BRIEF HISTORY OF PDP The state of the nation prior to 1998 could well be described as near comatose. The human rights record of the military administration was appalling. The nation’s economy was on a steady slide to a disastrous perdition. There was near hopelessness and uncertainty. In the political terrain, the nation was served with strange concoctions that would have ultimately led to national suicide. In the international arena, Nigeria which once stood tall as the giant of Africa was reduced to an inconsequential midget with the suffocating tag of a pariah nation tightening round her neck. Hitherto brave men and women became cowards overnight, groveling at the throne of the one who had wished to become the absolute emperor of Nigeria. For each passing day, the light of hope dimmed in Nigeria. The height of despair was achieved when the five registered political parties aptly described by the late Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige as the “five fingers of a leprous hand” strangely adopted a serving soldier and the incumbent Head of State, General Sani Abacha, as their presidential candidate. The conventions of the ‘parties’, which were supervised by the goons of the regime, were sad symptoms of a decadent nation on the brink of disintegration. The regime capped up this comical idea with an unprecedented show of self- amusement in a forum of waste tagged “One Million Men March” where politicians, respected ones at that, professed to the whole world on national television that no other human being in a country of over 100 million people was qualified to rule the country. What a calamity. What a damming verdict on a population known for its industry, resilience and ingenuity! This was the state of affairs in 1998. The nation was passing through a phase described by some analysts as “the dark ages”. At a point, it seemed no one could stand in the way of this rampaging dictator who was bent on entrenching himself in the country. While this sordid state of affairs was holding sway, a group of politicians under the auspices of the All Politicians Summit convened a meeting in 1997 to discuss the way out of what was fast becoming a festering dictatorship. That meeting, led by Dr. Alex Ekwueme was brutally dispersed by the security apparati of the Sani Abacha’s regime. Dr. Ekwueme undeterred by the brutish antics of the regime continued rallying key political figures of different ideological persuasions under a new platform called Institute of civil society. In the midst of all this confusion, a group of political leaders, eighteen of them in the first instance and later thirty-four decided to “dare the lion in his den”. This group known as the G-34 later formed the nucleus and rallying point of the associations that formed what is today, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. What were the ideas behind this coalition to save democracy? Alhaji Muhammed Abubakar Rimi, Second Republic Governor of Kano State and convener of the Peoples Democratic Party, traces the idea of the formation of the Party to the quest to unite civil society against military rule. According to him, “the politics of Nigeria before now was built on ethnicity, regionalism, sectionalism and things like that. It gave us a lot of problems over the years. So we decided that we are going to form a party that is so big and so popular that everybody will join”. The prevailing gloom at the time coupled with the treachery of a section of the political class required a form of awakening and the political re-engineering which the G-34 willingly provided. In February 1998, a Group of eighteen politicians wrote to General Abacha stating their opposition to his planned transmutation from a military ruler to a civilian president. The group advised Gen. Abacha to resign and seek nomination on the platform of any of the political parties of his choice if he wanted to continue as president. The attempt to muscle the five existing parties to adopt him was unacceptable to the G-18. In March of the same year, the group expanded to thirty-four members who again wrote to the Head of State, reiterating the earlier position of the G-18. The G-34 was now led by Dr. Alex Ekwueme, former Vice President and convener of the Institute of Civil Society. In the heat of the struggle against dictatorship and at a time the ignoble desire of self perpetuation was gathering a disturbing momentum, General Abacha mysteriously died on June 8, 1998. His successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, on assumption of office initiated wide consultations with several political groups. The consultations by the regime brought to the fore the unmistakable resolve of Nigerians for an immediate return to civil democratic rule. General Abacha’s death provided the soothing relief to the battered psyche of the people of Nigeria. Bowing to the wishes of Nigerians, General Abubakar unveiled an eleven-month transition programme, which will terminate on May 29, 1999. The “five fingers of the leprous hand”, which operated as “political parties”, namely, the UNCP, CNC, NCPN, DPN and GDM were dissolved. Nigerians were now free to form genuine political parties to compete for political space without the suffocating tailoring by agents of the state. The G-34, which was now established as an embodiment of the hope and democratic aspirations of Nigerians having demonstrated courage when it was convenient to show docile acquiescence became the rallying point of a blossoming trans-ideological movement willing to offer leadership to Nigerians. According to Chief Solomon Lar, the first elected chairman of PDP, the G-34 captured the excitement of Nigerians “because of the quality and integrity of its members”. To him, Nigerians were no longer willing to gamble away their future to fortune seekers who dominated the failed politics of the Abacha era. As a consequence of sustaining the momentum of democratic struggle, the G-34 attracted several political associations that shared the vision of a truly formidable national political platform. On August 19, 1998, several political associations including the All Nigerian Congress (ANC), Peoples Consultative Forum (PCF), Social Political Party (SPP) Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), Peoples National Forum (PNF) and twenty-five other associations resolved to form a political party known as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The overriding goal of the new party was to bring together all patriotic and like-minded Nigerians into a single formidable political party capable of organizing and making productive the energy of the people. The new party also set out to work together for the speedy restoration of democracy, the achievements of national reconciliation, economic and social reconstruction, and respect for human rights and the rule of law. The Peoples Democratic Party was launched at a colourful ceremony at the International Conference Centre Abuja on August 31, 1998. The Party had Dr. Alex Ekwueme as Chairman of the Steering Committee while Professor Jerry Gana was the Secretary. The PDP applied for registration along with the several other political associations under the guidelines released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC.) Under the guidelines, registration of parties was to be done in phases. First on the basis of National Spread and establishment of proper offices in at least twenty-four of the thirty-six states and the FCT. The ultimate test for registration was the performance of the Associations in the Local Government Polls scheduled for December 5, 1998. Under this provision in the INEC guidelines, only a party that scored at least ten percent in at least twenty-four states in the local council election shall qualify for final registration. This was later reduced to five percent to accommodate the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which was a splinter group from the PDP. In all these criteria, the PDP emerged tops. The INEC verification team observed that the PDP was firmly established in virtually all the wards of the federation. In the Local Government Polls, the PDP won 471 out of the 774 LGAs and were tops in 28 of the 36 states and the FCT. Thus, the ground work for the establishment of the PDP as the most popular and largest political party in the history of Nigeria was achieved. The party not only had presence in every locality, it also was ahead of its competitors in the thrust of campaigns. In the governorship elections which held in January 1999, the PDP won in 21 states, the All Peoples Party (APP) won in 9 states while the Alliance for Democracy (AD) won in 6 states. In the countdown to democratic rule, the Peoples Democratic Party between the 13th and 14th of February, 1999, in Jos Plateau, State held its Presidential Nomination Convention. The exercise, which produced General Olusegun Obasanjo as PDP flag bearer, was hailed as one of the most transparent and monumental conventions in Nigeria’s political history. So transparent was the event that the co- contestants led by the runner-up and leader of the G-34 Dr. Alex Ekwueme, led the campaign of General Olusegun Obasanjo. Chief Sunday Awoniyi who was the Chairman of the Convention described Dr. Ekwueme as the “hero of democracy” because of his sportsmanly disposition.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 16:54:26 +0000
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