PDP’s medicine after death

LAST week, the PDP leadership set up an 85-member campaign committee for the September 22 governorship election in Osun State, to lead its flag-bearer, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke, into battle against an array of formidable foes, who include Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the ruling APC; and Senator Iyiola Omisore (SDP), one-time deputy governor of the state and ex-chairman, Senate committee on Appropriation. Omisore gave Gov. Rauf Aregbesola a run for his money four years ago, scoring over 40 per cent of the votes. The Ife-born politician believes he actually won that election but was rigged out. To complete the strong field is Alhaji Moshood Adeoti of the Action Democratic Party.

The PDP campaign committee is headed by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who, upon his recent defection from APC back into PDP, now wears the hat of a PDP national leader. Saraki, perhaps to justify his rating as consummate politician and sleek operator, wasted no time in resolving what had hitherto appeared a Gordon knot between Adeleke and his hottest challenger for the PDP flag, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi. Before now, efforts at reconciliation had floundered, but Saraki waved the magic wand and, pronto, Ogunbiyi and Adeleke fell in line.

The wonder, though, is why PDP did not find the winning formula earlier. Omisore is an asset PDP had allowed to bolt before commonsense returned to the party. A man who has a vice-like grip over his home base of Ife, a people who turn in the votes like no-man’s business, should not have been allowed to defect. The right words at the right time and commensurate incentives with appropriate horse-trading would possibly have done the trick. Omisore in PDP’s camp would have given the party added advantage. But now, it appears the votes will be split in a four-horse race. Will a winner emerge on first ballot? Putting one’s house in order after many notables had bolted appears medicine after death. It is getting wiser after the act; shutting the stable after the horse had bolted and is akin to the case of a child who hides the knife only after it had lacerated his hand. If the remaining sun on the horizon can still help the Osun PDP to dry its clothes, as our people would say, what do we make of the recent return of many estranged PDP members in Ekiti State?

Senate Majority Leader-designate, Biodun Olujimi, reportedly was the architect of the reconciliation move. Olujimi herself was one of many top-notch PDP leaders who disagreed with the choice of the deputy governor, Prof. Kolapo Olubunmi Olusola Eleka, as PDP flag bearer in the last but controversial Ekiti governorship election, whose results as declared by INEC are before the election petition tribunal for adjudication. Together with some others, Olujimi rubbished Gov. Peter Ayodele Fayose, ridiculed Prof. Olusola Eleka, gnawed at the very soul of Ekiti PDP and undermined its “continuity” efforts – but at the eleventh hour when she was expected to defect like the others, she made a U-turn. Was this love of party or adherence to party discipline? It is pure and simple enlightened self-interest. The alleged anti-party activities of Olujimi and his cohorts emboldened APC to attempt all the shenanigans that a shocked Ekiti populace, an alarmed nation, and a bewildered international community witnessed on July 14. It encouraged the daylight robbery now known worldwide as “see and buy” as well as the massive security lock-down of the state not to provide the much-touted security but to hold the hands of the opponent (PDP) for the favoured and anointed(APC) to coast home to “victory.”

PDP nationally may be served in the long-run by the Olujimi-inspired reconciliation of disaffected Ekiti party leaders but in the immediate, it is Olujimi whose nest is feathered. This wily fox is positioning herself seriously to take over the leadership of Ekiti PDP from Fayose, whose tenure as governor expires in a few weeks. Whether or not Fayose proceeds after vacating office straight into EFCC’s gulag and whether true or false that a decision has been taken by Presidency cabal to give him the Sambo Dasuki treatment of prolonged incarceration to teach him a lesson for his perceived “insults” on President Muhammadu Buhari as well as make Ekiti save for APC to lord it over in his absence, Olujimi as Senate Majority Leader and one-time deputy governor of the state, remains the most visible, high-ranking, and experienced Ekiti PDP leader with a pocket deep enough that can step into Fayose’s shoes. PDP national leaders must have thought in this direction. It is possible, though, that smarting Fayose supporters may think of pulling the rugs from underneath Olujimi’s feet to pay her back in her own coin, teach her a lesson, and put a stop to her alleged chequered history of political chicanery – but the costs to PDP at national and state levels could be high.

Nevertheless, the point must be made that the ongoing rapprochement among Ekiti PDP leaders would have better served the party had it happened before July 14. That it is happening now and seeing who is claiming the credit suggests that Fayose is held accountable for the exodus of Ekiti PDP leaders in the first place. As Fayose prepares to leave office, those he “drove” out of the PDP, as someone put it, are being encouraged to return. Will Olujimi prove a better party leader? Will her politics be more “inclusive” and less “sectarian” as someone said? Time, as they say, will tell. Selfish motives apart, Olujimi’s action in rallying Ekiti PDP may also have been informed by some of the party’s recent mistakes. For instance, why didn’t the PDP at national level set up for the Ekiti governorship election the kind of high-powered campaign committee it has now put in place for Osun? Fayose and Ekiti PDP were left severely alone in that election, despite that PDP saw how APC set up a 77-man campaign committee for the Ekiti election.

In addition, APC governors in the adjourning states literally shifted base to Ekiti before, during, and after the election, providing thugs, money, and logistics support. APC national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, was not left out of APC efforts to hijack Ekiti. No commensurate interest was shown by PDP leaders and no APC-like support was given. Were they told not to bother? Was this over-confidence?

Whatever, I believe they must have sat down, done a post-mortem, and drawn useful lessons. Perhaps, it is those hard lessons learnt that have informed Olujimi’s steps and the Saraki committee.  They should, however, go a step further: Since the Ekiti PDP’s case at the tribunal is yet to start; PDP must not leave it to Fayose, the candidate or Ekiti PDP alone. They should set up a high-powered committee to prosecute the case to its logical conclusion.  They missed an opportunity when they allowed APC steal a fast one on them in Ekiti. Before that had been Edo and Ondo and after these had come others in the North in quick succession, encouraging APC leaders to gloat as they cite their daylight electoral robberies as evidence they are not only loved by the people but also guarantees they will win hands down in 2019. A question for PDP leaders as we close: Why are they unable to consolidate their gains? In Kano, Benue, Sokoto, Kwara, as some are coming in, others are taking their leave. Blame the winner-takes all mentality, lack of negotiation skills, and absence of internal democracy. Old habits, as they say… (This article, slightly amended here, was first published in my “Treasures” column in the New Telegraph newspaper of Wednesday, September 12, 2018, page 14).

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 … And are the electorate rousing from their slumber?

Last Tuesday on my way out of Ibadan, I ran into two groups of politicians slugging it out at the Ikire/Apomu junction – the Gboyega Oyetola’s APC and Senator Iyiola Omisore’s SDP. APC chieftains were the first to arrive the Apomu junction. Seeing the crowd and thinking they were their supporters, they popped heads and hands out of their vehicles’ and waved – but when they heard the expletives and curses the crowd rained on them, they quickly beat a retreat and zoomed off! “continuity” wetin? At Ikire junction, I saw the re-emergence of Aregbe’s “O-Yes” T-shirts but the garage urchins and road-side traders shouted “O-Ole (Thieves); O-Jaguda; O-Gbewiri, O-Ebi (Hunger); O-Gbese (Debts); O-Iya (Suffering).  What meaneth this, if I may quote biblical prophet Samuel: That our long-suffering people are getting wiser?

Fayose’s letter to EFCC: Stunt or reality?

For many politicians, the fear of EFCC is the beginning of wisdom; therefore, Fayose’s letter to EFCC will appear as madness to many. While others run away from EFCC, Fayose has written to the so-called anti-graft agency to expect him immediately his tenure expires on October 16th. Well, Fayose is not your mill-of-the-run politician; he has again and again demonstrated his readiness to tread where even angels fear to. But whether his letter to EFCC is a stunt, as his political opponents and detractors are saying, or is reality, October the 16th will surely tell. But having received Fayose’s letter, EFCC has no reason to shop for warrant of arrest or waste precious time on holding charges. It simply should get its facts ready and hit the ground running once Fayose presents himself on the said date. These, indeed, are interesting times!

Who will be PDP’s VP choice?

Some of the names being bandied as likely PDP vice-presidential candidate from the South-west, such as ex-Ondo State Gov. Olusegun Mimiko and ex-Osun State Gov. Olagunsoye Oyinlola appear to me ordinary, local, stale, drab, and tainted and may not fly. Why not up the stakes and go for someone like ex-Agriculture Minister-now African Development Bank president, Dr. Akinwunmi Adeshina, an achiever with pedigree, serious-minded professional with vast goodwill and international connections? But not only are our professional politicians incurable optimists, delusional and rabidly self-centred, they also carry in them the genes of “kaka k’eku ma je sese…” That’s why I know reprieve from the untold suffering in the land may not come early; neither will redemption come Nigeria’s way easy and cheap. Mark my word!

Haram menace; the half-hearted or selective fight against corruption (APC is now a haven for many former office-holders having cases before EFCC); Nigeria’s economy, which was the largest in 2015, has become something else; and herdsmen’s attack on farmers in different parts of the nation are some of the evidence that it is not yet “uhuru”  It is equally obvious that those you referred to as attack-dogs are turn-coats and demagogues positioning themselves for plum jobs in case Buhari is re-elected. They would, therefore, do anything to worm themselves into the mind of Buhari and Osinbajo. Osinbajo’s incessant pummelling of Christian leaders cannot be otherwise in that he is out to defend government interests and his own position as the number two man.  Osinbajo has seen the hand-writing on the wall that Christian leaders are not at home with the killing of Christians and the destruction of their properties by Fulani herdsmen while government appears handicapped. So, like the politician he now is, Osinbajo may be trying to call a dog a bad name possibly to instigate “regime change” in the Christian leadership. He knows vividly that corruption respects no religion. One is happy, however, that Christian leaders have given him the deserved reply and are not perturbed by his wild allegations.  —Adegbite Adewuyi.