then, let us come to the substance of the PDP’s allegation. How true is the claim that Tinubu is despotic and disdainful of democracy? In the first place, Tinubu was not in Ekiti in his personal capacity; he was on a delegation of the national leadership of the ACN, which included the National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, the leader of the party in Ekiti, Chief Niyi Adebayo, and a prominent member of the party from the state, Mr. Dele Alake, among others.
The position forcefully articulated by Tinubu at the Ekiti parley was, therefore, that of the party.
Again, the fact that the party leadership expended time, energy and resources to go to Ekiti to settle internal disputes and put its house in order towards next year’s election is indicative of a party that respects the electorate and refuses to take them for granted.
It shows that the party, despite Governor Kayode Fayemi’s outstanding performance in office, is approaching the next elections with all seriousness. And the logic of the ACN leadership is impeccable.
Why do parties exist and why do candidates seek office? In a healthy democracy, the purpose is to fulfil the party’s manifesto and pursue the greatest welfare of the greatest number of the people.
Now, if an incumbent is widely acknowledged as delivering on this mandate, why should a party dissipate energy on intra-party contests? Shouldn’t such energy be better saved to confront the opposition in the general election, especially given the desperation of the PDP to regain a foothold in the Southwest? Is there no virtue in continuity when a government is delivering democracy dividends to the people the way Fayemi is doing in Ekiti?
The people of Ekiti are known to be fearless, independent-minded and knowledgeable and nobody can push them around. Tinubu and the ACN national leadership spoke to the entire gamut of the state leadership of the party, including members of the executive council, national and state legislators, as well as local government councils and wards. Yet, there was not a single dissenting voice to the position of the national leadership from the large gathering of party members.
Of course, we can understand the antics of the PDP, which wants the ACN to hold contentious primaries and go into the elections as a divided entity. The ACN is the party to beat across the Southwest and many aspirants will naturally seek to fly its flag for any elective office.
Furthermore, the outstanding performance of ACN governments has further endeared the party to the electorate, thus making its platform for electoral purposes even more valuable.
The party leadership thus has a responsibility to carefully manage internal party nomination processes, so that its tremendous success does not become a liability. This was evidently the reason for the party leadership’s mission to Ekiti.
Source: Guardian
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