Nigeria's Democracy in Peril
Published: 18 September 2013 By Abiodun Giwa
The selfish drive of some greedy members of the ruling party, demanding that President Goodluck Jonathan forget reelection bid to allow the presidency return to the north at all cost is threatening the fabric of democracy in Nigeria. They have divided the ruling party and there is a faction that belongs to them that they call a new PDP. Bewildered Nigerians have been watching the circus shows that the struggle between the old PDP and the new PDP have become. Newspapers reports are ripe with news of meetings upon meetings toward resolution that have been unsuccessful. The new PDP has moved to the National Assembly to stoke a fire, which observers fear may likely be the end of democracy in the country.
There are reports from the country showing that there have been near free for all fight between warring members of the old and new members of the PDP in the legislature, upon the visit by officers of the new PDP to introduce themselves to the body, notwithstanding that they are in minority. The new PDP members, now referenced in the press as rebels, enjoy the approval of the opposition parties that think the problem in the ruling party will pave a way for them into power. But knowledge of registration of a new party called People Democratic Movement, PDM , by the rebels has doused the hope of the opposing parties. One governor in the opposition in the South West has been mandated to continue wooing the PDP rebels to join the opposition.
Kawu Baraje, the chairman of the new PDP was a former acting chairman for the ruling party. The reason he has advanced for his group’s rebellion are many, but one of them is the request for the removal of the substantive party's chairman for alleged acts of undemocratic tendencies. People say Baraje wants to be the substantive chairman, knowing the position is a veritable source of power and material resources, and his claim to be fighting for entrenchment of democracy is regarded as phony. But he has six governors from the north and one governor from the south with him. The governor from the south, Rotimi Amaechi, has been having a running battle with the presidency over issues ranging from a quarrel with the president’s wife and executive of his party in his state, that favor the president’s wife.
But some people say Amaechi wants to be vice-presidential candidate of yet to be known party in 2015. He has voiced his opposition to the president’s bid for reelection. It is said to be the reason why he has fought to retain the chairmanship of the country’s governors' forum, a position people say makes him feel he is an uncrowned president, having the connection and interaction with all the governors in the country. His plan allies with that of the six governors from the north who want the party’s presidential candidature return to the north for 2015. Many reasons have been advanced for Amaechi’s rebellion against the president who is from the same geopolitical South- South zone like him, but the real fight for power at the center has become manifest as the major reason behind the raging war between him and the party's executive in Rivers State on one side, and between him and the presidency on the other.
Observers are saying that these governors - the six from the north and the one from the South-South, should not have been able to challenge the president the way they are doing without some hidden powers encouraging them. People believe they have the ears of the former military leaders like Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo. Babangida and his colleagues crowned Obasanjo the nation’s president in 1999. Obasanjo wanted to go for the third term after the end of his second term in office, but he was barred by fierce opposition from the public. Though Obasanjo could not make the third term, he nonetheless succeeded at enthroning a successor and a vice-president who got his back. On the death of Obasanjo’s successor, the current president who was then the vice-president took over. Information from the country reveals that Obasanjo has tried to dictate to the president from his home, and the president has distanced himself from him for that reason, and that has made Obasanjo to wait on the wings until the day he would play the devil’s advocate. He is reported to be all over the place, and one can hardly think he has retired from office. He is competing fiercely with elected officials over the space. He is unlike retired presidents in civilized countries who take the backstage and rarely intervene in governance. Obasanjo is now playing the role of a peacemaker, but he is said to be the hatchet man who put together the conspiracy against Jonathan, and that the six governors from the north calling Jonathan's bluff are his acolytes. He has said the problem within the party is intractable. Babangida has also become a peace maker, but a governor of his home state belongs to the rebel group.
Before the rebel governors made their plans public by walking out of a mini-convention of their party with the president seated, they had visited Babangida, Obasanjo and other former military leaders for what they called the need to seek their guidance over the crisis in the party. Observers of events in the country say that the plans of the rebels is to end the country's democracy, because they know that if they wait for the 2015 elections, Jonathan may use the incumbent power to demystify them at the polls, though president himself is said to be short of necessary credential in term of performance to command public support. Some people are saying it is possible the president is not feeding the rebellious governors, the money is not coming to them and they want to sink the boat.
Ironically, the losers in the power struggle are struggling Nigerians who are being deprived the dividends of democracy, and may permanently lose the right to elect their own leaders, if the nation's democracy is derailed by the gangsters who have risen against constituted authority.
There are reports from the country showing that there have been near free for all fight between warring members of the old and new members of the PDP in the legislature, upon the visit by officers of the new PDP to introduce themselves to the body, notwithstanding that they are in minority. The new PDP members, now referenced in the press as rebels, enjoy the approval of the opposition parties that think the problem in the ruling party will pave a way for them into power. But knowledge of registration of a new party called People Democratic Movement, PDM , by the rebels has doused the hope of the opposing parties. One governor in the opposition in the South West has been mandated to continue wooing the PDP rebels to join the opposition.
Kawu Baraje, the chairman of the new PDP was a former acting chairman for the ruling party. The reason he has advanced for his group’s rebellion are many, but one of them is the request for the removal of the substantive party's chairman for alleged acts of undemocratic tendencies. People say Baraje wants to be the substantive chairman, knowing the position is a veritable source of power and material resources, and his claim to be fighting for entrenchment of democracy is regarded as phony. But he has six governors from the north and one governor from the south with him. The governor from the south, Rotimi Amaechi, has been having a running battle with the presidency over issues ranging from a quarrel with the president’s wife and executive of his party in his state, that favor the president’s wife.
But some people say Amaechi wants to be vice-presidential candidate of yet to be known party in 2015. He has voiced his opposition to the president’s bid for reelection. It is said to be the reason why he has fought to retain the chairmanship of the country’s governors' forum, a position people say makes him feel he is an uncrowned president, having the connection and interaction with all the governors in the country. His plan allies with that of the six governors from the north who want the party’s presidential candidature return to the north for 2015. Many reasons have been advanced for Amaechi’s rebellion against the president who is from the same geopolitical South- South zone like him, but the real fight for power at the center has become manifest as the major reason behind the raging war between him and the party's executive in Rivers State on one side, and between him and the presidency on the other.
Observers are saying that these governors - the six from the north and the one from the South-South, should not have been able to challenge the president the way they are doing without some hidden powers encouraging them. People believe they have the ears of the former military leaders like Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo. Babangida and his colleagues crowned Obasanjo the nation’s president in 1999. Obasanjo wanted to go for the third term after the end of his second term in office, but he was barred by fierce opposition from the public. Though Obasanjo could not make the third term, he nonetheless succeeded at enthroning a successor and a vice-president who got his back. On the death of Obasanjo’s successor, the current president who was then the vice-president took over. Information from the country reveals that Obasanjo has tried to dictate to the president from his home, and the president has distanced himself from him for that reason, and that has made Obasanjo to wait on the wings until the day he would play the devil’s advocate. He is reported to be all over the place, and one can hardly think he has retired from office. He is competing fiercely with elected officials over the space. He is unlike retired presidents in civilized countries who take the backstage and rarely intervene in governance. Obasanjo is now playing the role of a peacemaker, but he is said to be the hatchet man who put together the conspiracy against Jonathan, and that the six governors from the north calling Jonathan's bluff are his acolytes. He has said the problem within the party is intractable. Babangida has also become a peace maker, but a governor of his home state belongs to the rebel group.
Before the rebel governors made their plans public by walking out of a mini-convention of their party with the president seated, they had visited Babangida, Obasanjo and other former military leaders for what they called the need to seek their guidance over the crisis in the party. Observers of events in the country say that the plans of the rebels is to end the country's democracy, because they know that if they wait for the 2015 elections, Jonathan may use the incumbent power to demystify them at the polls, though president himself is said to be short of necessary credential in term of performance to command public support. Some people are saying it is possible the president is not feeding the rebellious governors, the money is not coming to them and they want to sink the boat.
Ironically, the losers in the power struggle are struggling Nigerians who are being deprived the dividends of democracy, and may permanently lose the right to elect their own leaders, if the nation's democracy is derailed by the gangsters who have risen against constituted authority.
Comment Box is loading comments...
