PDP: Reaping the fruits of ‘consensus democracy’ The break-up of the Peoples Democratic Party, resulting from a tussle between the practice of undemocratic consensus deals and proper internal democracy, has been long-coming, ALLWELL OKPI writes The splitting of the Peoples Democratic Party at the national level would be one of the most remarkable political occurrences in the build-up to the 2015 general elections. Considering the antecedence of the characters involved and the destructive implications of the split to the ruling PDP, August 31, the day the party held two parallel conventions, may become more politically remarkable than the day the All Progressives Congress, the opposition merger, got registered. Though, it was not totally inconceivable for the PDP, which had won all the four presidential elections since 1999 and still holds sway in almost two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation, to break up, it was an event that no one could accurately predict. The question remains why did it happen? The emergence of factions in the PDP at the state and local government level is no news. There is hardly any state chapter of the party that has never had one faction or the other, challenging the previously recognised leadership. The crux of the matter is usually who should emerge the leader of the party or its candidate in an election and how such persons should be chosen – either by what has come to be known as a consensus arrangement (or deal) or through voting. A recent example is the crisis that rocked the Ekiti State chapter of the party. The issue was that while the former governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, wanted a primary election to be conducted to choose the party’s candidate for the governorship election coming up in the state next year, the state chair, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, insisted that it must be done through a consensus deal. This opposition to the position of the state leadership of the party, backed by the national leaders, earned Fayose a suspension, while three members of the state executive, believed to be loyal to him, got the same punishment. While announcing the suspension, the state PDP chairman, Ogundipe, alluded to the fact that the consensus arrangement was a directive from the Presidency. He said there was no going back on the consensus deal because “when Mr. President says something, it is a law.” This Ogundipe said to defend the setting up of an 11-man committee to select PDP’s candidate for the governorship elections coming up in 2014. The controversial Nigeria Governors’ Forum election stands as another example. Though it was not a strictly PDP affair, considering that at least 13 governors belonging to opposition parties were involved, the same factor — consensus versus election tussle — reared its head, leading to a split of the NGF, with both factions headed by PDP members. Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, whose claim to the chairmanship of the forum was based on a pre-existing PDP consensus arrangement heads the faction that was recognised by the President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP leadership, while the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who won the election for the chairmanship of the forum heads the other. Looking at the composition of the ‘new PDP,’ which was formed by Amaechi, six other governors who have been sympathetic to him and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, it’s not difficult to draw a line from the outcome of the NGF election to the break-up of PDP, Africa’s largest political party. However, the practice of a few leaders of a political party calling the shots and choosing candidates in the name of consensus is not done only in PDP. The defunct Action Congress of Nigeria was seen as a party in which one man, the National Leader, Bola Tinubu, called the shots. Although, there were some protests, ACN’s ‘consensus’ deals did not result in serious consequences. But for PDP, the story has been different. Attempts by the national leadership of the party to impose candidates have usually resulted in crisis. These crises seem to have become more rampant since Mr. Bamanga Tukur became the National Chairman of the party and those who have opposed the will of the national leadership has been either suspended or expelled from the party. This was the grouse of the PDP breakaway faction, according to the speech by its chairman, Mr. Kawu Baraje. After the ‘New PDP’ was announced, Baraje said they broke away because they were “worried by the increasing repression, restrictions of freedom of association, arbitrary suspension of members and other such violations of democratic principles by a faction of our party led by Bamanga Tukur.” He added that their attempts to stem the trend had been rebuffed by Tukur and Jonathan, whose actions were “geared towards shutting out any real or imagined opposition ahead of the party’s presidential primaries for the 2015 elections.” In summary, the dissenting PDP group said it aimed at restoring democratic culture to the party and giving all its members a level-playing field in the contest for the party’s ticket at any level. However, analysts believe that the struggle for the leadership of the PDP has a lot to do with 2015 presidential election on which different geopolitical zones have laid claims. Leaders of the North, the South-East and the South-South have at different times spoken of the 2015 as their turn to produce the President, irrespective of the outcome of the elections. According to a political analyst, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, the culture of a few people, who have access to power, imposing their choice on the majority, has been a major threat to Nigeria’s democracy. Igbuzor, who is the Executive Director at African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, noted that this culture of taking decisions by the consensus of the minority had led to the splitting of the PDP and remained a threat to other parties. He said, “This is not a new culture. It is a problem that has been with traditional politicians in Nigeria since 1999. It is the challenge of politicians who want to practise democracy without elections. Historically, major political parties, PDP for instance. Each time they want to choose the party’s chairman or they want to have their national convention, and there are people contesting, some people will be forced to step down. It’s really unfortunate. What is happening now is a result of the lack of democratic culture and internal democracy.” He noted that attempt by five lawmakers in Rivers State to impeach the Speaker of the state House of Assembly against the wish of 27 other lawmakers, was absurd and a bad signal for the country’s democracy. Igbuzor added that the splitting of PDP didn’t come as a surprise because there had been internal struggle between those who insisted on voting and those who enjoyed buying their way through consensus deals, which excluded healthy democratic competition within the party. He, however, said it was democratic for all stakeholders to reach a consensus, but that they must do so willingly, not under any form of coercion. Similarly, the Head, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Prof. Solomon Akinboye, said the anti-democratic use of ‘consensus’ deals to impose candidates was one of the remote reasons why PDP got torn into two. He said, “The tussle between imposition through coerced consensus deals and the proper election was the remote cause for the splitting of PDP. This had played out in the NGF election. The election was conducted among the 35 of the governors. The votes were counted and Amaechi won the election. For the government not to have accepted that verdict shows that it is not committed to elections that are credible, free and fair.” Akinboye said the PDP break-up was just a symptom of the effects of the anti-democratic practices that cut across all political parties. He said, “There is no way you can consolidate democracy if you do not put in place internal democratic structure in parties. It is not only in the PDP, it cuts across all political parties. If you fail to practise internal democracy, how can you put in place proper democracy? We have not attained democracy; we are still democratising; we are still in the process of attaining democracy. I don’t see the future of democracy in this country, if internal democracy does become inculcated in the system that we operate.” Akinboye added that the Independent National Electoral Commission and party leaders have the responsibility to ensure that the culture of democracy becomes entrenched in the country. #OMOALAGA
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 07:09:51 +0000
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