If one should count the negative scorecards and other untoward activities of Nigeria's political parties ever since the nation embraced democratic governance on May 29, 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party surely takes the lead. This may be due to the fact that it is the largest political party not only in Nigeria but also in the African continent and is also the government in power.
The PDP was founded by eminent statesmen and erudite personalities whose moral standing, astuteness and other virtues have earned them honours and global glory. Among these noble Nigerian leaders are Alex Ekwueme, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbe, and Solomon Lar.
No one can really say where the party started getting it wrong. One thing that is obvious however, is the fact that the founding fathers at a point lost the reins of the party to other eminent leaders. This crop of leaders, most of who are products of military and para-military forces are so enormously rich and powerful that they succeeded in intimidating and pushing aside the idealist leaders who founded the party.
The likes of James Ibori, ex governor of Delta State, Dieprye Alamaesiegha, ex-governor of Bayelsa State, Joshua Dariye, ex governor of Plateau State are some of the political executives that the PDP produced who have not only been tried for financial fraud in the country but also outside the country. Ibori's wife was recently jailed for six years in the United Kingdom while Ibori himself is about to be extradited from United Arab Emirates to UK to face trial.
The Nigerian legal system has also nullified several governorship election results of PDP states on the verdict that the contests were rigged.
Olusegun Obasanjo's two-term tenure between 1999 and 2007 will remain in Nigeria's political history as the period when the president of the country was more powerful than the party that brought him to power. Obasanjo ruled the nation and ruled the party with absolute power. He appointed and orchestrated the dismissals of the party's national and state chairmen. Not only that, he empowered his political cronies who were installed as governors in about 29 states to the state where the party leadership not only found it difficult to control the president, but also found it difficult to control the state governors.
However, the advent in June this year of a new leadership at the national level seems to be changing the course of history.
Okwesilieze Nwodo, a medical doctor and new national chairman of the PDP seems to have regained hold of the reins of the party machinery and has decided to go back to the trenches and bring the party back to glory by doing things right in order to shed the PDP's the bad boy's image.
"In my acceptance speech on June 17, 2010, I bemoaned a situation where the party has been handed over to "godfathers" who, with "reckless abandon, impose candidates with questionable character; candidates that lacked leadership qualities and clear the way for them to run for elections under our party flag. I also stated that the process of choosing our candidates must once again be subjected to internal democracy, to the dictates of our party constitution and the extant rules", Nwodo declared.
He stated this recently in Lagos at the launch of a new reform agenda for the party, aptly themed: Restoring True Values.
"We Must Say NO to VIOLENCE and YES to RULE OF LAW
We Must Say NO to RIGGING and YES to FAIRPLAY We Must Say NO to THUGGERY and YES to ORDER
We Must Say NO to GOD FATHERISM and Yes To DEMOCRACY" But, the questions running through the minds of political pundits are, for how long will Nwodo cry? Can a leopard change its spot? Is he sure members of his party are ready for positive change? What about the founding fathers, why can't they come out and support Nwodo at this material time?
In his back page column in Champion newspaper of Wednesday, December 15, 2010, Achilleus stated, while reviewing the reform that "whatever reformist plans Nwodo has, is now being seen as part of a wider plot to force some persons to lose their power base".
I listened recently to one of the 2011 PDP governorship aspirants from the North East of the country campaign on national television and I was amazed when I heard the politician using the exact words Dr. Nwodo did.
If PDP members and Nigerians at large can embrace these values, the nation would be the better for it. Nwodo has stated that "We may not be able to undo the past, but we can create the future, a better future for the nation.
Afolabi is a lecturer in Political Science. He contributed this piece from Port Harcourt
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