Illustration courtesy: Vanguard newspaper
At the height of its imperious dominance in Nigeria’s political power agora in 2008, the charismatic Vincent Ogbulafor, then as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), roared with imperial conceit that the party would govern Nigeria for 60 years. It was a hymn that riled the opposition with some calling the PDP names.
In 2015 during electioneering for that year’s general elections, then First Lady, the bold and often comical Patience Jonathan echoed a similar sentiment when she said that the PDP would continue to rule for the next 60 years. It never happened. PDP lost the Presidential election that year; a loss of dominance. The arrogant powerhouse since 1999 with a telling multi-coloured umbrella as its symbol ruled for only 16 years.
The predictions ultimately proved false when the PDP lost the presidential election in 2015. In politics, power confers relevance. Loss of power begets destitution. Like a big family afflicted by poverty and multi-dimensional crises, the children are wont to wander in helpless animation. Some even agitate in riotous rebellion against their parents for failing to provide for them.
Does not the Holy Writ, the Bible, even say that a man who could not provide for his family is worse than an infidel? A family headed by a man, theologically tagged “worse than an infidel”, is a family of ready rebels; broken men and women whose questing for the good life yields them to vulnerabilities. A house ungoverned is a horror ground for cheap recruits into the other side of life and living; into gangster-land, into the darkling underworld. This has become the lot of the PDP which never anticipated a life as opposition, hence was not prepared for it. In Nigerian politics, opposition is gruesome labour; a race against the tide and heavy headwinds. It requires special skills. PDP did not acquire such skills. It did not send some of its men to Bola Tinubu school of opposition politics. Tinubu is a master of the art and science of opposition politics. From his struggles against military oppression to 16 years of full-time devotion to opposing the PDP, Tinubu is the undisputed king of ‘pepper-them’ opposition politics. He was both brilliant and strategic in his unrelenting prickling of the ruling PDP.
Now, the chairs have switched. Tinubu’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is in power since 2015. But rather than play the opposition effectively as Tinubu did, the PDP laggards like a drunkard pushed out of a pub in the darkest of nights. Limping, staggering, wobbling. That’s PDP as an opposition party. The largely neo-liberal, centre-right party which once prided itself as the largest party in Africa, is now in tatters. Its big umbrella has not only shrunk, it is torn along many lines. The kaleidoscope of glamour and power is now a kaleidoscope of misery and warts.
To be fair, PDP to a large extent is the only party in Nigeria not built around one or two individuals. The Group of 34 statesmen (G-34) who played the role of forerunner for the party must have thought of building it into a national institution, shorn of ethno-religious bias. Again, it is fair to say that this is what the party has remained – a national behemoth propped up on strong, nationally spread ramparts, up until 2015.
On that note – as a truly national party – the PDP could be said to have done well. As a ruling party for 16 years, the party cannot be dismissed as a failure. While the argument that it could have done better remains germane, it’s hard to dismiss the PDP as a monumental failure during the 16 years it held the lever of power at the centre. President Olusegun Obasanjo, by far the best President among the lot till this day, came with a grand vision to retool Nigeria. Socially, economically and politically, he tried to re-engineer a nation that was almost grounded by long years of military misrule.
In the days of the PDP as the ruling party, the ANPP, CPC, ACN and others were up and about heckling the PDP and drawing the attention of Nigerians to the weaknesses of the PDP and how the ruling party was busy looting the national treasury. Ahead of the 2015 election, the opposition had sufficiently bullied the PDP into accepting its fate as a failure. On account of this, it was easy to sell the CHANGE message to Nigerians. That was effective opposition.
But since 2015 as an opposition party, PDP has remained largely clueless as to its role as an opposition. Whereas, the inert and poor performance of the APC government at the centre has provided the PDP enough fodder to dim the fortunes of the former, it has failed to do so. Despite the looting bazaar that still defines the APC government, it’s the PDP that has been made to look like the real rogue in the mix. APC has shown a superior fire power in publicity and propaganda which it has used to tar the PDP in dull and dour colour.
First, PDP since losing power in 2015, has had a weak and dumb media team which lacks the presence of mind and intellectual grit to engage in public discourse. Whatever happened to strategic political communication skills. The PDP media team shows no spark of cognitive intelligence. It has failed to counter, wit for wit, the lies and spurious claims of the ruling APC. Each time the APC switches to the next gear in its rich arsenal of political propaganda to rubbish 16 years of PDP as wasted years, all the PDP could muster is a poorly cobbled press statement, bereft of sagacity and sound logic. You don’t fight political communication battle with saturnine pressers none of which shows elements of research and logic.
PDP is at Golgotha, the place of death. The undertakers have done a good job. The crucifix is ready and waiting. Only just a matter of time, the nails would be driven into its shrunken hands and legs by forces from within and without. And democracy weeps. Governance dies. Only wicked, treacherous politics triumphs.
Yet, Nigeria democracy needs strong opposition, the type Tinubu and his team served the nation during PDP’s 16 years. Labour Party is in tatters; PDP is in soggy ruins. The ADC is still struggling to create an identity of integrity. Everywhere you look, the pillars of opposition are caving in by the day. The PDP with its seven(?) governors remains the biggest opposition. It should retool and reformat to play a robust role as an opposition party. Not that any of the opposition parties is strong enough to dethrone Tinubu in 2027, it’s just that our democracy deserves virile opposition to enrich the debate and deepen the processes of democratisation.
