PDP crisis: Run-up to breakup? By Mahmoon baba-Ahmedi Nigerian politicians are known to be incurable optimists, always feeling hopeful and positive about the future of their country. They never encourage thoughts about malevolence or reflect on any vice that could outweigh virtue in their lives. However recent events unfolding in the country have tended to invoke a tendency to expect the worst among hitherto hopeful and expectant people. Majority of Nigerian politicians are now pessimistic, seeing only the negative or worst aspects of all bad things which they expect to happen to themselves. There is an intricate range of problems plaguing Nigeria but the most aggravating and distressing is the issue of presidential elections and where the candidates are coming from, especially now with a raging controversy over whose turn it is to produce the president in 2015 between the northern and southern part of the country. It appears the politicians are losing their heads over how the issue would be handled rationally without any ugly incidence that could jeopardise the interest of the nation. As it is now the political gladiators in both regions are not governed by clear and sensible thinking or judgements in their deliberations and are instead, carried aways by narrow-minded reflections , ridiculous sentiments and vain prejudices. Two issues now at stake, are particularly going against the inordinate ambition of the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner. Undeniably, the strident calls and ample support by northerners for a power shift is terribly unsettling to President Jonathan and his tribal warlords who swore to make Nigeria disintegrate in the event of his inability to clinch the presidency in 2015. The second issue is the constitutional provision whose meaning or intention is implicit and can never be misunderstood . It may eventually prove to be his Golgotha. His opponents are seriously capitalising on that to disallow him to run as that would amount to endorsing third term for him. In the PDP statutes there is a provision for an interchanging pattern of determining presidential candidature which allows north to alternate with the south in a very unpopular policy called zoning. That makes the clamour of powershift to the north from the south, where it is presently retained, even more imperative. The ruling clique within the PDP has manipulated that procedure with a view to concede the office of the national chairman to the North, ostensibly to foreclose the chances of any aspiring candidate emerging from that region. And because of that the northerners are bickering over Bamanga Tukur’s position which has effectively precluded two highly placed officials of the party to hail from the same constituency. That was the genesis of the rumbling in the ruling PDP which had also given vent to the current internal crisis attributed to the struggle by foremost players jostling for position come 2015 elections. Already the issue of presidential candidacy has terribly undermined the PDP, occasioning sharp divisions in all levels of its heirachy . That immoral situation is further compounded by disconcerting calls for violence by belligerent kinsmen of the incumbent president as precondition for returning him to power by hook or by crook in 2015 . The northerners too are spoiling for ugly confrontation in the event of employing illegal and unconstitutional means to favour President Jonathan to clinch the presidential primary ticket. They are also clamouring loud and clear for the return of power to the north in the interest of fair play and justice. Clearly that was a position Nigerian politicians shouldn’t find themselves in. They have placed so much premium of zoning which had effectively encouraged the sacrifice of good leadership at the alter of mediocrity and deliberately relinquished merit in considering the suitability of candidates. Undoubtedly, the peculiarities of Nigerian political entity is largely responsible for that misrepresented mind-set. Religious and ethnic considerations and, to some certain extent, political affiliations compel majority of Nigerians into taking such precipitate actions which they strongly believe will throw up their associates into position of authority. As a result of that excessive power mongering the country is severely disunited and the leading political parties in total disarray. The circumstances that led to such detestable scenario have been manifesting themselves in all facets of our daily lves. Both the legislature and the executive have been obsessed with that craze. Political differences and enthocentricism have taken the centre stage and intolerance and unfounded hatred, fear and mistrust of the followers of a particular religion and ethnicity are what invariably define the nature of interactions or conflicts within various groups. As it is now the electorates and the elected are not riding in tandem, each is going in his own way. The executive is totally oblivious of how the citizens are faring. What concerns them most is their official positions and how they will perpetually remain in them. To them politics is a a pastime persued to amass ill-gotten wealth at whatever expense. That was what fuels the crisis within the ruling PDP and it is feared its unmititigated spread to all spheres of our national life will mark the commencement of a ru-up to its breakup.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:04:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015