Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) successfully conducted its national convention last week in Abuja. The convention, to the admiration of many Nigerians, was rancour free and produced Uche Secondus as the national chairman.
In the last two years, the party has been enmeshed in leadership crises and legal battles which took it to Supreme Court. The party heaved a sigh of relief when Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ahmed Makarfi’s faction against Ali Modu Sheriff. Since then, the party leadership had been running on acting capacity until last week, when it conducted its national convention.
The PDP convention signified three things, firstly: the insinuation that the party has collapsed and could not find its feet has been laid to rest; secondly: with the hitch free and credible convention, the party seemed to have learnt a lesson from past experience where imposition of candidates was the order of the day; thirdly: with the emergence of new leadership, the party should put its house in order and get set for opposition politics.
You will quite agree that since the defeat of the party in 2015 general election, it has gone into hiding. This could not be unconnected with the corruption charges against some of its members and the leadership tussle.
In an ideal democratic setting, the role of opposition parties cannot be overemphasized. Opposition parties checkmate the excesses of the ruling party and serve as an alternative platform in case the ruling party failed the electorate.
In Nigeria, opposition parties have become toothless bull dogs. They only appear during election and disappear immediately after they have their subversion in kitties.
The PDP is a force to reckon with. The party still controls some states and have members in the National Assembly, with the defection of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar with many aggrieved members in the ruling APC likely to join, the party may wax stronger.
While the party is applauded for transparent convention, it should maintain the momentum in future primaries. It has also become imperative for the party to play its opposition politics in view of some policies flip-flop of the present administration.
Ibrahim Mustapha,
Pambegua, Kaduna state, 08169056963.
