PDP: The Losers

Comfort Obi

The national convention of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, which took place on March 8, was an anti-climax: It is not that one expected anything better than what one got from the PDP. It is just that there were many reasons why a number of people looked forward to it.
For one, it was the first convention of the PDP since after the much-criticised 2007 general elections. From allegations of massive rigging, selection and/or imposition of candidates, to the deliberate exclusion of some candidates and their parties from taking part in the election, many things went wrong. The Election Tribunals are having fun over-turning the results, and indirectly telling INEC and former President Olusegun Obasanjo that they failed.
With these allegations still fresh, the expectation was high that the PDP national convention, during which the party would elect its leaders, would be an improvement, and thus give us hope.
Another reason why one expected a good convention was the pronouncements of President Umaru Yar’Adua. The man who waves the banner of the rule of law said he was backing no candidate. It was a departure, we thought, from the old Obasanjo days when he would force his candidates on the party. But it turned out to be the same process, without, however, the crudity of the Obasanjo era. Hundreds of party faithfuls had converged on Abuja only to idle away. They never took part in electing the officers of their party. On March 8, the choice of who leads the PDP was decided by state governors. They defeated the G-21 which had made so much noise. The governors over-ran the party, and left Obasanjo breathless.
But this write-up is not about the process that produced Chief Vincent Ogbulafor as the PDP National Chairman (and left front-runners, Dr. Sam Egwu bitter, whining, angry, and Chief Pius Anyim dumb-founded). It is about the losers at the convention.
The cake goes to Obasanjo. If he needed any lessons on the ironies of life, the events of March 5 and March 8 would have thought him. On March 5, Obasanjo turned 71 (?) years. And newspapers were free of congratulatory messages for him. Only the Oyo State Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, remembered to congratulate him in one paper. And I wondered what happened to Obasanjo’s legion of friends. In his eight years in office, Obasanjo’s birthdays were always a big do. State governors fell over themselves to congratulate him in newspapers. And so did businessmen, contractors, companies, friends and associates. This year, not even one of them remembered.
Three days after his birthday, the PDP dealt him another blow during the party's national convention. The two people he supported, and rooted for, were jettisoned by the party. In the months and weeks running to the elections, Obasanjo made it clear that he wanted Egwu for the chairmanship position, and Senator Tunde Ogbeha for the post of secretary. His support for the two men became their albatross. Nobody wanted anybody associated with Obasanjo to hold any position. They didn’t want a repeat of Chief Barnabas Gemade, Chief Audu Ogbeh and Dr. Ahmadu Ali, three men whom he imposed on the party. It is bad enough that they felt he imposed himself on them as the BOT chairman. But to now have him install people whom he would control? It was too much for the party. Egwu was the most hit. No wonder he is complaining the loudest. Just as OBJ told people anybody but Anyim, others said: anybody but Egwu. In throwing Egwu out, Anyim was also affected. They didn’t want somebody OBJ sees as his real enemy. Yet, Obasanjo lost big time. And the story of how he lost is sweet.
Failing to convince Yar’Adua to back Egwu and Ogbeha, he dropped Ogbeha but insisted on Egwu. When he failed, he allegedly said anybody but Anyim. He then went for the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe. But Yar’Adua refused, telling him Ojo was doing well as a Minister. Then fate offered him a chance with the death of the Emir of Katsina. He grabbed it with two hands, and pushed for a postponement of the convention (to buy time), even though all the delegates were already in Abuja, and millions of naira had been spent. Again, Yar’Adua didn’t think a postponement was necessary. And so Ogbulafor emerged. To cover up, Bode George is now spinning a story that Ogublafor is OBJ’s boy. That OBJ lost nothing. Na lie. He lost. He sacked Ogbulafor as the party’s General Secretary, and once, allegedly, dismissed him as a failed minister. But there were other losers.
I don’t want to dignify Chief Lamidi Adedibu who had, while boasting that Egwu would win because OBJ had said so, dismissed the governors as nobodies. By installing Ogbulafor, the governors have since replied him. But the other losers are the Igbo. Why are the Igbo perennial losers?
Yes, Ogbulafor is Igbo. But what did the Igbo contribute to his emergence? As soon as the chairmanship was zoned to the Igbo, every Tom, Dick and Harry in Igboland picked the chairmanship form. At the last count, there were about 26 of them, even though it had been zoned to only Imo and Ebonyi States. The Igbo couldn’t prune down the number, nor were they able to endorse one of them, and ask others to step down – and that inspite of a number of meetings. The result is that Igbo sons were publicly disgraced in Abuja. When the Governor of Ebonyi State, Martin Elechi, was given the option of choosing between Frank Ogbuewu and Ogbonnaya Aja-Nwachukwu, he declined, and insisted on Egwu. The result is that no Igbo governor had any input regarding who became the chairman. Other governors picked for them.
I watched, almost in tears, as Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, microphone in hand, and surrounded by Igbo sons, his fellow aspirants, announced they were stepping down from the contest in obedience to the party’s (governors) wishes. They looked like those being led to the slaughter.
And the shame of it all, as he admitted: the party and the governors didn’t think they were important enough to be consulted. For the Igbo, it seems, anything goes. It is sad.