Can Obi, Mimiko, Daniel reform PDP? October 17, 2014 by Ayo Olukotun 0 Comments [print] reform PDP Rapid changes, hastily formed, and rapidly dissolved alliances and frequent oscillations characterise the political turf. Studying this state of bewildering uncertainty contains the potential to rejuvenate political science as Prof. John Amuda once reminded us in another context. Let me explain. At the end of 2013, the political centre of gravity shifted away from the Peoples Democratic Party as five governors of the party broke away to join the emergent All Progressives Congress. That was not all. The new party suddenly gained a majority in the House of Representatives while adding to its widening fold a fair number of the big names in Nigerian politics. Slowly, this circumstance which threatened to ease the PDP out of its grip on federal power was spectacularly reversed as the party, partly due to the statesmanship of Adamu Mu’azu, its new chairman, bounced back. In the reverse flow of new entrants to the PDP are Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State; Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State; and Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State. Before zeroing on this development, let me digress to say that Mu’azu is a man to watch in terms of leadership reckoning in the future. One can also mention from the northern part of the country, Prof. Attahiru Jega as a potential presidential material in the future if he is able to pull fair and credible elections in the imminent election season. But let us get back to the latest big entrants to the PDP. Discussions of this development have centred mainly on the entrenched practice of party switching with several analysts more or less decrying the syndrome. We ought to examine it, however, in the light of the potential of the three politicians to shape their new parties and governance in the country. Take Obi for example. It is widely known that Obi ran an austere and self-denying governance in Anambra, plugging several leaking pots and taking calculated measures to free funds for much needed projects. This is a clear and healthy departure in a country in which the high cost of governance has become a distinct problem. Shunning heavy protocol in the manner of Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, Obi showed us glimpses of what a reformed, sanitised polity could look like. As Vanguard columnist, Ochereome Nnanna, testified earlier this year, “Obi travels virtually alone. He carries his own bag. He flies mostly economy class. Whenever he travels with his children, he puts them in the economy compartment, telling them they can fly business class when they grow up and make their own money. Obi does not disturb the peace with elaborate, siren-blaring convoys.” Obviously, therefore, Obi’s movement to the PDP from the All Progressive Grand Alliance should not be weighed in the negative light of the familiar Nigerian habit of switching parties only for selfish gains. We should begin to consider, in my view, how Obi can transfer the frugal governance style with several development pay-offs to the centre. In a similar vein, rather than dwell on the so-called perfidy of party switchers, we should begin to demand of Mimiko that he should bring to bear on politics at the centre the same zeal with which he prosecuted such programmes as the mega school projects, the Abiye project, featuring the building of modern mother and child hospitals across Ondo State as well as his urban renewal programme which caught the attention of the UN Habitat and for which he won an international award. In other words, Nigeria can benefit from an enhanced tempo of governance and a more direct relationship between cost and benefits if political leaders who have made impact at the level of the state can transfer their attitudes to the centre. In the same manner, Daniel, at least until his twilight years in office, justly takes the credit for several programmes in Ogun State, which include the dualisation of the Sagamu-Siu-Abeokuta Road, the building of an international stadium in Ijebu Ode, as well as the imposing 12-storey OPIC Twin Tower, described as the tallest building in Ogun State, designed to jump-start the urban economy. The point being made here is that if we look beyond party switching we can envisage that Daniel, like Obi and Mimiko, can bring to bear on politics at the centre insights derived from flourishes of executive energy which was evident for the better part of his tenure. Interestingly, the thread that runs through the governance advents of the three politicians is a passion for hard work and a reputation for legendary, extended working hours. For a nation like ours with slouching work ethics burdened with too many off-work days, perhaps the highest in the world, politicians who are distinguished by diligence and commitment to duty have valuable lessons to teach their parties and the nation. To be sure, not everyone can be a minister let alone the President of Nigeria; what is important however is the pulling together of collective assets in order to re-invent the country. I do not wish to pretend that it will be easy to reform the centre. The title of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala’s book, Reforming the Un-reformable, warns that there are entrenched interests that would lay booby traps for anyone who is reform-minded. The more reformers aggregate at the centre, however, the better the prospects of achieving overdue reforms. In point of fact, structure is important but so is human agency. The contrasting leadership styles of Bamanga Tukur who drove the PDP to the brink of dissolution and Mu’azu with his conciliatory, inviting mien suggest that personalities can make a difference to the fortunes of parties and of nations. In terms of the ideological debates, it is obviously surprising to find politicians with a progressive mindset in a conservative party. However, some of this is probably inevitable in the kind of unstable, sometimes hastily contrived, political parties which we have. It should also be noted that although it may be strange to the Nigerian political environment famished regarding ideological debate, there is in fact in England and Canada, a strand of conservatism that is known as “progressive conservatism”. Canada’s major conservative movement officially named itself, The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and held sway between the 1940s and 2003. In Britain, the Prime minister, David Cameron, with his enunciations of the Big and fair Society, is the apostle of progressive conservatism. He has been identified with the paradoxical mantra that progressive ends can best be achieved by conservative means. Although this columnist is not conservative by temper, it should be obvious that there is nothing to apologise for in being conservative, provided such a predisposition is put to the service of the state and of the welfare of the citizenry. We do not suggest that the three politicians who have just joined the PDP are without blemishes. They are probably as human as they come. What is being advocated is that we should demand of them that they should put their auspices, assets and achievements at the service of the Nigerian people as a whole.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 16:36:56 +0000