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Why The Ship Sank

But why would a party, formed by a group of past Heads of State, political leaders and giants and under the chairmanship of a former governor already nicknamed the Game Changer just crumble with the body parts increasingly getting difficult to piece together?

When Mu’azu became the National Chairman of the PDP in January 2014, the party was already a step away from total destruction. Many of its top members, including five prominent governors-Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, who was later impeached in controversial circumstances. They were also joined by the likes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Senator Bukola Saraki, a former governor and strongman of Kwara politics and others including past National Working Committee members of the PDP.

•Jonathan: Lost the election

Though, some of these aggrieved PDP chiefs had personal grudges with President Jonathan and the leadership of the party, they also had a collective anger against the party under then chairmanship of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. Governor Amaechi, for example, had a running battle with the first family over control of Rivers State. He had, in an interview with TheNEWS alleged that Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of the President and indigene of Okrika in Rivers State, wanted absolute loyalty from him just as she wanted to be the leader of the PDP in the state against the party’s constitution since she was not a direct beneficiary of the election that brought President Jonathan to power.

In fact, on 27 November, 2013, upon his return home from Abuja, where the governors and others announced their defection from the PDP a day before, Amaechi said his anger was not against the person of Jonathan but was because of the Federal Government’s neglect of the state as a result of the political bickering that had played out between him and the presidency. He recalled how the presidency did all it could to muzzle his government and stifle growth and progress in the state. While stating that the governors left because their demands were not met by the party, Amaechi added: “the governors met on Monday and decided that we must meet with the APC leadership and when we met with the APC leadership, it was important we took a position and the position we took is for the good of our democracy and will ensure that Nigeria moves forward. We can’t continue the way we are, where we are. The picture painted by the PDP was as if we were begging to come back to PDP and issues were not being looked into, issues were not being resolved and it’s important that we resolve it one way or the other.”

•Patience Jonathan: Wanted to lead Rivers PDP

Apart from alleged marginalisation and total neglect of Rivers people, who he said voted massively for the President in 2011, the governor was particularly peeved by the way the President seized oil wells belonging to the state and ceded same to Akwa Ibom State even when Rivers State won the case in court. “Only dry wells that were no longer producing oil were returned. In the specific case of the Soku oil wells, despite a decision reached that the monies should remain in an escrow account till all matters concerning it are resolved, the Federal Government continues to pay neighbouring Bayelsa State the revenues meant for Rivers State,” he lamented.

Like Amaechi, Nyako, when he arrived Yola, the Adamawa State capital, said he decided to leave the PDP since the party had taken the toga of a disappointment. To him, no reasonable or decent politician could bear the acts of impunity, injustice and lawlessness that then characterised the party. Posterity will judge people who are using their position to torment others and we should be thinking of how to improve our nations in terms of providing quality education for our children and infrastructure rather than these political wars that is taking us nowhere,” he told the state. Tukur was accused of high-handedness creating around him the position of a thin god. It got to a stage that the governors demanded, among others, for his sack, a demand the party thought was a joke until the reality dawned. Even then, the party hierarchy continued with the impression that the defectors were those who would have given President Jonathan some headache in his bid to seek re-election through the party’s platform.

When the fog began to clear, there came the urgent need to salvage the party. The rate of defection at the National Assembly following the action of the aggrieved governors was unprecedented. Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe, a lawyer, economist, Chairman of the National Bureau of Statistics and one of the founders of the PDP, while lamenting the misfortune that had befallen the party, which he joined in forming, noted through an article at that period that “unfortunately, through self-conceit, unbridled quest for power, and outright negligence, PDP was pushed to the precipice with many of the founding fathers disillusioned, disenchanted, dispirited and dismayed. Holes were not only created in the large umbrella but the vagaries of the weather were unleashed on those who took shelter under it. Thus, the ‘center could no longer hold and anarchy was let loose’. Never in the history of the 14-year reign of the PDP had its grip on power threatened than now, especially since the exit of five governors and their supporters in the National Assembly from the party.

He said the party which hitherto enjoyed overwhelmingly majority had suddenly resorted to litigation to retain its leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly and that the APC was threatening to make the nation ungovernable because of the costly mistake made by PDP and her members. Refusing to blame Tukur for the party’s travails, he said what happened in the party had been festering for long adding that injustices, indiscipline, lack of internal democracy, high-handedness and excessive control of the party machinery by the executive tended to snuff life out of the party even though the party had become a cat with nine lives.

Several meetings were held and decisions reached. One of such decision was to restructure the party’s executive committee. Tukur was sent packing, but the deed had been done. The party needed someone who could return it to the days of pride. Names began to crop up.

Muazu’s Trajectory

Apart from Mu’azu, there was Idris Umar, a Minister of Transport, Idris Waziri, a former Minister of Commerce, Musa Babayo, a former Acting National Secretary of the party, Ahmed Rufai Alkali, a former National Publicity Secretary of the party, and Ibrahim Bunu, a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. Some of them had also contested for the position in 2012, but lost to Tukur who had presidential backing. Just like in the case of the emergence of Tukur which was facilitated by Jonathan, the President was also said to have his eyes on Umar as a replacement for Tukur. But governors from the Northeastern part of the country where Mu’azu is from, insisted on him. They were allegedly supported by Senate President David Mark Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State. Reasons prevailed and at its National Executive Committee meeting that January 2014, the party ratified Mu’azu as the consensus candidate for the position.

As expected, it was not a good start for the new National Chairman. Two months before his appointment as National Chairman, Mu’azu had been appointed by the President as chairman of the Nigerian Pension Commission, PENCOM.

Before becoming governor in 1999, particularly between 1987 and 1997, Mu’azu, who had held various positions and worked as a private businessman, had served in as director of the Nigeria Ports Authority and a member of the Bauchi State Rural Development Council. He was declared winner of the 1999 governorship election in Bauchi after winning 56 per cent of the total votes. In 2003, the election was not too easy for him. As a strategist, he was alleged to have reached an agreement with then All Peoples Party, APP, to regain his seat. He won the election, but lost when he ran for a Senate seat in the 2007.

As chairman of this presumably great party, Mu’azu knew the challenges he was sticking his head into. He had just a year and three months to fix all the mess that had been created in the party.

Ambassador Mbadiwe agreed that almost everybody in the ruling PDP loved the choice of Mu’azu as the party’s new National Chairman given the man’s pedigree as a reformist, bridge-builder, nationalist and above all, his being a level headed leader who is not given to unnecessary hubris. He however noted that very soon, the euphoria, enthusiasm and outpouring of support for Mu’azu would wane and the enormity of the task before him would crystallise. He further noted that many those who hailed his emergence did same for his predecessor only to turn around to fight him when he did not yield to their immediate desires.

Mbadiwe listed some of Mu’azu’s immediate responsibilities to include reconciling all aggrieved members of the party, avoiding those who would want to lead him by the nose, avoid in-fighting especially with the governors who had become very powerful, reach out to all the founding fathers of the party to understand the concept, the vision and mission of the party and stay close to them since the character of a political party is defined by the ideals and people who drive it. He also urged the new chairman to maintain discipline and ensure supremacy of the party and ensure restoration of internal democracy with the people at liberty to exercise their control to choose their representatives in a fair and just manner. “The imposition of candidates during elections is a sore thumb that has refused to go away. It takes away the confidence of the people and erodes their loyalty to the party. Luckily Mu’azu has a reputation as a courageous and just man who would not allow himself to be railroaded into alienating the teeming masses who constitute the bulk of the membership. Now that we are preparing for next year’s election, the task of the new chairman in this respect has become urgent,” Mbadiwe said.

Mu’azu did all as advised by Mbadiwe except for the imposition of candidates where he got overwhelmed by the forces that had held on to the party’s jugular. Beyond his efforts too, he had a major challenge marketing the presidential candidate of the party, who, to many, had failed the nation and disappointed many of his loyalists. The election was not going to be the same as Professor Attahiru Jega of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was on the drawing table with other researchers for the best way to bring rigging to its lowest in 2015. Yet he trudged on vowing to do his best.

Mu’azu passed his first test. The Ekiti State governorship election in June, 2014 was won by Ayodele Fayose, the candidate of the PDP. The Game Changer was encouraged. He vowed to do more for his party in the general elections. Meanwhile, even the success in Ekiti, some within the party still saw Mu’azu as a mole. In 2011, despite being a strong member of the PDP, the allegation was that he could not deliver his state to the party. Then Congress for Progressive Change, CPC won the presidential election in the state.

•Ayo Fayose

Dr. Hassan Tukur, a US-trained administrator, diplomat and PDP chieftain never believed in Mu’azu. “The groundswell of the Muazu subterfuge is such that if he is allowed by the PDP to play his script to the fullest, the party will wake up too late in the day to discover their own chairman is their bitterest enemy. It is still not clear whether Adamu Muazu is acting alone or working in concert with some yet-to-be identified power mongers whose interest is to wrest power from President Jonathan at all cost, irrespective of consequences to Party and the nation,” he wrote disclosing that Mu’azu wanted Jonathan out of the way to pave way for his own presidential ambition in 2019 and adding that the evidence had always been there of this aspiration.

Tukur argued further: “Very early in the day, Muazu set up what he surreptitiously christened National Chairman Support Group in the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT. Many perceived this as a necessary structure to enable the Chairman to reach out, consolidate and restore hope to a party that had suffered many vicissitudes and hemorrhage. Even Dr. Alex Ekwueme, first National Chairman and first Chairman Board of Trustees of the PDP, had to be called back from retirement to reconcile aggrieved members of the Party.”

In Defence Of Muazu

The allegations against Mu’azu went on. But Akin Oyegoke, his Special Assistant on ICT, who once defended his boss, argued that the party, under Mu’azu had begun to witness improvement as it had witnessed the return of party members who left on account of some grievances and this had created an environment for other distinguished Nigerians who wished to join the PDP to do so. “Nigerians will not also forget in a hurry that Mu’azu has been an agent of change in the PDP. In Kano State, for example, when Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso decamped to the opposition APC, the new chairman was able to change the political equation of the state overnight when he convinced the former governor of the state, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, now Minister of Education to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with millions of his supporters,” he said, recalling a similar case in Sokoto State involving former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa together with his teeming supporters and other members of the APC in the state. “No right thinking individuals or any other Nigerians that have the party at heart would regard these developments in Kano and Sokoto states in negative light except those with ulterior motives aimed at weakening and destabilising the party and the country in general…the sponsors, in a seeming desperation to vilify the person of the chairman, launched a final attack claiming that he is interested in the presidency or the vice presidency position. Like all other allegations, there are no facts at all to substantiate this claim but it is an attack the authors hope will further discredit Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu.”

Muazu’s Other Errors

Mu’azu is alleged to have also made some errors like in the way he handled the crisis in the party in Ondo State after Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the state governor, defected from the Labour Party to the PDP. Some PDP members in Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Edo and many other states in the country remained aggrieved for various reasons till the elections began. Ekweme, in an interview, lamented that he had been so relegated that President Jonathan no longer saw him as important.

Mu’azu’s burden was beyond what his shoulders could lift. While he continued to play his part campaigning through his party for the president, Jonathan’s supporters and loyalists created more problems for the party through utterances and actions. The President, according to sources, did not also help matters as he related with those considered more as problem creators.

Femi Fani-Kayode, the spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, was one of them. Governor Fayose, in an attempt to prove his loyalty to the president, continued to churn out advertisements and materials that Nigerians considered as injurious to the president instead of winning him more support. Then Doyin Okupe, the presidential aide on Public Affairs and Dame Patience Jonathan, who went ahead to declare Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC, as brain dead. Unfortunately, each time such controversial issues and allegations emanated from the president’s camp, he lost a handful of supporters.

•Fani-Kayode

At a point, Mu’azu could no longer bottle his frustration. But his reported vent almost broke what was left of a partial unity in the party ahead of the elections. Mutual suspicion became the order, Jonathan’s friends and supporters, including Chief Edwin Clerk, fired shots at the PDP chairman. And speculation became rife that Mu’azu was dumping the PDP as he could no longer bear the attack. Though he publicly denied this and maintained that he was still the chairman of the party, sources within the party said the anger remained for some time. There was no more time to repair the latest damage. The election held; the result was damning: President Jonathan had become the first incumbent president to be unseated through election in Nigeria.

Replaying reasons he thinks the PDP lost the election, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur said while he was the chairman, he battled to ensure that internal democracy reigned but that this could not be achieved before he was forced out. Though, like some others, he assured that the party would bounce back, he said the result of the election was the repercussion inherent in disrespecting internal democracy. “We have been preaching election not selection, internal democracy not imposition. Anywhere it was done, it will leave a bitter pill in the mouth,” Tukur said.

Also, Victor Ndoma-Egba, Senate Leader, said his party performed woefully because of its highhandedness and impunity. “We are no longer analyzing issues. We have become mentally lazy. When mental laziness comes in it breeds impunity and impunity breeds arrogance. So that is where we are and we are paying a very high price for the impunity that has become a culture in our party. One big lesson that we have learnt from this election is that impunity is not sustainable. It can only hold for a while but in the long run it is not sustainable. It is going to be costly and we are seeing the price we are paying,” he said.

While some of the party members, like emergency workers in a sinking ship, have remained to pick the pieces and see what they could re-make of it, many of its members are not thinking of patiently rebuilding the collapsed structure. They are carrying their baggages to the APC, the new party in power giving the APC cause to mock the PDP as often as possible. Lai Mohammed, the National Publicity of the APC, recently offered a six-week crash course, free, to Olisa Metuh, his colleague in the PDP.

It is not known if the party would ever get up from this fall. But analysts say, it may remain like the Titanic, never to bounce back, while its members would fuse into another party that would become the major opposition again. The APC has helped the party by shutting its doors against defectors henceforth.