HOW PDP CREATED OPPOSITION – BY THE USE AND DUMP TRADITION

It was at the auspicious occasion of the inauguration of the Presidential Campaign Committee of the Goodluck/Sambo 2015 Campaign in Abuja that the National Chairman of PDP Adamu Mu’azu opened up on the party.

Hear him: "There is absence of justice, fairness and equality in the PDP. What we have in PDP is monkey dey work and baboon dey chop…"

Indeed that was vintage Mu’azu and he hit the nail right on the head.

For the National Chairman of the party to come out with this position, at such a time, it is food for thought!

Can one count those the party has used and dumped?

Right from the founders of the party, former Vice President Alex Ekwueme and the G18, the Core of PDF, Sunday Awoniyi and others of their generation including the late Solomon Lar are well in the dustbin of PDP history.
The stark truth about PDP is that new leaders in the party have no regards to the elders of the party and every new leader latches on the PDP machine to propel himself to greatness with the casualty being the stalwarts of the party.

No wonder the opposition parties are enriched with veterans of PDP who had become casualties of the party, as rightly noted by Dr. Mu’azu

Today Rotimi Amaechi and Atiku Abubakar who oil the APC machinery are ex-PDP members and so are Senators George Akume, and Bukola Saraki.

Why? What happened that these leaders honed by PDP are now mobilizing for other parties?

This development calls for deep introspection. Why can’t PDP retain good leaders, why is it that when people commit themselves to working for the party what they get is abandonment?

Refer to the case of Labaran Maku, the mercurial minister of information who not only proved to be the face of the Goodluck Jonathan administration but of the entire PDP machinery was dumped at his home state Nassarawa where he went to seek gubernatorial ticket.

What PDP Nassarawa did not see, APGA went for it and today Maku is governorship candidate of APGA rather than PDP, a party he has worked ardently for. Who knows, Maku may win the governorship in that state in a free and fair election.

Lets look at the case of my home state, Cross River, the same scenario played out!

Imagine an outstanding party man like Senate Leader, Distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba SAN, OFR, CON being dumped for a neophyte!
For the records, Senator Ndoma-Egba is one of the architects of the famous move which is now fondly referred to as the doctrine of necessity i.e. the recognition of the then Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as acting president, following the incapacitation of the incumbent, the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua; thus resolving a constitutional crises in the nation. There is also no gainsaying the fact that he has contributed greatly to the stability and vibrancy of the Senate in this Democracy.

For Cross Riverians, Senator Ndoma-Egba remained a strident voice, vociferous and strenuous in the call for justice for the state over Bakassi and the entire Border/Boundary adjustment Saga.

One thought Cross Riverians will preserve the mandate of such a figure to continue to make use of him for the benefit of the state. One would have thought that having ascended to the enviable height of Senate leader, a position which he used to attract numerous federal projects to the state; a position he used to ensure not less than 95 indigenes of Cross River employed in the Federal Public Service; Senator Ndoma-Egba would have been returned, if only to preserve the position in the state.

That is never going to be, as that position (senate leader) will inevitably pass to another state especially as no ranking senator from the state is likely to return!
Pray are Cross Riverians allergic to good things? Is it not a demonstration of myopia for the state to lose in one fell swoop the Senate Leadership, Chairmanship of Senate Committee on Banking, Chairman of House of Reps Committee on Appropriation and the Executive Secretary of the National Planning Commission? Strategic offices all!!!

While we the Commoners may continue to cry over our losses, the ruling elite of the state may not appreciate this because of its selfish interest.
We shall however put it down so that the record will be there for posterity to judge our generation if we have done well to eliminate our best players in a crucial match that can make or mar the future of the state.
The same saga of selfish interest and god fatherism replayed in the primaries of the Cross River Southern Senatorial District. In fact any casual observer of the politics of Cross River State will not fail to appreciate the towering popularity of Prince Bassey Edet Otu in the Southern Senatorial District.
All that did not count in that primaries as the powers that be insisted on foisting a friend of the governor over a popular and performing senator, on the people.

Question: Where is the reward for Sandy Onor, a man who traversed the state to sell the candidature of the governor in the 2011 elections, a man whose oratory enthralled crowds and swayed them to support Sen. Liyel Imoke? We know his reward; it is to be branded as a bad man, abandoned and kicked out of the umbrella.
What about Bobby Ekpenyong, Sunny Abang and their kind for all their toil in the past to secure victory for PDP in the state?

What legacy does PDP hope to bequeath succeeding generations of leaders?

The natural reality is that what comes around goes around.

Nothing in this life goes for nothing. For taking the goodwill of Cross Riverians for granted, PDP may have to pay a high price, for I foresee PDP conceding positions to other parties. No doubt the other parties which had watched Cross River State from a distance have now been emboldened to charge at PDP. Who knows we may soon have some bloodied noses even at his Excellency’s backyard.

PDP must learn to reward, retain and foster its outstanding members. Otherwise the present crop of leaders of the party beginning with Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Mu’azu and the eternal Mr. Fix it, Tony Anenih, will in four years time find themselves dumped in the same refuse bin of PDP history.

A story is told of an enterprising young man who took his ailing old father to the evil forest and abandoned him to die.

According to the story, the young man told his father, "now you are of no use, you are old. I do not want you to disturb me, so please remain here and die peacefully".
Well the father died. Then he too became old and was ailing. Then one day his son came to him and said father let me take you to a place you can get care and relief from your pains?
The old man screamed "please! please! don’t let him take me away! Don’t, please don’t"
He later confessed to having abandoned his father to die in the evil forest and that he was sure the same fate awaited him.


It is time to make amends. President Jonathan can ameliorate the situation now by recognizing the contributions of these great party men. Or he can choose to forget them and continue the use and dump tradition.

Surprisingly even with what is going on; the leaders of PDP in Cross River State are carrying on like emperors refusing to see the handwriting on the wall, behaving as if nothing has happened.

Their hearts are hardened like the Biblical Pharaoh to the extent that genuine attempts are not made to reconcile people and carry them along. 

Can they stop for a moment, especially with this extra time provided by Diviness, and ask themselves: if the umbrella is really accommodative as it should be; has the ‘family’ not disintegrated to a level where the father has lost control; is there truly humility among the ‘family’ head that should birth wisdom and success the way previous leaders of the ‘family’ left the umbrella for them?

Indeed pride goes before a fall and God abhors the proud.

Time is ticking and the future is waiting for us.

 

Chief Sam Arikpo, JP
Ugep – Cross River State