A response to my brother, Reuben Abati

I consider Reuben Abati’s “PDP Convention: The aftermath” too harsh, too pull-him down” and clearly too disparaging of a party he should have dispassionately critiqued and encouraged to perform better in future assignments such as its recently-concluded elective convention held in Abuja. Was Reuben also a member of the “wailing Wailers” (apologies, Femi Adesina!) who failed to get the South-West the PDP chairmanship or has he other axes to grind? It cannot be that Reuben has ported from the party on whose pedestal he got appointed Special Adviser to the President. Perhaps, his grouse was about governors Nyesom Wike and Ayo Fayose of Rivers and Ekiti states respectively, judging by the way he tugged at the two-some in his article under review.

But he should have at least tempered his language, seeing how the same Goodluck Jonathan he worked with (or is it “for”?) is battling to help reposition the party. If we had not all witnessed the build-up to the convention and the convention proper, we would have been led by Reuben to applaud when he chose to throw the baby away with the bath water. The PDP convention, I dare to say, was not as odious and offensive as Reuben laboured to portray it. Overall, it was a good performance, despite a few hiccups, especially when we consider that this is the same party that had been written off as dead by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and which had just emerged from the throes of a debilitating struggle for its very soul. Coming immediately after surviving Ali Modu Sheriff to organise and pull off an elective convention, a feat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been unable to achieve, in flagrant violation of its own Constitution, the PDP must ignore Reuben’s malevolence and treat itself as Chinua Achebe’s proverbial lizard which fell – or deliberately jumped – from a tall “iroko” tree and nodded three times, saying, “if no one congratulates me for this feat, I congratulate myself.” But, as they say, there is room for improvement and there are also frayed nerves to calm. Mercifully, elders of the party and the newly-elected PDP leaders have swung into action in this regard. Like the APC which, after putting the wrong foot first but later put on its thinking cap and spoke of the desideratum of virile opposition in a vibrant democracy in its congratulatory message to the PDP, we all owe it a duty to encourage, rather than disparage and whittle down, the opposition. This has always been my position, even when roles were reversed and PDP was in power while APC was in opposition.

I can put my fingers on four clear issues that enraged Reuben. One: The party did not put its house in order enough, which is evidence it has not learnt useful lessons from its recent history. Two: Money was rampantly used to induce delegates. Three: The party is now in the pockets of Governors Wike and Fayose. Four: Wike insulted the Yoruba. Politics is usually a rambunctious, even rancorous, business. There is no way there will not be disagreements when politicians play politics. Tempers will flare. During the PDP convention, however, blows were not traded and lives were not lost. That is an improvement. In the cacophony of voices and delicate webs of variegated interests, politics and politicians have an inexplicable way of fashioning out and arriving at consensus, usually at the eleventh hour. That was what happened at the PDP convention with the consensus that the South-West eventually arrived at and the “Unity List” that their vastly superior opponents also pulled through. We cannot be fair, neither can we do justice, if we applaud one but deride the other. We cannot needlessly constrict and constrain politics and politicians but must allow a seamless flow of passions and visions within the ambits of due process and the rule of law. It is in the nature of politics for politicians to agree and disagree; they disagree also to later agree.

Often, permutations and positions change in the twinkling of an eye and what was, is not what is; and what is, is not what is to come. An orderly house must necessarily be turned upside down when politicians’ trade tackles but the beauty of it is that once the process is completed, peace returns and life continues. Winners and losers find a meeting point and the aggrieved is pacified. Politics is not Church and politicians are not monks. Rather than hunt imaginary enemies and help widen the gulf between losers and winners, we should encourage that they quickly find a meeting point and heal wounds for, like the angel told Elijah, the journey ahead for PDP is still very far.

Monetisation of politics has always been a vexed issue in Nigerian politics. Were Reuben to play politics today and seek elective post, he will need money – and he will spend money, whether he likes it or not. If he were to be truthful to himself, even as Special Adviser he must have spent money in his constituency or they must have laid ambush to demand and squeeze money out of him. In all climes and societies, politics gulps money and politicians part with money: Often, the deeper your pocket; the greater your chances of success in elections. It is not for fun that even in the United States, the so-called bastion of democracy, fund-raising attracts a central place and the candidate that is unable to raise the quantum of funds needed for election often drops by the wayside, his qualifications and credentials notwithstanding. My grouse with the role of money in our own politics is that money so deployed is usually public funds. But it is wrong, in fact a lie from the pit of Hell, to say that only some politicians use money to entice or “buy” voters while others do not. I dare to say that in elections here in Nigeria, all the leading candidates spend money to woo voters or buy votes. The difference, usually, is that the quantum of money available to candidates varies. Some have deep pockets while others do not and as the Yoruba would say “owo eku l’eku fi n b’oju”. Whenever the rat decides to wipe its face, it has to do with the size of its palm. Again, “b’owo ti mo l’oogun se mo” The size of your pocket determines the ‘medicine’ you get. When we go to the market, is that not what also plays out?

I suspect Reuben knew all of this. There is no way all 11 PDP governors will support a candidate in a party election and the candidate will not win. Whether or not money was used to procure votes, the governors would still have carried the day because they control party structures. And if money is the deciding factor, it will be suicidal for an ordinary citizen to compete with them. How can you expect to outspend them? If roles were reversed, the whining losers would do the same thing because that is the nature of our politics for now. Party members these days are no longer financial members but party dependants; yet, the party must be funded and funds will not drop from the sky. Additionally, the logistics of transportation, accommodation, and feeding have to be taken care of by all the contestants. I refuse to accept another lie from the pit of Hell that it was only the PDP governors and their candidates that induced voters with money at the PDP convention. Knowing Nigerian politics for what it is and our politicians for who they are, all the serious candidates must have tried within their means to induce voters. The story is told of a chairmanship candidate at the PDP convention whose handlers were thoroughly messed up by delegates from his home state. One of these delegates posed as the Speaker of the House of Assembly and, pronto, N1.6million was handed over to him to share to the Honourables so they could vote for the candidate. Where this candidate spent a measly N1.6million, his opponents might have spent many times more but both of them are guilty of the same offence of playing money politics. Usually, on this issue, it is a case of “ariteni moo wi, f’apadi gereje bo ti e m’ole”; meaning, he who points accusing fingers at others but cleverly covers up his own sins. The bane of our politics is the grinding poverty of our people. Gone are the Awolowo days when ordinary party members contributed money to run parties; even at that, I make bold to say that public funds were still cleverly leveraged upon, but not as flagrantly as is done nowadays. Everywhere, people are the same: Where their basic needs are not met, they are pliant and liable to inducements. We must, like China, Brazil, and the Asian Tigers, deliberately take millions of our people out of poverty before we can reasonably expect the influence of money politics to wane.

We speak of PDP today because of the principled and dogged stand of three men: Fayose in the lead, Femi Fani-Kayode and Wike in tow. Olisa Metuh did his best until the EFCC caged him. If PDP is in the pockets of Wike and Fayose, as is being alleged, it is because other leaders abdicated their duty post when it mattered most. If the two had not stood up to be counted when the chips were down, the party would have gone under. Party leaders who went underground when the EFCC bared its fangs cannot, and should not, be allowed to reap where they had not laboured; that was my own problem with many of the contestants from the South-West. If Femi Fani-Kayode had shown interest, it would have been difficult to deny him and the South-West the post. Reuben himself took a flight to Afghanistan after his own EFCC ordeal; he should now return. For by their writings, we shall know them! As for the unfortunate statement credited to Wike, that is a non-issue since the man has, tail between his legs, denied insulting the Yoruba. Our people have a saying, to wit, if you insult a king in his absence but deny saying so in his presence, case closed!