The ward congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have come and gone, leaving behind complaints of rigging and arm-twisting of the officials of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The media were awash with frightening reports of violence, maiming and destruction of properties by thugs and followers of aggrieved members who have been denied a level playing field in some wards across Nigeria. To most observers, the congresses were anything but free and fair.
In Cross River state, Senator Ndoma-Egba and the aspirants in the state had traded hot words with each of the two parties trading accusations against each other. It ended in fisticuffs between supporters of the two camps. In Kaduna state, the story was no less different from that of Cross River. Apparently dissatisfied with the outcome of the exercise in the state, former aviation minister, Mr. Felix Hassan Hyat, called for the cancellation of the results across the 23 local government areas. He described the entire exercise, particularly in his Zone 3 Senatorial District as “fraudulent and undemocratic.”
In Rivers state, some 16 governorship aspirants reportedly boycotted the exercise when news reached them of a plot to rig the process. Party elders expressed concern over the development and drew the attention of the national leadership to the problems in the state. The situation also reached a head when the PDP-controlled Senate abruptly adjourned a plenary following a protest by the members over an alleged conspiracy of the Presidency, leadership of the party and the governors to shortchange them in the process and deny them tickets in next year’s elections.
Virtually every state has had its fair share of the confusion arising from the alleged malpractices that characterised the congresses. Aggrieved aspirants and party elders have called on the national secretariat to intervene by cancelling the congresses entirely. For days that followed, the party leadership grappled with complaints from all quarters. Boxed into a tight corner, the leadership had given the assurances that the congresses would be cancelled altogether, while fresh ones would take place soon.
The crises arising from these congresses have created the impression that the party has not learnt any lessons from previous congresses. The tendency to outwit certain aspirants in favour of others has been the stock in trade of the party. In some states, governors are known to practically highjack the entire process by cornering delegates to their camps in pursuit of their selfish agenda. A similar exercise held in January 2011 was dogged by violence and killings across the states of the federation.
The do-or-die confrontation in the process may not be unconnected with the assumption that the eventual bearer of the party’s ticket becomes the automatic winner of the election proper. This is a wrong theory. Instances abound where the ruling party has lost to the opposition in some states. It is public knowledge that the rape on internal democracy in the ruling party has not only generated disaffection but also triggered off exodus of aggrieved members to opposition parties whose doors are wide open. The danger which the acrimony holds for the PDP is that those who do not feel like abandoning the party will work for its downfall at the polls. This is a democratic dispensation. The PDP is a ruling party and not a sole ruling house in a monarchy even though it has been able to cling to power since 1999.
It is, therefore, in the best interest of the party to ensure that equity, fairness and justice prevail in the process. The leadership of the party at all levels should no longer be under the illusion that the party’s victory will be a foregone conclusion just because it is the party in power.