That Edo PDP October rally: A post-mortem

ON Saturday, October 15, 2011, in trickles and in drones, the remnants of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Edo State, gathered at Garrick Memorial Grammar School Ground, Ekewan Road, Benin City for a rally.

Electronic jingles on radio and television had earlier heralded the event as a civic reception in honour of two appointees of Mr. President, in the persons of Mike Ogiadome and Mike Onolememen, Chief of Staff to the President and Minister of Works, respectively. The choice of an open rally by the party rather than the more dignifying and befitting idyllic setting of a luncheon or dinner party where the best of protocol and etiquette could be on display naturally arouses curiosity.

My curiosity was swiftly resolved against the background of the spate of embarrassing mass exodus of PDP members to the ACN and the LP since 2009. Perhaps, the demoralising event of the defection of Captain Okhomina, Hon. Ehanna, Barrister Idahagbon, Mr. Adams and a host of others to the ruling ACN sent cold shivers down the spines of the PDP leadership.

Yet the streams of defections of well known leaders and gladiators have continued unabated. It therefore, became imperative to test the political waters with an organised rally, as this would best provide a platform to assess the impact of these widely publicised defections. A rally would also provide the opportunity to demonstrate that the party was still as strong as the rock of Gibraltar and largely unaffected by those who have left.

Not less important was the opportunity to address as many people as possible with a view to boosting their indubitably waning confidence on the party. These are laudable strategic objectives, yet so humbling for the arrogant PDP leadership to admit. At the end of the day, some chieftains of the party made exhilarating remarks about its success. Honestly, that was a fantastic confidence building job appropriate to the occasion.

The day after the public show of strength and braggadocio, the brutal realities of their predicament must have dawned on them like a spreading smell of danger. In many quarters where free flow of ideas was integral to planning, the party chieftains should have hurriedly assembled and engaged the brightest and the most prolific minds in the party to undertake clinical post-mortem of the event. They should have boldly confronted the grim facts of the situation with deep sense of sobriety.

The outcome to my mind would have been most insightful and revealed in great depth the unsavory manoeuvres and events that threw the party into quagmire with fears cascading down the precipice. There is no evidence so far to suggest that the party attuned itself to the desirability of any soul- searching exercise or reflections. Yet a little retrospection will be instructive.

In 2007 when the PDP locked horns with the then newly registered AC in a general election, it was unarguably the dominant party in the State. It had structures in all nooks and crannies of the State and was overwhelmingly in control of State government structures and the 19 local government councils in the state.

It was a robust, vibrant and vigorous party fit for competition without notice. Thus, it could mobilize its teeming followership for a rally in Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium overnight and spaces in the spectator stands would be filled to capacity. And the jubilant crowd would thunderously rent the air with party slogans, welcoming party leaders and gladiators from across the State with such electrifying effect. Without fear of contradiction, that was the apogee of its power and popularity, blighted only by poor performance of its government.

Yet, in 2007, the arrogance and bluff of the PDP leadership was called off by the arrival of ACD (the precursor of ACN) in the political competitive arena. It was formed and dominated by erstwhile members of the PDP who were deregistered earlier that same year in a wave of unprecedented and vindictive re-registration exercise.

It was an attempt to get even with those dubbed as recalcitrant members of the party by a leadership that was vain and myopic in strategy. They had hoped to use the snare to tighten the noose on certain individuals and waited to savour the opprobrious humiliation of seeing the people crawl, begging to be re-admitted.

That was not to be. The ACN as it later became known, though comparatively unknown and untested, provided a ready shelter from such indignity and humiliation. In no time, the ACN strategically drafted a fire-brand labour activist, one with widespread appeal and popularity, as its gubernatorial candidate. The election turned out to be a duel, the fiercest ever witnessed since the advent of democracy in 1999. At the end, INEC declared PDP as the winner. Eighteen months after, specifically, November 11, 2008, the court upturned the INEC declaration in favour of ACN. The political equation changed!

We are again on a tottering march towards another theatrical gubernatorial election. The PDP is warming up for a duel. It is going to be a straight fight with the ruling ACN in what promises to be a titanic battle for Osadebey Avenue.

But in a two party competitive setting, a good party should comprise of the conservatives who complain that things are moving too fast out of their pace and control, the radicals who are impatient and grumble about inertia and the moderates who seek to hold the two groups together and put the party in the right tactical position to engage the opposition. The price of letting any of these elements hold sway is often harsh.

The present PDP is under the stranglehold of incorrigible ultra-conservatives and not structured to accommodate all shades of opinion resulting in apparent lack of vitality.

Given this configuration, it is germane to briefly interrogate the polity specifically to establish whether it holds any promise for the PDP. Put bluntly the other way round: Is Edo State ready for the PDP? Are there visible redeeming traits that could fuel optimism? Inspiring answers to these questions are hardly forthcoming.

The reasons are not far-fetched. The party that was once solidly built in all parts of the State not only crumbled on the heads of its puerile and egoistic godfathers but the structures completely disintegrated before their eyes.

Mr. JOSEPH OSUYI, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Benin City, Edo State.