Osayimwen
Osahon George has examined the roles played by the vocal
governor of Ekiti, Ayodele Fayose in the crises rocking the main
opposition party in Nigeria - PDP.
Governor of Ekiti, Ayodele Peter Fayose
The beauty of a democratic system of government is its tolerance
for opposition. The opposition party serves as a watchdog checking the
excesses of the ruling party.
The healthy rivalry between both political groups helps in the
delivery of good governance to the people at the end of the day. But
today, Nigerians have been denied the democratic scrutiny of the ruling
party by its opposition due to the comatose state of the People's
Democratic Party which appears to have more hassles than Nigeria as a
country.
As the acclaimed most representative political party in Nigeria -
PDP was built by men, so also the death of party could be orchestrated
by the actions and inactions of men. The extensive stay of the sick
political party in the Intensive Care Unit of a Nigerian clinic was not
only caused by the grave allegations of corruption and abuse of public
office by its members during its 16-year reign, but also the lack of a
contingency plan ahead of the 2015 presidential election that saw its
candidate, ex President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan being recalled to his
hometown, in Otuoke - Bayelsa state for a perpetual sabbatical leave.
The leadership of the PDP underrated the political weight of the
All Progressives Congress and its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (Rtd). The members were too accustomed to the jolly ride of
politics and nobody ever gave it a thought that they could lose the
election to the then irritant APC despite the advantages of incumbency
as well as state resources at their disposal. So when Jonathan lost the
election and unanticipatedly accepted defeat by congratulating Buhari in
a famous phone call, the leadership structure of the party shook to its
foundation and the sinful members overwhelmed with fear were thrown
into disarray.
It was the best time for the influential members of the party who
had already fantasized about being in power for 60 years to activate the
opposition machinery while also looking inwards to examine how the
formerly blossoming party had lost its cause as well as public support.
There was a need for a charismatic leader to stand as the true Shepherd
and coordinate his sheep. That figure could have been the low-spirited
Jonathan but for honourable reasons, the Niger Delta man had to take a
break from politics and retire to his home in Otuoke as an elder
statesman.
Aside Jonathan, the National Chairman of the party, Adamu Mu'azu
who is a seasoned politician and former governor of Bauchi state was up
to the uphill political task of rebuilding the party and instilling hope
in the fair-weather members who were more interested in relocating
their political businesses to the APC for higher profits. As Mu'azu
gathered himself after being hit by 'Hurricane Buhari' in the 2015
presidential election, Governor Ayodele Peter Fayose of Ekiti state who
is used to acting on impulse rather than exercising due diligence,
foresight and utmost sense of rationality in his resolutions was more
about scoring cheap political points and asserting undue political
influence in the party for his personal growth.
Fayose started an internal squabble in the party by demanding for
the resignation of Mu'azu over the loss of the party in the election.
Fayose backed up his shallow and populist move with the political
situation in the United Kingdom at that time where the British Labour
Party leader, Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrats leader, Nick Clegg
resigned over their parties defeat at the polls by former Prime Minister
David Cameron in 2015. Fayose after tapping into his colonial mentality
(kolomentality) felt the same action should be replicated in the
opposition party for stability to be achieved. This action is an endemic
nature of average Nigerians who feel the white man’s mentality or
orientation is superior to theirs; hence, the need to follow their lead.
This was the same way Gen. Ibrahim Babangida imported the Structural
Adjustment Programme under the auspices of the Bretton Woods
institutions in 1986 only for the economic policies to strangle the poor
masses.
Mu'azu tried fighting off Fayose but his chivalrous nature was a
weakness as the Southwest governor unleashed a multi-faceted attack
strategy on him via social media, online, print, broadcast media and
other means till Mu'azu was cowed by his antics. He later resigned under
the guise of health issues and he took a break from the party for
obvious reasons.
Fayose's move earned him a louder voice within the ranks of the PDP
but the approach ended up being a shortsighted one as the contentious
governor never considered a viable replacement for Mu'azu. It was a
pyrrhic victory that was coming to backfire with sophisticated weapons.
Prince Uche Secondus later became the acting National Chairman of the
party for a while. A former Special Adviser to Jonathan on political
matters, Ahmed Ali Gulak rivaled Uche Secondus for the chairmanship
position till the court intervened. The leadership of the PDP later
organized an election for the chairmanship position to end the power
tussle.
The election organized in February, 2016 was contested by Ahmed
Gulak, Mohammed Wakil (Borno State) - former Minister of State for
Power, Alhaji Shehu Gabam (Bauchi State) - former Chief of Staff under
ex Governor Isa Yuguda, Senator Saidu Kumo, Senator Girigiri Lawan and
Mohammed Garba.
A former chairman of the anti-graft body - Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu touted to participate and triumph in the
contest reportedly went into hiding due to his already concluded plans
to return to the All Progressives Congress.
In the build-up of the election, Fayose and governor of Rivers
State, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike were busy scheming on a subterranean note to
foist their candidate on the party. Fayose and Wike blindly secured an
exotic gold-laden coffin for the PDP when they invited a former governor
of Borno, Ali Modu Sheriff who was heavily linked with the Boko Haram
sect to come manage the affairs of the party.
Following their political maneuvering, Sheriff was finally picked
by National Caucus of PDP comprising the governors, members of the
National Working committee, NWC and the leadership of the National
Assembly.
According to the account of Sheriff which Fayose admitted to, he
was innocently relaxing in his house when Fayose and Wike visited and
urged him to run for the post of the national chairman as they had
cleared the way for him. The action was the last straw that broke the
camel's back. As late Nigerian afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang
"na jeje trouble dey sleep, yanga go wake am, wahalaaaa you dey find!
Wahalaaaaa you go get oooo".
A former Minister of Aviation, Fani Kayode swiftly kicked against
the emergence of Sheriff as the party head while a few other chieftains
murmured underneath but Fayose ignored their yearnings. One would wonder
the sudden trust and belief Fayose had in Sheriff despite no history of
a close relationship between them. It was more disturbing considering
the fact that both parties were from different geopolitical zones that
treat each other with mild distrust in the political circle. The Boko
Haram attachment given to sheriff was very worrisome but it appeared he
was ready for business as the former APC and the All Nigerians People's
Party chieftain promised to unseat President Buhari at the centre come
2019.
As a political scientist and analyst, I kept wondering how Sheriff
caught the fancy of some PDP politicians and I was forced to assume that
he might be a political genius with special tricks to rejuvenate the
PDP. Sheriff is a very successful grassroots politician in the northeast
and his financial prowess doesn't lie at all!
In no time, Fayose started fantasizing about being the Vice
President of Nigeria. He appeared to have secured a divine conviction
about his future in politics. We all wondered where the inspiration was
emanating from as Fayose kept emphasizing on the greater task that
awaited him at the expiration of his tenure as governor of Ekiti in
2018. Meanwhile, stakeholders in the PDP felt Sheriff wasn't popular
enough to lead the party and it was absurd for someone whose membership
was that young to contest an election in the party. It was even against
the constitution of the party although Sheriff was given a waiver by the
party’s National Executive Committee. (The eligibility clause of the
PDP states that a decampee must spend at least 2 years in the party
before being qualified to contest for a position in the party).
The PDP Board of Trustees (BOT) later advised Sheriff not to extend
his tenure beyond May 21, 2016. In explicit terms, Sheriff was to serve
as an interim National Chairman for just 3 months. It was from this
point Sheriff started seeing his party members as his traducers.
Back to Fayose's unfounded presidential ambition, it soon became
clear that he might have gotten the assurance from man and not God.
Reports have it that Sheriff confided in Fayose about his presidential
ambition and promised to make him his running-mate in 2019. The
ambitious Fayose took the bait which came on the heels of PDP's proposed
zoning of the presidential ticket to the North thereby favouring
Sheriff. It might have been on this note that Fayose found his support
for Sheriff sacrosanct as he must have been caught off guard as a
politician. He later discovered that he was being played by Sheriff who
made the same promise to Wike, governor of Enugu - Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and
the governor of Ebonyi - Dave Umahi. What a real brouhaha as the hunter
was already in the trap of the bush meat.
Fayose who has made a bright career out of being an alarmist
swiftly linked Sheriff to the APC as a damage control measure. He
regarded Sheriff as an undercover spoiler/mole planted in the party by
the APC to scuttle PDP's chances of a political comeback in 2019. Ever
since, the narrative has changed for Fayose as he appears to have woken
up from his slumber about the unpredictability of the game of politics.
Well, one is not sure of the complicity of APC in the leadership crisis
of the PDP but in life, a man that wishes his enemy well is not ready to
progress in life. In fact, it’s on this note that members of the
Mountain of Fire Ministries always pray for their enemies to 'fall down
and die!’ Yes! It’s that serious. Fayose's historical antecedence is
ridden with lies such as some of his political calculations have been
found to be fallacious.
We shouldn't forget so soon that Fayose during the campaign period
of the 2015 presidential election insinuated Buhari was wearing pampers
due to his old age. He also imprudently claimed the Chibok girls'
abduction saga is a ruse before he linked the wife of the President,
Aisha Buhari with the Haliburton scandal in the United States of
America. He even challenged the woman to visit America as she was on the
wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI until the
beautiful Fulani woman stormed America in style and was given a royal
welcome. Fayose in the past has also spoken in alien tongues for
political gains and one wonders if the words of such a politician should
be taken serious.
The monster created by Fayose has militated against the success of
the PDP since its advent. PDP has lost its internal cohesion since the
emergence of Sheriff. The party has been divided into two major factions
namely the Sheriff bloc and the Caretaker Committee led by a former
governor of Kaduna state, Ahmed Makarfi. The party has been in and out
of the court aggravating legal tussles. This has affected the party in
the gubernatorial elections in Edo and Ondo states where the party lost.
Doom was almost the fate of the party in the Rivers State re-run
election if not for the alleged cash rain invoked on the officials of
the Independent National Electoral Commission by Wike. The party has
refused to play the role of a viable opposition to the APC as the party
members have been engaged in media wars against themselves. The members
of staff of the party are groaning in hardship and despair as only 25%
of their salaries are being paid to them. The Wadata Plaza 'national
Secretariat' in Abuja has been occupied by grasses and reptiles due to
long period of abandonment. The APC just like Dubai, United Arab
Emirates has become an attractive destination to prominent members of
the PDP.
All efforts of the party to get rid of Sheriff using the court has
failed as the appellate court affirmed his position as the National
Chairman of the party. The Makarfi faction is headed to the Supreme
Court to challenge the ruling. All efforts to seek a political solution
by the governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson-led reconciliation committee
hit the rocks. The revered intervention of former President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan has also begin to lose relevance as Sheriff walked out on
him in their last peace meeting.
The PDP is approaching the 2019 with a divided army and massively
depleted troops. The man at the centre of the war is nobody but Sheriff
and who facilitated his ascension to the realm of authority in the PDP
is Fayose and his cohorts. History will always remember Fayose for that
infamous and unintelligible action as we await the final burial ceremony
of the self-acclaimed largest political party in Africa.
Osayimwen Osahon George writes from Festac Town in Lagos State.
culled Tori News
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