PDP was a great party. It is
still a great party, but more instructively, great in the nostalgic sense of
what rose from a political party founded on nationalist ideals in the wake of
Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, to a behemoth at the prime of its
glory in 2007 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo was winding up his tenure
in office.
Carried away by the lust and lure
of political power, the party’s misfortunes can be traced to the days when it
began to put politics above leadership and national interest. It was a fancy
tale in Nigeria how PDP was Africa’s largest political party, how the house of
Nigeria’s political heavyweights was too solid to collapse and how the party
was going to rule Nigeria for the next 60 years. Such were the brazen
expressions signature of the heydays of the PDP as Nigeria’s ruling party....
The PDP Titanic ship may have
been sunk in 2015, but the party’s head-on collision with the icebergs of
public perception had become evident as far back as 2011. By the time Nigerians
went to the 2011 presidential polls, the public reputation of the PDP had
become so battered that the average Nigerian considered those three letters –
P.D.P. – synonymous with impunity, corruption and incompetence. It was so bad
that President Goodluck Jonathan was voted into office in 2011 largely on his
individual goodwill.
As Nigerians grumbled and public
opprobrium mounted against the ruling party, the party leadership, just like
the autocratic Bourbon monarchy of France, heeded little or no attention. So
much was taken for granted. What the PDP did not say in words, it communicated
loud and clear to Nigerians in a body language that seemed to be telling
Nigerians to their face: “Rave all you can. We have the formula for winning
elections. We really don’t need your votes!”
It was a costly mistake.
Within the party itself, party
members who attempted to spearhead internal reforms were branded rebels or
reduced to pariahs. Some left. The incurable optimists who believed in the
dream that birthed the party, stayed behind. Some were muzzled into silence.
That a man the caliber of Chief Alex Ekwueme lost his voice in the PDP; that
shining stars of the party like Donald Duke, Frank Nweke Jnr, Nasir El Rufai
etc became relegated to the fringe of events, speak volumes of the ill breed of
politics that had taken over the party. Plagued with a humongous reputation
crisis, lack of internal democracy, insistence on maintaining the old way of
doing things and a myriad of internal disaffection – the last of which led to
the formation of the Baraje faction of PDP in 2013 and its eventual defection
to APC, there is no way the party was going to survive the impending onslaught
without effecting radical changes in its organizational modus operandi. It was
only a matter of time. Something had to give.
I joined the PDP in 2012 as a
young Nigerian professional at the age of 28. My attraction to the party was
largely anchored on what could be termed for want of better description, the
audacity of faith – faith in a dream that was and is still possible. A good
number of young Nigerians like me joined the party with the conviction that
somehow, with the collective strength of our will, we could continue the
struggle for internal party reforms which by extension would rub off on the
quality of leaders the party produced at various levels of leadership in
Nigeria. One of the first battles we had to fight was to correct the anomaly of
a National Youth Leader who was over 60 years of age! At the time we were done,
he had been replaced with a National Youth Leader who was barely 30! It was a
hard-won victory, but the real struggle was yet to even begin in a system that
saw its youths at best in the mold of thugs fit only for electoral
malpractices!
Fast forward to 2015, Nigerians
are screaming for change. Nigerians are saying they would rather go back to the
past to return a leader who led Nigeria with an iron fist as a military
dictator over 30 years ago! What went wrong? The simple analysis here is that
PDP lost power at the center, not so much because of what the All Progressives
Congress (APC) did right but much more because of what the PDP did wrong
consistently over 16 years as the ruling party! That the APC ran a presidential
campaign that made the PDP look like it was the opposition party is a pointer
to how much the PDP had disconnected itself from the strategic thinking
required for strategic outcomes.
But where do we go from here?
Beyond the PDP’s battle for political survival, it is instructive to note that
Nigeria needs a strong opposition to keep the ruling party in check. But for
PDP to effectively play the opposition, it needs to reform, refocus and
reposition itself. It is time for PDP to become honest with itself. The party must be ready to confront the truth
as it is. To live in self-denial would be tantamount to a self-inflictive
imprudence that would rest the party in irreversible oblivion.
The first thing PDP must do is to
embark on a truth and reconciliation process where all members who have been or
have cause to feel mistreated for any reason whatsoever, have the opportunity
to express their grievances. PDP cannot make progress by pretending that all is
well, burying its head in the sand or sweepings its problems under the carpet.
Key stakeholders of the party must be able to ventilate their grievances before
the party leadership and the leadership must be ready and seen to be willing to
listen and take necessary actions. Grievances from the just concluded elections
alone would be enough to keep the party busy for the next few months. But this
is the first pragmatic step to true healing for the PDP.
Secondly, the PDP will need to
embrace a new way of doing things. The party must rebrand. By rebranding, I am
not talking about another opportunity to make money at the expense of the work
that needs to be done. Such a rebranding exercise must be internal and external
and a team of credible professionals should be immediately assembled to midwife
this process. It may be necessary, but it will not be enough to change the
party’s name or logo. More importantly, what needs to change is the way the
party conducts its affairs. The party must be ready to project new faces that
command credibility and endear the admiration of Nigerians. With all due
respect, some of our elders in the party have lost the respect of most
Nigerians. Yes, we still need the wisdom and counsel of our elders in the
party, but they must now step aside to project and support credible fresh faces
that will take the party to the next level. It is better to be an elder
statesman in a party that is successful than to insist on occupying positions
even if it means the party fading into extinction.
Thirdly, the PDP must invest in
youth engagement. The PDP must become receptive to innovation, creativity and
new age ideas by paying attention, empowering and strengthening the capacity of
its brightest youths. At the just concluded elections, the PDP under-utilized
some of its brightest brains. A situation where most of the key youth actors in
the presidential campaign had to spend their personal resources campaigning for
the party, is unacceptable. Elections are not cheap. To win elections, you must
spend money and ensure your resources are put in the hands of those best
equipped to deliver. For instance, during the just concluded presidential
campaigns, we saw a state-of-the-art situation room of the APC manned by
passionate young professionals. In a 21st century political environment, the
PDP had nothing close to a functional situation room for its presidential
election, manned by young professionals. 90 percent of the PDP’s social media
campaign was created and executed by young people who took initiative on their
own without a single shred of support from the party. Yet the media is awash
with reports of huge sums of money that were released for the campaign. What is
wrong with us? Elections are not won like this. At least, not in this
revolutionary age of communication explosion.
Going forward, the PDP must open
up the space for more young Nigerians to become card-carrying members of the
party. This is the best time to attract young Nigerians who want to be in the
opposition. And there are millions of them! The process of registration should
be made easier and technology-oriented. In most wards across the country, the
story usually is that PDP membership cards are not available. This is because
the cards are being hoarded owing to a systemic deficiency that seeks to shut
the door against new members. The party cannot continue like this.
Finally, the PDP must begin to
take the media more seriously by constantly engaging this critical sector of
our national life. The media is the chief custodian of perception creation and
management. A party that wants to make progress must be ready to go the extra
mile to woo the media to its side. Nothing in Nigeria is free or cheap. PDP
must be ready to make huge sacrifices and investments to transform its tattered
image. Credible professionals should be engaged to manage media relations for
the party under the supervision of the relevant party officials. The sense of
media engagement must also be considered beyond the boundaries of traditional
broadcast and print media. The new media space is the new battleground for
socio-political engagement. The PDP can ignore the new media only to its own
peril.
Ohimai is the Special Adviser
(Media) to Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and Convener, Rethink Nigeria – a group of
young professionals affiliated to the PDP.
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