PDP’s protracted paralysis

With the Court of Appeal judgment which recently found for Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the substantive Chiarman of the People`s Democratic Party, erstwhile ruling party and now struggling opposition party, one would have thought that finally the leadership volcano which has convulsed the party as it seeks to recover from its stunning defeat in the 2015 general elections would become a fixture of the past and a new course charted for the future. Alas, the bickering and mudslinging which have been on for over a year have only gained new steam.

Two party behemoths in Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff are stridently laying claims to the mantle of the Party`s leadership. The thorny issue has fallen the subject of countless judicial decisions across the country and is now poised to be finally laid to a belated rest by the country`s apex court. While all these have gone on, Nigerians have been denied the presence of a vibrant opposition or even the semblance of same to keep an increasingly complacent government on its toes.

Arguably, there is no love lost between a vast majority of Nigerians and the People`s Democratic Party which had uninterruptedly held the reins of power for sixteen years until a fairy-tale victory for the now ruling All Progressive Congress handed them a fateful defeat. A massive wave of relief had washed over the country as the results spiraled into the public and a fed-up populace which had resoundingly rejected the PDP hailed the dawn of a new era driven by change.

With the honey moon long over, the transition from the extravagant promises of change to the Kafkaesque theatre of same has proven especially tortuous. The throes have been full of torments and the pangs full of pain. With a President whose health and policies continue to spike anxiety and uncertainty respectively, many Nigerians now struggle to meet their basic needs. Indeed, a cry of indignation resounds all over the Country.

In the light of these and the current Government`s mostly lethargic approach to pressing national issues, the need for a vibrant opposition to constantly badger the Government as is the tradition in all working democracies stick out like a sore thumb. Alas, the Peoples Democratic Party continues to sleepwalk in its dereliction.

There have been accusations and counter accusations that the ruling APC secretly fuels the PDP`s steady demise using the instrumentality of moles and other saboteurs. The jury is out on that. However, what cannot be ignored is that Nigerians and their fledgling democracy long buffeted by undemocratic elements stand in critical need of a virile opposition to whichever party is in power to consolidate the gains of democracy and the rule of law. Nigerians now look to the PDP.

In spite of the heist it visited on the Nigerian populace during a forgettable sixteen year old stranglehold on the nation`s manacles of power, its status as the hitherto ruling party and its vast human and political resources historically posit it as the party, among a cloud of other mushroom parties, that can best constitute the virile opposition most Nigerians crave. However, it seems intraparty wrangling and high level power play are poised to rob them of this historic opportunity to gain some measure of redemption in the eyes of Nigerians, many of who believe strongly that their sixteen years of power in Nigeria set the nation on the ignominious path of retrogression.

Some party behemoths have called on the PDP power gladiators to sheath their swords, end their collision course and work towards the unity and progress of the party. The call has not been heeded and looks destined to be ignored, but at this its historic juncture when it is smarting from an unexpected defeat, it has run out of options.

More intra-party battles of attrition can only weaken the party further and expose its soft underbelly to more rancor and disintegration. The time to act is now not just for the sake of regaining lost power but to give Nigerians the virile opposition party they richly deserve.

Kenechukwu Obiezu, Abuja.