PDP: Between Sheriff and Fayose

POLITICS is a game of numbers. The numbers are, however, not just derived from Roman numerals but from people who show their love and support for a political party and its policies and programmes by voting for such a party in elections. Also, one of the beauties of democracy (which is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people), is the opportunity given voters to make their choices of candidates and parties to put at the helm of affairs during elections.

Since the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, in which the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was voted out and the All Progressives Congress (APC) became the governing party, all has not been well with the PDP. Due to lack of control of the Federal Government, whose head is the President and the rallying point, the PDP has been scaling one problem to land in another. The situation has led to the emergence of the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and Senator Ahmed Markafi factions.

The battle of wits and law that the two sides have engaged in since last year received another twist on Friday, February 17, 2017 when the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, in a split decision, affirmed Sheriff as the National Chairman of the PDP.

While the matter is now pending at the Supreme Court, developments before then and after are pointing to the need for some leaders of the party to stop day dreaming and face some hard realities.

Sheriff, whether he is being pushed or acts on the spur-of-the-moment, said his first task after the Port Harcourt victory would be to push the Chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum, who is also the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, and his Rivers State counterpart, Mr Nyesom Wike, out of the party. Without being sentimental, Fayose has been the major voice of the party and one who is ensuring that the PDP remains in the consciousness of Nigerians.

Wike on his part has been a very dogged leader and a political fighter. He really proved his mettle during the recent re-run elections in his state. Not many politicians would have survived the onslaught that he overcame.

While Sheriff’s traducers have accused him of being a mole, an agent of the APC assigned the mandate of destabilizing the PDP, the onus is on him to prove them wrong and let his actions show truly that he is a leader of the party and one who has the intention of salvaging, not crushing it.

There is suspicion about Sheriff’s action of going to visit one leader or the other selling himself as the authentic leader of the party.

He met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had openly torn his PDP membership card, and what did he get in return? He was dubbed “The Undertaker” of the PDP. He met with former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida; he failed to get open endorsement. Few days after the Port Harcourt judgment, he met former President Goodluck Jonathan and came out suggestively to say GEJ endorsed him. Pronto, Jonathan came out to say that never happened. A true leader of a party should have followers and supporters flocking to him, not that he would be the one going about telling people he is the leader. Leaders emerge naturally and are not imposed.

Sheriff’s actions seem to buttress Fayose’s claim that the soul and the body of the PDP do not lie with the Sheriff but with the Makarfi group.

According to Fayose, who spoke on the aftermath of the Port Harcourt judgment, any electoral contest has three key factors that decide who wins. They are the people, the party, and the candidate. He said the people are the most important and most critical. If one has the party and the candidate and is rejected by the people (voters/supporters), then, the party and the candidate are nothing.

Applying his postulation to Sheriff, Fayose urged Nigerians to look at the quantity and quality of those following Sheriff in the PDP. He also tagged Sheriff a general without soldiers in the PDP. And there is a saying that “If you think you are leading and nobody is following you, then, you are only taking a stroll.”

Fayose also challenged Sheriff to go for a popularity test with Makarfi for people to see their support base and the calibre of people backing them. To the governor, the “who-is-who” in the PDP are behind Makarfi.

“Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is a general without soldiers, not to talk of having a battalion. If he is sure of his stand and strength, let him go for a popularity contest with Senator Ahmed Makarfi. Apart from the fact that most of the PDP members are with Makarfi, let Nigerians check out the calibre of people supporting either group.

“In quantity and quality of support, Makarfi is shoulders high above Sheriff, who is only deluding himself with the rent-a-crowd politicians that he goes to town with. All the organs of the party, including the Board of Trustees, are firmly behind Makarfi. We know who our leaders are. The court cannot choose our chairman for us. This issue is about democracy and the people. It is the PDP members that can decide who their leaders are. This they have demonstrated in the Port Harcourt convention that was done in accordance with the constitution of the party,” Fayose said.

If Sheriff is not to continue to chase shadows, he must get majority of the members and leaders of the PDP on his side; otherwise, let him eat the humble pie and find a way of toeing the line of the majority members of the party. This is because the Yoruba people have a saying that “Bi o ni omo ogun, bi o ko ni omo ogun, wo eyin re wo ki o wi (Whether or not you have soldiers following you, cast a glance behind you, the answer is there).

• Wahab can be contacted on [email protected]