BY AKINTOLA BENSON

Apparently anxious to divert attention from the many internal crises ripping the party apart and daily rendering it more vulnerable in the forthcoming 2015 elections, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has launched a mischievous and utterly misleading attack on the National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The PDP has seized on the recent fence-mending mission of the party leadership to Ekiti State to describe Tinubu as a despot bent on imposing a choice on the people of Ekiti.

There is neither rhyme nor logic to this baseless accusation. In the first place, what moral right has the PDP to accuse anybody of despotic tendencies?

This is a party that wanted to impose a chairman on the Nigerian Governors’ Forum in the person of Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State and when this failed, it suspended the winner of the NGF election, Governor Rotimi Amaechi from the party for enjoying the support of majority.

A party that ordered a sitting governor not to seek re-election of a voluntary association like the NGF is now preaching the tenets of democracy to others. How ridiculous! This is a party that has made it so obvious that it is bent on harassing, intimidating and preventing anybody from challenging President Goodluck Jonathan for the PDP presidential ticket in 2015.

Towards this end, members of its National Executive Committee (NEC) are removed and replaced at will. Its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, remains in office against the will of majority of its NEC members all because of his willingness to manipulate intra-party processes in favour of Jonathan towards 2015.

All national chairmen of the party since inception have all been imposed and removed at will by the presidency- Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbe, Vincent Ogbulafor and now Bamanga Tukur. The so called National Conventions that produced President Umaru Yar’Adua and later Goodluck Jonathan were clearly manipulated to arrive at pre-determined outcomes.

We can all recall how former Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State was brazenly prevented from asserting his right to seek re-election as the party’s governorship candidate while the favoured candidate of the presidency, Seriake Dickson was foisted on the party and is today the Governor of the state. In Kogi State, aggrieved PDP candidates who were manipulated out of contrived governorship primaries are still in court seeking justice. We can go on and on citing instances why the PDP has no moral right to preach intra-party democracy to anybody.

But then, let us come to the substance of the PDP’s baseless allegation. How true is the claim that Asiwaju Tinubu is despotic and disdainful of democracy?

In the first place, Asiwaju Tinubu was not in Ekiti State in his personal capacity. He was on a delegation of the national leadership of the ACN, which included the National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, the leader of the party in Ekiti State, Chief Niyi Adebayo and a prominent member of the party from Ekiti, Mr. Dele Alake among others.

The position forcefully articulated by Asiwaju Tinubu at the Ekiti parley was, therefore, that of the party. Again, the fact that the party leadership expended time, energy and resources to go to Ekiti to settle internal disputes and put its house in order towards next year’s election is indicative of a party that respects the electorate and refuses to take them for granted.

It shows that the party, despite Governor Kayode Fayemi’s outstanding performance in office, is approaching the next elections with all seriousness. And the logic of the ACN leadership is impeccable. Why do parties exist and why do candidates seek office?

In a healthy democracy, the purpose is to fulfill the party’s manifesto and pursue the greatest welfare of the greatest number of the people. Now, if an incumbent is widely acknowledged as delivering on this mandate, why should a party dissipate energy on intra-party contests? Shouldn’t such energy be better saved to confront the opposition in the general election especially given the desperation of the PDP to regain a foothold in the South West?