PDP’s Ray Of Hope
By Ogbonna Nwuke
The Rivers Governor, Siminalayi Fubara Fubara has just come back from a parley of PDP Governors which took place in the Enugu State capital. And it is obvious Fubara who will be resuming work this morning must be in very high spirits.
A unity of purpose is something the PDP hasn’t been able to muster since it lost the 2023 general elections. Many have written about the how and why the PDP failed to win the presidential race in 2023.
Ibrahim Adeyemi on March 2, 2023 attributed Atiku’s loss in the presidential election to four factors. Among them, the writer said, were the divide and rule antics utilised by Bola Tinubu, the exit from the PDP of Peter Obi to join forces with the Labour Party, the departure of the Kano strongman, Rabiu Kwankwaso from the PDP to form the New Nigerian Peoples Party and the attitude of APC Nothern governors who favoured the emergence of a president from Southern Nigeria.
Adeyemi adduced that “chronic division and lack of collaboration” conspired to nail the Atiku bid.
Sen. Obinna Ogba of the Peoples Democratic Party (Ebonyi Central) blamed his party’s loss on the mismanagement of affairs by its National Working Committee, NWC.
Somehow, I do not disagree with these assessments which have captured the internal and external dimensions which may explain Atiku’s failure.
However, given the nature of politics which is anchored on the right of the people to choose, the attitude of a candidate basically has a strong impact on his electoral fortune, and his ability in an election year to galvanise overwhelming support.
So, top on the table, from my point of view as a participant observer in that election was the pig-headed attitude or behaviour of the PDP’s candidate.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar probably thought he had victory within his grasp even before the votes were cast. Remember he said so much about the 11 million votes he allegedly had going into the election. When compared with the actual votes he bagged in the election, Atiku may have been living in a fool’s paradise.
So, driven by a Machivalian instinct and an all conquering cavalian attitude, the PDP candidate openly shunned every little opportunity to present a united front on the road to the election.
It was perhaps his major mistake. I can’t tell if the Turakin Adamawa regrets it, but that adamant posture favoured by hawks who surrounded him gave rise to the second factor – the intransigence of the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and members of the G5.
The G5, an assemblage of governors of five PDP states who became a formidable opposition within an opposition party, succeeded in denying the PDP of critical votes which could have made the difference for Atiku in the presidential race.
Their votes, had they been cast for Atiku, could have changed the course of history despite those votes which followed Obi to Labour and Kwankwaso in Kano.
So Wike emerged as the ‘man of the match’ after the votes were counted, packed his luggage, set out for Abuja and walked straight into the warm embrace of the APC. While the PDP groaned on the sidelines, Wike simply received the keys to Abuja.
It is not surprising that most Nigerians in the wake of the ‘push and start’ posture of the PDP have been left wondering if there is anything more to say about the future of democracy and the place of a proper opposition in Nigerian politics.
At a time like this when the Nigerian people are faced with bone crushing challenges, some of them economic; some of it political; the PDP has been unable to coherently state its position on serious national issues.
At best, there have been half-hearted attempts by its publicists to launch potshots at the APC. Those shots have not been as sustainable. Of course it is Wike, a claimant to PDP’s membership, who has had a field day destabilizing a democratically elected government in Rivers State, and the APC which have benefitted hugely from PDP’s nervous breakdown.
But in Enugu the other day, Governors elected on its platform, dressed in the popular ‘Isi Agu atire’ of the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria not only posed before an array of press cameras. They equally released a communique which raised hopes among ordinary Nigerians that the sleepwalking act may be replaced by the gradual emergence of a more proactive party.
The party spoke out on free elections, threw its weight behind a pay rise for workers in Nigeria and criticised the policies of the Tinubu administration.
Part of the communique issued at the end of deliberations read, “The Forum notes the crises in the Rivers State Chapter of the party and commits to ensuring peace.”
Those words uttered by Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State who is the chair of the PDPGF restored a lot of hope among Rivers people saddened by the volte face of the PDP.
Governor Fubara had noted that the Rivers people have lost faith in the PDP. It was a reflection of the mood in the State and proof of the alleged conspiracy going on between Wike and certain layers of power within the PDP against the Rivers helmsman.
If those lines suggested that the PDP still views what is happening in Rivers State as an internal chapter disagreement which is yet to enjoy the support of external political interests, its remark pertaining to the travails faced by Fubara did not hide its position on the bitter war launched months ago by Wike.
“The Forum has resolved to stand by His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State”, the communique stated, “while at the same time employ(ing) wider consultations with stakeholders for a peaceful resolution” in order to “find a lasting solution to the crises.”
Wike hasn’t won the fight by any stretch of the imagination. Fubara hasn’t been equally subdued either. He has stood tall in the face of adversity, crested the surging storm stirred by Wike and his supporters and earned the respect of a great majority of Rivers people and other onlookers as a result.
The intervention either of the PDP or its State Governors would appear very timely at this point. The plot to push the duly elected governor of the Rivers people out of office by pro-Wike forces is thickening by the day.
They are neither joking nor relenting in their bid to get Governor Siminalayi Fubara out of the saddle by any means possible despite his growing popularity among the people.
On Monday, the faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly controlled by Martins Amaewhule moved recklessly to shutdown government. It ordered a freeze on government spending, saying Governor Fubara has not complied with its order to re-present the 2024 State budget within seven days.
It was shocking. All of a sudden a set of people who benefitted from a mere clause on their supposed status while a peace deal was being packaged have become rather belligerent. They seem to have forgotten that the arrangement by the President made in favour of peace in Rivers State had no place in law and the Constitution. Those whose seats were earlier declared vacant on the basis of Section 109(1g) of Nigeria’s Constitution have transformed into tigers and lions.
It would however be the first such government showdown in Rivers State, and the first time lawmakers without the concurrence of their constituents would seek the blockade of funds meant for the administration of Rivers State because of a political squable in which they are major dramatis personae.
These men may not have thought deeply about the ripple effects of what they chose to say after they received instructions from their leader.
For instance, they were indeed saying that development processes in Rivers State which are resulting in the provision of infrastructure such as the Trans-Kalabari Road, the Port Harcourt Ring Road, the Elele-Omoku Road and other critical facilities in the health sector spread through all the senatorial districts should be halted because they are fighting on the side of Wike to suppress Fubara.
They were saying they don’t care a hoot about the salaries of civil servants who will be affected by the government shutdown, or about the fate of their children and wards whose school fees would not be paid as an and when due.
They are directly or indirectly saying that they don’t care if members of middle class or poor families who are dependent for their upkeep on the flow of government funds die of hunger and starvation or die in hospitals because funds required for their treatment are not within the reach of their pockets.
They are equally suggesting that on the basis of their quest for political power it does not matter if the Rivers economy is hacked down. It will mean they don’t care if heaps of uncleared refuge mount on our roadsides as a result of the decision that is obviously anti-people.
More than that, government would fail in its duty, if it were to be denied access to funds, to provide logistic support required by security agencies in the state to maintain the safety of citizens.
What of what could happen to the organized private sector which depends to some extent on government budgets to plan their investment drive? Did these lawmakers think about it?
But these would pale in significance if the factional House of Assembly were to go ahead to pronounce the impeachment of the governor without following due processes.
Our information is that these lawmakers who have mortgaged their conscience in order to satisfy the whims and caprices of one man will do everything between now and the end of the month to remove Fubara.
By their own plan which is already on the street, Fubara will not be allowed to remain in the saddle as the governor when the State Independent Electoral Commission goes on to organise the forthcoming local elections.
Such is the desperation of the pro-Wike team that the discredited lawmakers are being nudged to act even without following due processes so Fubara can go to court from the outside.
This is the backdrop as the PDP Governors prepare to wade into the matter. We are glad that the Rivers people are no longer alone. The party that they have always supported has decided to back them in their time of need. And also agreed that the party congresses which will hold soon must be all inclusive.
While we welcome the pronouncement of the PDP Governors, we urge them to do four things. First, they must call the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike to order. Rivers State does not belong to him. It belongs to all of us too. Accordingly, he must be made to respect the will of the masses and withdraw from acts that are capable of destabilising a peace loving State.
Secondly, the PDP should prevail upon President Bola Tinubu not to fall prey to attempts by some persons who are using his name to cause further crisis and create deep seated animosity in Rivers State. We are particularly perturbed by moves being made by some persons to manipulate the activities of security personnel who are already serving in the State or who may be posted to the State. We say so because Rivers State is too strategic to toy with, given its place in the hydrocarbon industry.
Thirdly, these lawmakers should be told in clear terms that they are not thugs of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. They are supposed to be lawmakers of the Rivers State. This may explain why they hurriedly declared their intention to abandon the political party that brought them to office in order to demonstrate the kind of loyalty that is alien to sound democratic practice.
As things are, a complete disconnect exists between these men who are deemed to have vacated their seats and the people that elected them at the last popular polls.
Fourthly, there cannot be two governors in a State. A former Governor cannot go about with outriders and the kind of compliment reserved for a governor when he visits home. If Wike does not move around Abuja as a minister with police outriders, he should be made to desist from doing so in Rivers State.
Finally, the PDP has a unique responsibility to ensure that the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution are diligently followed by all who operate within the country’s democratic framework.
No one, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed to operate above the law. After all the law is a non-respecter of persons.
Let peace therefore prevail in Rivers State.