“Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles.” – Dalai Lama
The case of the crises in the Peoples
Democratic Party is a case of their long series of illegality coming
back to haunt them. I said it sometime ago that when you see a
person(s), group or platform that lays claim to democracy and yet makes a
mockery of it like the PDP does, it’s only a matter of time, its
consequence will come back to haunt them. And that is the exact decipher
of the political mess PDP is enmeshed in.
First we were hit with the Nigeria
Governors Forum crisis where the PDP-led FG recognised Governor Jang of
Plateau state who had 16 votes over Governor Amaechi of Rivers state who
had 19 votes. It will be recalled that this kick-started the
conflagration that has now engulfed the PDP. It led to an arrant
disrespect of a serving governor by the first lady (an unconstitutional
entity), and the Minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike.
The response of PDP as all these went on was anything but democratic;
it was a continuation of their regular acts of forcing their way
through. Wike left his duty post and ‘re-located’ to Rivers State where
he promised to cause mayhem in the state, that nobody will be able to
sleep with their eyes closed; a threat he fulfilled well with the full
backing of the Presidency. If history has taught us anything, it’s that
bullying your way out of every situation in a democracy always
backfires. The PDP is learning that lesson the hard way now.
As the face-off between the Presidency
and Governor Amaechi continued, we were hit with yet another
FG-sponsored brouhaha at the Rivers state house of assembly where 5
people attempted to impeach the Speaker. And yet, the new ‘speaker’ was
recognised.
You see, the problem with PDP is that
they have a twisted understanding of the word Democracy. Democracy isn’t
about forcing your views and wishes down the throat of others; it’s
about respecting the views of the party majority enough to bow to it. It
isn’t about forcing your way out of every situation; it’s about
learning to embrace dialogue as a means of conflict resolution. It’s not
about flinging insults and talking non-stop on the pages of newspapers;
it’s about sitting down to listen to the yearning of the people. It’s
not about suspending and disciplining people who differ from your point
of view or challenge the status quo; it’s about having the moral courage
to accept criticism and difference of opinion.
The factionalisation of the PDP didn’t
just happen; it has come on the heel of a long string of irregularities
sponsored and tolerated in different sectors of the country. The Student
arm, NANS has been hijacked, the Youth arm, NYCN, hijacked, Nigeria
Governors Forum, NGF, hijacked. With all these high-profile hijacking
that the PDP has masterminded, it was only a matter of time before they
faced the backlash of their actions. So the split in PDP has been a long
time coming.
But there’s one thing Nigerians must be
wary of; we must not be naïve enough to think that the breakaway faction
of the PDP is breaking out because they care about the plight of
ordinary Nigerians and abhor the fact that the Tukur-led PDP has
absolutely no plan to lessen the burden of the Nigerian masses; No, they
are breaking away because they have lost relevance in the Tukur-led PDP
and want a PDP of their own where they can command enough authority to
pacify their bloated egos. A look at the breakaway faction and their
actions in the different posts they hold or have held, tells us
everything we need to know about them. We must never allow ourselves to
be so delusional that we begin to see the breakaway faction as our
saviours; they are not and they never have been.
As PDP takes its final steps into
political oblivion, we owe ourselves the duty of watching out for
whatever party touts itself as our salvation and look deeply to see if
they exhibit any of the traits that we’ve had to put up with in PDP’s 14
years of political rape of the Nigerian masses; if any of the party(ies
show even the slightest of traits that characterised PDP’s 14 years of
nothingness, we must ignore them, regardless of their power of oratory
or political stature. We have been trapped for 14 years in PDP’s web of
lies, we must not walk ourselves into yet another web of deceit. The
onus lies on us to awake to the urgency of now and open our eyes enough
to recognise lies when we see one.
God bless Nigerians!
Ogunjimi James Taiwo
@hullerj on Twitter
Email: hullerj@yahoo.com
Source: Omojuwa
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