By Is’haq Modibbo Kaw

IN the end, what the PDP dished was a standard menu of ‘consensus’; candidates were an outcome of a smoke-filled inner recesses horse-trading, which ensured that the power blocs in the party divided amongst themselves the spoils.

President Goodluck Jonathan got his man, the venerable Alhaji BamangaTukur; just like the old despot, Obasanjo got his, a pair of them, really and the different governors.

The various positions of leadership and authority in ‘Africa’s largest political party’ became lucrative shares. Contempt for our country and its people was on open display last weekend, in Abuja. Unfortunately for all of us, the PDP continues to toy with our collective fate, as the nation’s ruling party. Because make no bones about it, we are all collateral shareholders in the fortunes of the ruling party, willy-nilly!

Most incredible disconnect

Perhaps, the most incredible expression of the party’s disconnect was its choice of a National Youth Leader, in the person of the 60 year old Malam  Umar Garba Chiza. He was allegedly the choice of the Niger state governor, Babangida Aliyu. The absurdity of that choice further underlines the basic ignorance within the PDP, of the demographic reality of contemporary Nigeria.

In a country where over 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30, the ruling party’s laughable choice of a ‘Youth’ leader, became the butt of jokes on the internet and around the country. But far more fundamental is the fact that the overwhelming majority of our country did not get a look in, from  the ‘Old Men’ network that the PDP truly is.

Trust the infamous Jerry Gana to justify anything! He described the ‘consensus’ horse-trading as ‘the highest form of internal democracy…People thought election is the best form of agreement, no its only when there is no agreement that we conduct election’. Our learned professor turned political logic on its head. The man, like most of the power mongers of the ruling party, has become a grandfather; incredibly even he will teach lessons of basic honesty to his grandchildren. Yet, there he was openly defending an elaborate lie!

In truth, as Sam Nda-Isaiah said in his column this week, the PDP is allergic to democracy. The ruling party in our country is a cult of its largest collection of power mongers; for them the end justifies the means, and the end remains a perpetual stay in power. When an earlier chairman of the party boasted that they were going to be around for the next 60 years, deciding what happened to all of us, most people thought it was just a flight of fancy, unlikely ever to happen.

Bamanga Tukur casting his vote at the convention.

But the party has been able to reproduce itself in the other parties in the political space of our country. The worst excesses of the PDP are also reproduced to a large extent in practically every other political party in Nigeria today: absence of grand vision; the stifling of internal democracy and the use of the platform of party just as vehicle for power grab. In truth, we have passed the age of the genuine political parties; that belonged to the 20th Century: social democratic, communist even right wing parties as well as the national liberation parties. In the world of neoliberalism, parties have been shorn of great ideas, since in the imperialist world, not much separates the ruling parties, in real terms. The Democrats and Republicans have literally become sides of the same coin, in the US; and in Western Europe, the social democratic platforms have become almost indistinguishable from the conservative ones.

Politics as PR and gimmick

Politics has therefore come closer to PR and gimmick; the genuine interests of the people have increasingly eroded, as the neoliberal platform instituted a piratical form of capitalism, which deepens the social divides around the world.

The rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. This was the background which led to the emergence of the ‘Occupy’ movement around the advanced capitalist world; and it is the source of the collapse in Greece and the humiliation of its people.

The international system built upon the Washington Consensus is not working for the majority of humanity. Unfortunately for us, we are located on the periphery of the imperialist system of the 21st Century. Our ruling elite copy the worst excesses of this system. The political party system is a joke and the PDP in the period since 1999, has become a danger to the consolidation of the democratic process in our country. It is a vehicle of access for power without responsibility; a party of the most vicious segment of the nation’s political elite wedded to the most inordinate use of power.

It was the frightening transformation of the party from the ideals which led to its founding, which led one of its founders to frustratingly, describe it as a basket of scorpions, stinging themselves to death. The disappointment and disgust that accompanied the forced consensus arrangement, as well as the way candidates were corralled into stepping down, show that a lot is wrong with this big-for-nothing political party. But as usual, the losers will get ‘juicy’ appointments; case closed.

On a final note, all politics is local. There is a Kwara twist to the PDP tale. The last PDP convention which brought the Prince Vincent Ogbulafor leadership to power, was done at the height of the James Ibori-Bukola Saraki hegemony in the Yar’Adua presidency. Today, the most powerful Kwaran in the Goodluck Jonathan era, is not a man, but Hajiya Muinat Bola Shagaya.

She is a member of the Dame Patience Jonathan inner circle and an in-law of the new PDP National Chairman, Alhaji BamangaTukur! Within the space of a few years, the Bukola Saraki myth gradually reached its expiry date at the national level as new forces emerged to lay claim to political ascendancy and influence, represented by the unspoken position of Muinat Bola Shagaya.

If we wait long enough, everything changes! Now that President Jonathan has his man in place as party chairman, and another South-South person in Sam Sam Jaja, as his deputy, the coast is clear for the Goodluck Jonathan candidacy in 2015. This was where the ‘consensus’ coronation was leading the PDP and by extension, Nigeria. Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen!

Bola Tinubu @ 60

THIS week, former governor of Lagos state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is celebrating his 60th birthday. It has become the most talked about event in the media, as associates and supporters of that most incredible survivor and politician, have rolled out drums to celebrate their man: a dance drama and a new book about the man, are some of the highlights of the celebration.

General Muhammadu Buhari, in his birthday message, described Bola Tinubu, as “a consummate politician and a very strategic person who thinks on his feet”. I have never met Tinubu, but I have also followed his very controversial political career with utmost interest; reading every interview I come across and asking people who know the man or are close to him, to give me as accurate a description. Last week I was in Lagos for a few days, as a guest of Tunde Fagbenle and in the company Wumi Adebanwo, who is very close to Tinubu;  I asked for his own view of the man too.

ACN leader, Bola Tinubu

I think Bola Tinubu has become one of the most important political leaders in Nigeria today. That position has come as a result of incredible ability to galvanize people as well as the necessary ruthlessness, which is often inevitable in the political process. Bola Tinubu’s life carries its own share of controversy, encapsulated in the stories about his origins and the problem which emerged about his ‘Chicago’ affair; but his place in the struggle against military dictatorship cemented his position as a fighter for democracy.

He was able to face-off the dictatorial tendencies of the PDP, and especially General Olusegun Obasanjo, between 1999 and 2007. He saw farther than his other colleagues in the AD, thus turning Lagos into a redoubt from which he launch a brilliant political comeback, which led to the political victory of his party, in the Southwest of the country. Today, Bola Tinubu is the undisputed lord of the politics of that part of Nigeria.

Those who know the man talk about his incredible generosity and large-heartedness. I think by leading the political party which opened the space of democracy and curbed the excesses of the ruling PDP, in the Southwest, Bola Tinubu has assisted the consolidation of democracy in our country. He consistently speaks for federalism and that should not be under-estimated in the current situation in our country, and against the backdrop of the decades of military dictatorship, which distorted the political structure of Nigeria. I was reliably informed that Bola Tinubu has an ambition to run for president in 2015; that is his right.

But he will have to do a critique of his performance in 2011. Because there is still the very strong suspicion, that he entered into an agreement with President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that his ACN worked surreptitiously for Jonathan’s victory, especially in the Southwest.

There is a lot of politics ahead, between now and 2015, but an outline is beginning to form; the opposition must find a way to provide a national platform to challenge PDP’s hegemony.

Otherwise, the ACN will retain its handicap as a party of the Southwest, just as the CPC will continue to be a regional party, based in the North. The truth is that Bola Tinubu working with other patriots around the country,will have to play a central role in any effort to break the political logjam, which has made it difficult for a formidable national challenge to be posed to the excesses of the PDP. It is tribute to the man, that we cannot talk about contemporary politics in our country today, without mentioning the stellar contributions of Bola Tinubu. Happy Birthday at 60!