Ekanem Akak|5 October 2016
It was Heraclitus of Ephesus who posited in 535-475BC that nothing in life ever remain unchanged. According to him things in life are pepertually in the state of flux, which means situations are ever changing and does not remain constant. Little wonder the most beautiful woman and hansome man grow old and die. Kings and Queens come and go to give room to other younger people to lead their generations. We have read about the rise and fall of different empires such as Roman, Byzantium, Malian and lately British empire in our historical books. We have studied about formation of kingdoms and how it transcend into state like Nigeria. This shows nothing is static even state institutions. That is why people call for reform when such institutions do not satisfy the need of the group at the time. We have seen the emergence of political systems. From absolute to constitutional manarchy of Great Britain, Aristocracy and finally liberal demcracy that is touted by USA as its herbinger and exporter. This is simply to accommodate the ever changing need of man in time.
Such is the situation of the Peoples Democratic Party, the former lagest political party in Africa. The birth of PDP into the politcal firmament of Nigeria was greeted with humongous joy like a barren woman that have stayed for a long time expecting the fruit of the womb, it came with herald of songs of hope and expectations.
However, PDP came when Nigerians were yearning for a replacement of the military that had made Nigeria a pariah in the comity of nations, when Nigerians had lost hope in the leasdership and economy of the country. After the party sauntered into the political landscape of Nigeria like colossus wasted no time, employed the best brains in government to rebuild Nigeria's battered image, reform the civil service, reform electoral system by opening political space for participation, reform the economy and judiciary, carried all the ethnic groups along in sharing political offices and invented institutions to fight corruption.
However, there were some things the party did not tackle head long, like corruption. The party also paid much attention to the ruling elites to the disadvantages of the masses. The ruling elites alienated the masses and desired them when they needed their supports during elections. This alienation and deprivation and others bottled up grievances that could not be addressed and over time emboldened the rise of armed groups that embraced violence and other criminal activities against the Nigerian people and government. These contributed immensely to the collapse of the PDP in 2015 general elections. The failure of the party in 2015 general election was a rude shock to party faithfuls because they failed to prepare a template that should they fail, this will be their role as opposition party. The party had permutated to be at the centre of governance in the next 60 years but that was not so. Failure was strange but real to the party.
Today, PDP is in opposition and are contending with All Progressive Congress forces who are bent on destroying it to have a successful grip of power. There are grand strategies put in place by the ruling party to ensure that PDP does not smell power. They are out to use corruption as a ploy to keep PDP away from power. There is a campaign of calumny to paint the party black as having no tangible evidence in terms of developments to show for the past 16 years they held sway to governance and the enormous revenue generated from sales of crude oil. They instigates intra party conflicts wthin PDP to ensure that they are not united. Members of PDP also fell prey to their antics by encouraging litigations to destabilize the party. But the question is for how long would these propagandaand lies be churned out against PDP? One thing that is constant in life is change.
Incidentally, change is the standpoint of APC manifesto. For them to stay long in power depend on their ability to tackle various economic challenges confronting the country. The party should get down to work. They should inspired confidence through implementation of policies that would have direct impact on Nigerians. Again, the party should work within the framework of the rule law. Vindictiveness and vandetta should not take prominence in governance so that when the other party wins, they will not pay back in bad faith. The party in power should bear in mind that they can lose elections anytime. There shouldn't be win at all cost mentality to avoid narrowing the political participation and plunging Nigeria into conflict.
Ekanem Akak
Is a Social Commentator
