By: Bomba Dauda
The party’s crisis keeps transiting; it grew from the mind to the court to the media. All measures to forestall the crisis before and after the 2019 governorship election was rebuffed by stonewall; it is very obvious that even if the disciplinary committee set-up by the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Mr. Felix Hassan Hyat comes up with their recommendations and peaceful resolution of the crisis will be sought, it will be brick-walled. Simply because anything short of Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi having his way will be unacceptable due to his inordinate governorship ambition and PDP leaders in some quarters, said, they will not sit idly while Hunkuyi takes control of the party’s structure at their expense.
To some of the PDP leaders I have interacted with amid this current crisis, they said, they have invested so much in the party and they see their DNA been imbedded in the party’s DNA. They also tongue-lashed Hunkuyi for his wavering loyalty to the party and equally chided him on being inconsistent, he “has been on and off the party,” they said.
For the record, the ongoing fiasco in the PDP started by r-APC demand for 40% of both ward and state Excos, which the party at that time declined to concede to their demand because it will amount to controlling the party structure at the chagrin of other contestants within the party. Secondly, the congress tussle/the inauguration of Caretaker Committee and thirdly, staging campaign of calumny against the party’s linchpins (alleging them of misappropriating 2019 election funds). As one passionate PDP member put it, “No sincere party member, who truly has the party’s interest at his heart, will embark on massive media campaign against its own political party and claim to want to still be a member of the party.”
These recent days are tumultuous in the life of kaduna chapter of the PDP. The party is cleaved within; it is akin to a Siamese; conjoined at birth but, don’t think and reason alike. As it is now, PDP is divided ideologically between pacifiers and aggressors. While the progressives are peaceful in presenting their issues, the aggressors talk with fire and brimstone. Again, the agents of peace believe in jaw-jaw, the aggressors talk war-war (brandishing their arsenals and unleashing mayhem on anyone that rears his head or stand on their way).
However, no political party will make any reasonable progress when it compromises its cohesive force, for instance, in 2019, during the governorship election in Kaduna state; PDP went to the polls fractiously and failed. One of the major challenges in PDP at the moment is how to make the aggressors see politics differently; present their issues while upholding the virtues of the party’s constitution. On their own side, they must learn to act coherently without bringing the sword out of its scabbard. At the level of PDP, it is unexpected for the party to be seen to be militarizing its issues. Such approach is incongruent.
Prior now, I have anticipated that the party’s managers will take a punitive action against those being suspended by the party because of their approach and co-passengers sizzling diatribes, name calling in their allegations, dragging the party across contentious murky waters and even de-marketing the party. And if the rumour making rounds is anything to go by, these suspended members are already on their way to PRP. This is evident in their destructive media propaganda against the party. It is plausible to ascertain that their interest isn’t still in the party because hardly can a sane man destroy the only house he cherishes.
And no one bends the rules in any rule-based organization and gets rewarded for being headstrong. All the allegations against some elders of the party were actually unsubstantiated because of lack of evidence. PDP is a rule-based political party and it is morally permissible to caution anyone who is playing by his own rule and not by the general acceptable rule. The party is bigger than anyone and it must remain so.
Crisis is normal in any family and association but, what makes the recent crisis in PDP so awkward is the manner that those who felt slighted went about de-marketing the party in various media outlets
