CHOOSING A REDEEMING SECRETARY FOR PDP Ordinarily, one should have no business worrying about who becomes the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). After all, according to conventional wisdom, a political party is a private association. But this is not exactly correct. More realistically, one can define a political party as a private association with a public purpose. It is this “public purpose” character of a political party that justifies our interest in who governs in a political party. The PDP has a chance to begin to redeem its image this time by choosing a National Secretary any ruling party will be proud to have. This candidate is Professor Tunde Adeniran. Here is why we think so: Professor Adeniran is a foundation member of PDP, and founding members are never happy to see their dreams and what they have labored for wasted. He will do everything possible to redeem the image of the party as originally conceived. Adeniran combines skill in practical grassroots politics with intellectual wisdom in politics. One skill comes from the fact that he brought PDP to his native Ekiti State and has also participated in the governorship race. The other skill is the fact that he is a Professor of Political Science. Politics is not a dirty game as most Nigerians wrongly think. It is a noble activity with rules and principles, and the professor in him will equip him to teach PDP how to do away with the dirt in ‘PDP politics’ and return its nobility. Africa’s leading political party needs such salvation! Adeniran has accumulated immense administrative experience. You remember he was once the secretary of MAMSER, the Chairman of National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the Minister of Education. As a Minister of Education, he presided over a ministry with the largest number of parastatals in the nation. As if this is not enough, he went on to serve as Nigeria’s ambassador to Germany and more recently as the Chairman of the Governing Board of Universal Basic Education. These have equipped him with the level of administrative competence no previous PDP secretary has been. It is not surprising that it is the same Adeniran that organized the most credible presidential primary PDP has seen. Yes, in January 2011, Professor Adeniran headed a 43-member electoral panel that gave Nigeria its best presidential primary ever. In the process of these numerous assignments, the former ambassador has garnered immense national exposure. His job as chairman of UBEC involved him in dealing with all the 36 states of the federation. It is exactly this exposure and familiarity with all parts of the country that being the National Secretary of the ruling party will require of him. Adeniran is an incurable democrat and this comes from his humble character and his Political Science exposure. It is easy to ask people to be democratic when they have democracy in them. Adeniran has democracy in his blood and this makes him eminently qualified to supervise the internal democracy project in the PDP. Knowledge and ideas rule the world and this man is a quintessential man of knowledge and ideas. As a scholar-diplomat you cannot have a better generator and deployer of ideas and knowledge. As the chief administrative and accounting officer of the party, Prof will encourage extensive use of research as a tool for the organizational development of the PDP. Tunde Adeniran is public-spirited and he is very strongly steeped in the public service ethos. The problem of most of our politicians is that they are in politics to serve their personal interest. There are strong indications that Adeniran is motivated by the desire to serve the public interest and not the interest of self or his group or community, but the interest of all. For him the legitimate worry should be how to make PDP serve the public good in Nigeria. Political power is not for personal aggrandizement; it is for solving the problems of society and improving the human condition. Prof has the diplomat’s sense of decorum and propriety, not the impropriety and loquacity of the average Nigerian politician. He has integrity and manifest fairness in his human relations, not the greed and duplicity of the average Nigerian politician. His presence at the National Secretariat of the PDP will itself constitute good political education because he will bring transparency, sophistication, fairness and effectiveness into the running of the party. As a people, we are not noted for fitting round pegs into round holes. But for once let us try this time to match people into their area of core competence. Let the Transformation Agenda begin with the ruling party and with people who have ideas that can transform! The job of the convention delegates should not be to find job for somebody as National Secretary. Their assignment is to vote in somebody who will bring value to that office and make PDP and the nation proud. Now that they have another chance to make a qualitative difference to the PDP through their vote, they should not waste this vote and chance. Professor Tunde Adeniran as National Secretary of PDP will be one of the best things to happen to Africa’s biggest ruling party. Dr. Eze, a public policy analyst and communications consultant, wrote from Abuja
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 10:52:13 +0000
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