The final litmus test of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) regeneration and ability to survive into the future is Saturday’s elective convention, especially the race for the national chairmanship.
This will be the final test of whether PDP has learnt enough lessons to ensure its survivability.
If commitment to the true interests of the party is not allowed to guide the conduct of this national chairmanship race, then the concluding story will be an inglorious rendering of a nunc dimittis.
Unfortunately, there are indications that the old habits are creeping back to endanger the true interest of the party by sowing seeds of injustice, unfairness, factional selfishness, and cash-muscling syndromes.
If the present leadership of the party cannot muscle-in to protect the true interest of the party but rather surrenders to the many-sided private and factional interests, then the battle for survival is over for the party.
Unfortunately, we do not have a core of committed delegates who will vote according to their conscience to protect the interest of the party rather than be bought-over by the numerous cash-cows masquerading as major stakeholders.
Let me conclude this piece by identifying some of the factors that will derail the ability of the party to pursue its true interests.
By the party’s established tradition, party positions are usually zoned to specific geopolitical zones. Accordingly, the chairmanship position should have been zoned to the South-West for the simple reason that the South-west has never produced the national chairman.
Equity, justice, and fairness demand that the post should go to the South-west. But by some curious logic, rather than pursue this path of equity and justice, the position is said to have been zoned to the South contrary to the established tradition of zoning to a geopolitical zone.
And rather than correcting this by micro zoning to the South-west some curious private interests are muscling for the position to be taken by the South-south.
How on earth can anybody who wants to promote the party’s interest and sense of justice be pushing for the South-south when it was the same South-south that produced the last leader of the party and its last acting national chairman?
Whereas the interest of the party directs that the chairman comes from the South-west, those who are muscling for the position to come from South-south obviously have other narrow and private interest to serve. They are antiparty, narrowly selfish, and guilty of the impunity syndrome.
Worse still, if the current leadership of the party cannot protect the interest of the party but rather surrenders to this South-south pressure group, then this leadership has become both anti-party and guilty of the imposition syndrome.
What good is a party leadership that cannot protect the interest of the party?
A party leadership that cannot correct errors of judgment or of omission or commission is failing in its leadership responsibility.
Now that we know who the South-south candidates are, and they are not wonderful people, the present party leadership will be stabbing the party in the back if it continues to play helplessness in the face of these South-south musketeers.
As we have indicated earlier in this piece, it is the rightful turn of the South-west to produce the next national chairman. Therefore, any attempt to divert this position to favour the South-south is unjust, unfair, inequitable and anti-party.
Now that the South-west is rethinking the logic of its association with APC, is not the time to treat it to the injustice and inequity side of PDP.
Rather, this is the time to attract that zone with the fairness of PDP by planting the party’s national chairman in that zone. This is what the interest of the party requires. The alternative is a clear conspiracy against PDP.
A PDP leadership group that connives at this conspiracy or colludes with it will be sowing seeds of disintegration for the party. Added to the shocks of its recent past, this additional conspiracy will bring PDP to the end of the road.
Very often in the management of the interests of an organisation, the selfishness of factional groups and so-called stake-holders end up being the biggest threat to the life of the organisation.
This is the danger confronting PDP as it prepares, or rather fumbles through, for the December 9 convention.
If its current leadership cannot play it right and straight, if it cannot resist the South-south subterfuge and rise to protect the interest of the party, there may be no more game left to play for the party hereafter!
Prof. Fred Onyeoziri,
Lagos
