On learning about the split in the Peoples Democratic Party and the dramatis personae behind the move, that is, setting up a parralel National Executive Committee to rival the overly undemocratic one being led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur & being ably abetted by the Presidency, my gut reaction was to think that yes it was about time some people jolted the overly confident and imposed leadership of the party out of their grandeur of illusion that
issues pertaining to the 2015 Presidential Nomination of the the party had been successfully manipulated in favour of the incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The charade of a Mini- Convention held inside the Eagle Square yesterday, was meant to be the Icing on the Cake of their Politics of Exclusion.
In a typical tyrannical move, all the perceived opponents of the anointment of GEJ
in the various State Chapters of the Party were weeded out with the expectations that the Mini- Convention was going to be a Jamboree & celerbration of a stolen victory. I recollect that a week after the notorious but celeberated Election of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State for the second Term as the Chairman of the the Nigerian Governors Forum, the
Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso boasted that the outcome of the Election was to teach some of his colleagues, the rudiments of Politics. That yes, contrary to the Hammurabi Code, it is not always that “Might Is Right” especially with a tactically
and strategically savvy, opponent. One had thought that, the minders of the Presidential Campaign would have taken a cue from the overly embarrassing fiasco & take more than a passing interest in the activities of the Governors that were criss- crossing the length & breadth of the Country holding consultations with the former heads of State most of whom were also Founding Fathers of the Party That a Splinter Group had emerged from the PDP should not surprise an astute student of the variant of Politics we play in our clime. what is surprising is the timing & the Calibre of the Personalities
Leading the Reformation Effort.
I must state from the outset that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had since ceased being a Leader I will like to follow because of his dithering indecisive moments and his penchant to “throw in the towel” when he is expected to be charging. He is not a good student of History, otherwise he would have known that ” History is like a woman that must be taken firmly when she is ready. Otherwise, she scorns the fumbler, never forgives him, and never offers
him another chance”.
A typical example of his dithering was when he Atiku had the majority of the Elected Governors in his corner prior to the Presidential Primaries for OBJ’s second term. It was obvious that, most of the Governors wanted to effect a change of Leadership by denying OBJ the ticket. It was alleged that OBJ had to beg him and he agreed to support the man for his second term & in the process signed his own political death warrant. It is trite to state that OBJ deployed all the Presidential arsenal to hound Atiku Abubakar out of the Political limelight that by 2007 he had to contest against OBJ’s anointed Candidate, the late Umar Yar’Adua on the ticket of an Opposition Party, Action Congress of Nigeria.
The lesson from what I described above is that ” Politics is War that is carried out through other means’. Atiku should have gone for OBJ’s political jugular when he had the chance and when the man had realised that he was to be the rallying point of those that were determined to deny him the second term. That is why mutineers in the Army ( Coup Plotters) pay the supreme price by being shot at the stake. I always tell people that ‘ambition is a Beast’ and it was that Beast and bad advisers that pushed Atiku Abubakar to go to OBJ in Abeokuta to go
and beg OBJ for forgiveness for all that had transpired between them that degenerated into bad blood. Some of us were taken aback when OBJ stated publicly that the first condition for Reconciliation was for the TURAKI to rejoin the PDP. Some of us had felt that instead of
him rejoining the PDP, he should have floated his own Political Party. This was a move that was somewhat belatedly made penultimate week when the Pressure Group he leads, the Peoples Democratic Movement was registered as a political party.The Turaki had severally denied any link with the PDM but with the move made yesterday to splinter the PDP, obviously, a stage is being set for the Governors in the parallel group to have a Legal pedestal on which to stand and to join another Party without flouting the Letters & the spirit of the 1999 Constitiution as ammended
What this connotes is that the splinter Group with Alhaji Kawu Baraje as the National Chairman have once again taught the those that attempted to hijack the Party Machinery at all levels, an abject political lesson which they must have borrowed from ROBERT GREENE’s 48 LAWS OF POWER, especially LAW 21 which states that” PLAY A SUCKER TO CATCH A SUCKER – SEEM DUMBER THAN YOUR MARK” Greene posited that ” no one likes feelingstupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to makeyour victims feel smart —- and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
It is from this standpoint and understanding that one views the letter Alhaji Atiku Abubakar addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP dated 11th of July, 2013 requesting that all the privileges accruable to him as a former vice president be returned to him. He also implored the National Chairman to kindly use his good Offices to ensure that his name, that was not included in the Delegates List from Adamawa State be included too. It is also noteworthy that the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamaga Tukur is from the same state with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and typifies the kind of Politics of Exclusion being played in PDP if a Founding Father of the Party like him could be reduced to the humiliating level of begging to be included in a Delegates List to the National Convention of the Party. The coming days promise to be interesting because the other faction of the Party will fight back with everything at its disposal and Nigerians should not be surprised, if the largely effete & the” attack dog of the officialdom” EFCC becomes very active & busy. NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT.
Mallam Ahmed Moyo Jaji.
Executive Secretary,
Never Again Group (NAG)
Lagos, Nigeria
1st September, 2013.