STRENGTHENING INTERNAL PARTY COHESION THROUGH RECONCILIATION : SOLE OPTION PDP STURBBONLY REJECTED

By Chris Akhabue

Like most often the case,

the  weapon for winning an  opponent is most often times provided by the opponent  himself.

The above assertion aptly and succinctly reflects  the self inflicted intra party rancour that plagued the Edo chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which lasted to  the build up to  the last  Saturday's general elections   from which it may  never recover.

The consequences of the ego and power play which the waring factions of the Edo PDP  displayed has remained  a formidable  weapon of self destruction that  has left an indelible and irreversible  injury in the party's architectural framework, a trauma that will linger for a while.

The members of the two PDP factions   should have known better that a divided PDP can never win an election but decided instead, to go into the general elections  with an unresolved intra party crises hoping to win the election. How they hoped they could achieve any measure of success in that frame of mind still remains a puzzle.

The results of the general elections which portrayed the Peoples Democratic Party as the major loser has probably ignited some sense of self consciousness and the réalisation of the need for a general evaluation and overhaul  of the party's   methodology  which has  not yielded  any commendable result. 

This could be seen from the  belated fire brigade approach of the State governor, Godwin Obaseki and the leadership of the party  who are said to be running helter -scelter, criss crossing the length and breath of the three senatorial districts in a bid to mend fences, a formidable and belated sole option they ought to have proactively taken before now, but which was jettisoned  as a result of ego and power play. They did not consider the counsel of not being afraid to negotiate but not to negotiate out of fear.

 

Some observers say this recent, but belated approach of the governor  is a situation of trying to negotiate out of fear. They are of the opinion that the governor has seen the huge defeat his party suffered in last saturday election which may have necessitated  the panick to salvage what is left of the party's slim chances in the House of Assembly election coming up this Saturday. 

Losing such crucial election would of course have some unimaginable consequences for  the governor who said he is not satisfied with last Saturday presidential elections results.

Last saturday presidential election, the Senate and the House of Representatives outcome  were easily predictable. Even kids could easily predict that PDP could never have won that election with a divided house. How could they have faced the unslaught of the  more prepared Labour Party whose members, mainly the youths were resolutely determined to vote for Peter Obi.? The same youth the governor once, with a wave of the hand, said  would loose steam as time progresses. The governor was wrong, as the youth never lose any steam but maintained their consistency  and tempo for the Obi project that jolted  traditional key players in politics.

 

Top on the list of what the  PDP  people needed to  understand which they did'nt pay any particular attention to,  is that, victorious army win first before they go to war, while losers go to war first, there and then, seek to win. It doesn't work that way. So, for electoral victory to be guaranteed, there should be, as a matter of necessity, organisational preparedness of articulated action plans towards electoral victory which includes playing by the rules of engagements. Such rules include not undermining anybody or group as it is a game of numbers. The more the number the brighter the chances.

According to Karl Marx,

Every System contains its own seed of self-destruction. Every solution at some point becomes the new problem if there is no consistent and concerted effort to adapt to changing realities on ground.

Some analysts say that the coming  into the PDP, of Mr Godwin  Obaseki, which appears to be a solution for the PDP to bounce back to limelight at that  time, has eventually become the  problem of the party.

 Though this school of thought believes that the coming on board of the PDP of   Godwin Obaseki was the solution that saved the PDP from pining into extinction as a party as it  was  ebbing at the time, others are of the opinion that he, Obaseki  is the present problem of the party.

How is the above assertion correct if one may ask? 

They say that the State chapter of the party has been engulfed in prolonged internal disputes over which faction of the party controls the structure of the party which enabled Godwin Obaseki emerge as the governor of the State. These analysts  believe that trouble started immediately after the governorship election as Obaseki who emerged victorious at the polls  hijacked  the party structure  from the original owners and refused to properly harmonise the party members .

As it were, there exists, in Edo PDP, a legacy group of a PDP  and NEW PDP   both with daggers drawn, panting and fainting from a monumental  defeat as a result of  self inflicted   irreconcilable but avoidable differences which has weakened the party structure. 

This was exactly how the party found itself in a bizarre state of mind as it headed for a convention that has thrown up  two different delegates lists  resulting in an accrimonious parallel primaries that has put the party in an unstable pedestal from which they could not reconcile before the presidential election of last saturday.

It is an undeniable fact but arguably true that PDP is synonymous  with faction from the onset. You will recall that before the demise of its former national leader, Chief Tony Anenih, the PDP as a party, has  always had  camps and factions in the  party. At a point, there was Anenih's camp, the Ogbemudia's faction etc. But be that as it were however, they had  always found a way out of every of their internal squabbles with the national leader, Chief Tony Anenih, being a formidable rallying point and providing leadership which had seen the party resolving their differences and  winning electoral victories for the party  for so many years.

For now, such rallying point is unavailable . The hope of a possible and quick resolution of the party crises is not in sight.

Accomplishing the task of rebuilding the ruins of the party and ensuring party cohesion and unity at this point in time, would have   required  the stake holders accepting to apply the rudimentary task of shunning ego and power play but they did not and is still not prepared for  a full and proper reconciliation with the aggrieved members.  

Some analysts are of the opinion that the very first  step in the right direction in the quest for political recovery that the PDP ought to have initiated  if they were  desirous of recovery, was  to engage in drastic reengineering to achieve internal party cohession through meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders with  a view to equitably sharing control of the party structure so as to mitigate further accrimony but instead they choose to fight internally. How this style of ego and power play instead of genuine efforts at reconciliation would help the PDP in  yet another elections for the house of  Assembly come saturday the 11th remain to be seen.