Shekarau, Bafarawa: PDP As Lesser Evil ADO UMAR MUHAMMAD — March 9, 2014 This is the third time I am writing on the problem ex-governors Ibrahim Shekarau and Attahiru Bafarawa had with the All Progressives Congress (APC), which led to their defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This time, it was prompted by the comments of two gentlemen; one, my senior colleague and icon of journalism, Malam Mohammed Haruna, and the other, a two-term commissioner in Shekarau’s government, Alhaji Ibrahim Garba (aka IG). Maybe it is imperative at this juncture for me to explain my concern in the matter. Firstly, I was obsessed with the issue of the merger of opposition parties for the emergence of a powerful party that could effectively challenge the PDP that I wrote about 10 times on the issue since 2011 (you can imagine my disappointment when the APC, out of desperation, began to take the shape of the PDP). Secondly, as a former special adviser to Shekarau, from 2007 to 2011, I am sympathetic and capable of rationalising and viewing the issue from their perspective. Actually, those who condemned the two ex-governors’ action outright acted on impulse and were therefore unfair to them. It is not a sign maturity for a person to base his actions purely on sentiment, especially when the sentiment has its basis in politics or some other form of cultural considerations. It is always recommended that one analyses issues dispassionately before passing judgement on them. Haruna, in a piece titled; “For APC, the clock is ticking” (Daily Trust, 19/02/2014), said he could not understand why after accusing APC of being no better than PDP, Shekarau and Bafarawa decided to join the latter. This, he said, was strange as PDP “is obviously too set in its undemocratic ways to transform itself and offer the genuine article.” He conceded however that the ex-governors “were justified to have felt exasperated with the way the top party hierarchy at the centre simply asked them to subordinate themselves to the governors of their states.” It is not surprising that many people, including APC leaders and ace political analysts like Haruna, cannot fully understand why the ex-governors had to leave APC and join PDP. In the first place, which are the other eligible parties? APGA? DPP? With the three major opposition parties already dissolved for APC to evolve, these two are the only ‘formidable’ opposition parties still standing, even though both of them on one leg. This is because factions of the two had joined the merger craze, and Gen. Jerry Useni, one of the leaders of DPP, was so disillusioned that he recently announced that they were talking with PDP with a view to merging with it. APGA is certainly out of the question because of its character and inherent crises. And it was too late in the day to start thinking of registering a new party. Besides, the remaining 50 or so odd parties are just not it as they are as worthless as their empty “briefcases”, which they are now identified with. This, in effect, means that the two ex- governors were at the crossroads. In other words, they were left with two difficult choices to make much like the choice between two evils; if “evil” is how some people now prefer to view the PDP. To remain in APC meant ultimate annihilation and termination of their political careers, and to crossover to PDP meant complete ideological summersault. Without recounting the intensity of the suspicion and distrust between the former governors and their successors, which is common knowledge, and in view of the cut-throat manner in which politics is played in Nigeria, no one will disagree that given the chance, the incumbent governors would not hesitate to eliminate their arch-rivals from the political arena, albeit systematically. In the light of this scenario therefore, I am not saying that the APC is an evil, but as far as Shekarau and Bafarawa are concerned, they chose the PDP because it is the lesser of two evils. Their only worry now is the perceptions many people have that they have sold out, having swum against the great tide that is the APC tsunami. But at least, they have been able to save their political careers and sustained the opportunity to continue serving their people, no matter the ugliness of the platform. So my dear Ndajika, the issue is beyond Shekarau and Bafarawa running away from subordinating themselves to their governors, but saving themselves from political annihilation. It is an issue of survival. It is not that they were impatient with the APC plan, as some APC leaders also complained, but that the said plan aimed at obliterating them from the scheme of things and making them politically irrelevant. It would have been suicidal for them to have waited until that happened. — Muhammad wrote in from Hotoro, Kano
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 05:17:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015