By Rotimi Fasan

THE National Executive Committee meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that led to the ouster of its beleaguered ex-chair, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, had all the gripping details of a tragic drama. The exit of Tukur was a tragic melodrama that underlined the superior voice of the majority over that of a very powerful but tiny minority.

Alhaji Tukur trusted in the ability of this powerful minority, including the president, over the majority. But in the end that trust turned out a misplaced trust. Tukur had to go but the tragedy of his exit resided in his heroic but failed bid to hold on to power. For a man of his age, his resolute fight to remain in office was both understandable and unexplainable.

No PDP chairman has ever left office voluntarily, that is without a desire to stay longer than the circumstances permitted. Although a figurehead position, the office of the PDP chair is a lucrative egg nest nobody wants to let go too soon. Yet, when the end looked inevitable, it was strange that a man of Tukur’s age, experience and wealth, would balk at the idea of leaving in dignity as if the alternative to that was destitution. The office of the PDP chair was suddenly made to look like a career position that should be protected with every ounce of the occupier’s energy.

Tukur fought a long and hard battle that had he succeeded in retaining his position many would have respected his sense of determination. The story surrounding the exit of past PDP chair persons has never been short of high intrigue and drama. It was always an occasion of skullduggery, pain and gunpoint betrayal. All these elements were in full display in the build-up to the last NEC meeting which signaled Bamanga Tukur’s exit. And the man fought to the bitter end.

He  heaved, and strained every muscle he could muster into service and vowed never to resign. Then he sighed. But it was all to no avail. And in the end it took the President, Goodluck Jonathan, to announce his ‘resignation’ even if he was right at the gathering in full control of his faculties. And the charade of a dignified send-off, with songs and handclaps, was again played out even as Tukur looked on in defeat. But the question still needs to be asked- Did Tukur actually resign?

It would take a Nigerian just back from out of this planet to believe that Bamanga Tukur resigned. Not only had the man vowed not to resign. He fought hard to retain his position. Even when news of his exit went viral on the internet, Tukur rose like a phoenix to deny it. Still breathing fire, he vowed never to resign as that is never an option for people like him.

What Alhaji Tukur ought to have said, really, is that resignation is never an option for a Nigerian, especially a public servant who has clearly outstayed their welcome. His battle to retain his position was very much in character of a Nigerian public officer. The entire battle for his removal was made to look like a turf contest among contending politicians.

Not the matter of honour, of loss of confidence that it had clearly become in the many months since he became party chairman. It was, for Tukur and his supporters, a political dispute between him and many of the governors in the PDP ranged against him. He had the President and his wife on his side and there was nothing for him to worry about.

Tukur was as good if not better than his word. He refused to resign and dared anyone to make him do otherwise. In the final battle it was the President himself who announced Tukur’s resignation. Clearly nobody else could have done it. Tukur enjoyed the President’s confidence and no doubt had the assurances of his full support.

It was only proper that when it became apparent that only the exit of Tukur would save the PDP from imminent collapse only his chief supporter could tell him the game was up. Which indeed tells us where the buck stops. It was up to Goodluck Jonathan to save the PDP from itself. His indecision is costing his presidency as well as Nigerians far more than he cares to acknowledge.

If he must save Nigeria from the deep morass into which it has fallen, the President must begin by saving himself from complacency. Perhaps, it is waking out of slumber that he took steps to change his military chiefs on the same day he announced the ouster of Tukur.

Jonathan it was who appointed the military chiefs or so it seems. In any case, the buck stops with him. He must take responsibility for the successes and failures of his political as well as military appointees. This is especially so as resignation, the path of honour open to a public officer aware that they have failed to discharge their responsibility- Jonathan must learn to exercise his hiring and firing powers as resignation is not part of the vocabulary of a Nigerian public officer.

Like Alhaji Tukur who had lost the confidence of party members, Jonathan’s military chiefs saw no sense in giving up their command in the face of glaring failure to stem the murderous tide of religious terrorists in North-east Nigeria and many parts of the North. Until the change of guard that led to their exit, Jonathan’s military chiefs remained stuck in their military boots even as the terror artists in northern Nigeria appear to be regaining lost ground in their battle with the country’s security forces. In announcing the resignation of Tukur and sacking his top military chiefs, Jonathan seems to have taken the same path he would need to take if he truly needs to breathe life into his lumbering cabinet of non-performing and corrupt ministers.

Quite a few of these political appointees have grown too big for the President. He has been bearing the albatross of ministers whose moral weight has considerably plummeted in recent times. He must however show that loyalty to the country is greater and far more honourable than loyalty to a clique of political jobbers.

It remains to be seen just how effective and clearheaded are his choices of new service chiefs. We will have to wait to know how much of this decision was a result of strategic thinking than political expediency. The persons he chooses to include or remove from the speculated reshuffle of his cabinet would tell us where his mind lies in the final months of his presidency. If he could sack his military chiefs and announce the resignation of Tukur, it should be easy pie sending some of his ministers home.