The political situation and arithmetic in The People Democratic Party, PDP has reached a confluence of progressive prerogative, a state of germinating negativity, settling into a state of “Amakeme”. Today, the bane of the party is untruthfulness and deceit. How did the party get here?
Those who posit that the yet to be concluded congress is the main cause of the PDP quagmire are either deceiving themselves or have refused to be truthful to themselves. The congress is merely an event that opened up a can of worms in the party, a can that would have invariably burst open by itself. But better now that the party still has time to mend things and sooth agitating nerves.
Among the various factors tearing the party apart today, two main issues dominate the rest and on these the party will break or be made stronger. The first is the lingering bitterness occasioned by the 2015 Imo gubernatorial election and the ever insufferable zoning system in the state. Taking the former, accusations and bitterness have pervaded the State PDP over ‘who has done’, what that caused the loss of Douglas House by PDP in 2015, rather than charting a way forward, the division that negated against PDP’s victory at the polls are rather deepening. Leaders are still accusing each other of misdeed, zones denying complicity in the ‘supposed’ betrayals, in the face of this disunity, the last gubernatorial candidate of PDP in the State and former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, His Excellency, RT. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha many say, is not helping matters as he has continued to show signs of residual bitterness. Ihedioha, they insist, must bring himself to come to terms with the death of baby 2015 and then muscle up with a foot firmly planted on the wall while copulating for a stronger child of 2019, one that can survive child birth. And the way to do so is to help fatten the mother hen, in this case the party, PDP. Rebuilding the party is by no stretch the job of one man and therefore, other major gladiators, like the distinguished Senator Hope Uzodinma, HE Achike Udenwa, HE Ikedi Ohakim, distinguish Senators Athan Achonu and Sam Daddy Anyanwu must come to a round table with the South East Leader of the party, our own very Ahaejiagamba Ndi Igbo, Chief Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
Believe it or not, these are the men in whose hands the success or failure of PDP in the state rests. The aforementioned six personalities, let’s face it, are the most influential persons in Imo PDP and therefore, must work together, must be on the same page synergizing for the success of the party in the state.
Should they put aside their personal interests, the problems bedeviling the party in the state will be decimated without dissipating much energy and the party surely will roll over the ruling All Progressives Congress APC in 2019 with the ease of a hot knife slicing through cheese. But should they fail to achieve cohesion at their level, we should kiss 2019 goodbye. For the rest of us, our job is to stop stoking the fire of discord among these leaders, stop our sycophantic posture of deifying them in their presence while smearing them with tar at their backs.
The fight for who controls the soul of the out party must stop forthwith, as we must face the reality that being in control of a dilapidated PDP is akin to holding or leading nothing. And those whose sole aim is to hold onto local government structure merely as a means of future trade, not minding whether or not the party wins, should realize that their game is up and that the people are now wiser.
The second and perhaps more potent divisive factor is the wisdom or otherwise of zoning in the State. Zoning elicits very strong passion and three schools of thought have emerged, each holding tenaciously to their claim and desire. Those using moral persuasion insist that it is the turn of Owerri Zone to produce the next governor in the State. Proponents of this belief, enjoy very popular followership even amongst Orlu and Okigwe zones, but they have some monkey wrench in their wheels. The disunity within Owerri Zone is the major obstacle for this wish to be actualized. Notice that in the party’s 2015 loss, in the forefront of the traducers are mainly politicians of Owerri Zonal extraction and groups. The then gubernatorial candidate was accused of not giving fellow aspirants a sense of belonging, majority of who are from Owerri Zone.
Resultantly, some pulled out to work against him outrightly, while those that stayed behind just “Sidon Look”. Another major drawback was the Mbaise brouhaha. At that time, the inferno of distrust emanating from this anti Mbaise sentiment ranged so high but people did not key in to the fact that in reality, Imo People did not really care much about Ihedioha’s Mbaiseness; that sentiment was a missile ‘shot by Imo APC and we fell for it hook, line and sinker. We ought to have fought back properly but we were blind to where the thrown stone was coming from until it hit us. Today, we are still not wise to that seed of discord planted by the APC propagandists. To be sure, Owerri Zone is not Mbaise and Mbaise is not Ihedioha. If Owerri Zone produces the next governor, it could be from Mbaise, not necessarily from Mbaise. If he is from Mbaise, it could be Ihedioha and not necessarily Ihedioha. Therefore, Owerri zone must deemphasize Mbaise while Mbaise deemphasizes Ihedioha for peace to reign in the zone and perhaps the state.
In the zoning inferno, is another school of thought. This group says that Okigwe should be allowed to complete their tenure as did Orlu, with Jara. Those in support of this claim, say that for equity to be real, Okigwe must be allowed to finish their turn of second tenure. However, those opposed to this point out that that’ is tantamount to zoning the governorship ticket to one man, Ohakim.
They also say that his PDP contract ended when he was given the ticket to run for second term. Both divides have their points. Finally, the last school of thought posits that it is about wining an election. Their take is that inasmuch as we have a common enemy in APC that our concern should be on who can match the ruling party’s machine, irrespective of where he/she comes from.
This group maintains that unless we pick the strongest, most savvy and the most acceptable candidate, irrespective of zone, that 2019 will also be a mirage, while their opponents shout Orlu hegemony. Question is, where do we go? The yet to be completed PDP congress only proved one thing; impunity still reigns in Imo PDP, all have sinned and come short of the glory of transparency. We are not getting it right as those who preach transparency so far are all hypocrites, preaching one thing while doing another. Group six, please come to our rescue or declare – to your tents oh PDP!!!
