As a matter of fact, PDP leaders at the National Working Committee level must come to join social media by themselves and begin to identify some of the supporting youths in order to attract and train them for future purposes. PDP must leverage on social media but not for hate campaign and malicious propaganda like APC did during the last general election.
The massive loss Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) suffered certainly did not come as surprise to some Nigerians and political analysts because of the magnitude of APC’s campaign and tenacity to wrestle power from Jonathan.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), since its birth in 1998, had held on to power for 16 years starting with the eight-year administration of Obasanjo/Atiku, three years of Yar’Adua/Jonathan and five years of Jonathan/Sambo.
“The funny thing now is that a larger portion of the people who made up the 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), well over 75%, are now in the new ruling All Progressive Congress (APC)”.
The arrangement of PDP was to rotate power between the North and South based on an agreement by principle which was not really bonded by the constitution of the party. After Obasanjos’ eight years rulership, which represented the slot of all the three geopolitical zones of Southern Nigeria (South-West, South-East and South-South), there came the turn of the Northern people and Yar’Adua stepped in, but very sadly and unfortunately his tenure was cut short by death which threw the nation into political tension and almost caused a constitutional crises because the North were not willing to give up its slot, claiming that they must complete their eight years, nut Jonathan as the then vice President came in, in acting capacity and completed the remaining tenure of Late Yar’Adua.
Jonathan was able to rally round members of the PDP and governors for support to be elected as a substantive President in 2011, and after completion of his four years tenure, he was supposed to quietly hand over power back to North, but then trouble began for the PDP.
Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan led his party to the electoral battle field against Nigeria’s former military dictator, General Muhammadu Buhari of APC in 2015 and lost too woefully, with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) losing many of the states it controlled to the APC.
The biggest mistake PDP made was to have allowed itsself to be arm-twisted by Jonathan and his men against the party’s zoning arrangement, and APC which clearly understood the agitation of the North and weakness of PDP, swung into actions immediately by mobilising and consolidating its membership across all the states of Nigeria. The APC, in its usual political antics, began to incite Nigerians against the PDP through the biggest epidemic befalling the country – corruption, Boko Haram, the Chibok Girls saga and many other agitations of the people to push the party out of power. They campaigned rigorously and ensured that PDP and Jonathan were defeated by either hook or crook.
Jonathan approved the use of card readers for the general elections thinking that he was bringing innovations into our electoral system but not knowing that the device was going to remove him from office. It was rumoured that the former INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega hatched all the plans in collusion with top APC leaders, as there were rumours of secret meetings in Dubai and other locations outside Nigeria, but unfortunately Mr. Jonathan could not take any action to thwart the plans of his political opponents for reasons best known to him.
One thing that could easily point to these rumours was that the war torn Borno State, where Boko Haram throws bombs almost daily with millions of IDPs, were able to collect over five million Voters Cards and Lagos with relative peace got a less than two million voters cards.
Most of the figures churned out from the North were so scary, for example Kano State accredited 1.9 million people and almost all the 1.9 million voted for APC. This remains the greatest mystery since Nigeria has been conducting elections; let’s leave that story for another day.
Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Peter Ayodele Fayose warned and campaigned against the card reader machines but Jonathan and probably those who stand to benefit from the contract refused to heed his call.
Fayose’s argument was that a device that has not been put to use cannot be trusted at a general election. He was vindicated with the massive complaints that greeted the use of the device; even Jonathan himself was quoted by some section of media that card readers should be reviewed before the 2019 election after the card reader machine almost prevented him and his family members from voting during the Bayelsa Governorship election.
PDP is still nursing the wound suffered at the poll, but the question is how long would the party continue in electoral loss mourning?
The party, PDP, needs to put its house in order as soon as possible, as over six months is more than enough time to put itself back in shape rather than to continue wobbling and fumbling as a viable opposition, otherwise a new mega party should be activated.
Nigerian people expects PDP to put up a strong opposition against the ruling APC, and the best way PDP can again entrench itself in the hearts of Nigerian is by forming a strong, formidable and responsible opposition to Buhari’s government.
In my own opinion, below are some thought on how the party can easily and quickly bounce back ahead of future elections.
The first assignment for PDP in its efforts to rebuild the party is to elect or appoint a well-experienced publicity secretary who knows how to play the game with the ruling APC, even non-PDP members are unimpressed with the current publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, as he is seen as not competent enough to be an image maker for the party.
The second assignment is that PDP should set up a committee that will proffer solutions on how to win future elections with achievable, realizable and modern manifestoes based on the needs and yearning of Nigerians.
The third assignment is that the party must appeal to all Nigerians to support it, set up a committee that will pacify and ensure all her members in other parties return to the big umbrella for a better future, and senior members who have suddenly become non-partisan must be reached out to, including people like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Ibrahim Babangida and other founding members, who must be brought back to contribute their own ideas to the success of the party.
The fourth assignment for the party is to ensure that it fields credible, popular, influential, rugged and competent candidates for the presidency, state governorship, local governments and other elective posts in future elections, who can deliver on the party’s manifestoes and give people the dividends of democracy.
The fifth assignment is that PDP must form a very strong and united front that’ll not be easy to be intimidated, harassed or hounded with state security apparatus by the intolerant APC led government. Every strategy it can lay their hands on in this regard must be utilised for its protection.
For PDP to survive, it must understand that both old, young and new members are needed, and the attitude of some party leaders that they can do without some people in the party was one of the major downfalls of the party; recall that the problem began when five strong PDP governors crossed to nPDP and eventually left for APC. The situation could have been salvaged when they were still in nPDP if ex-President Goodluck had called for a truce but ego, and pride deterred him.
After the PDP 2016 National Convention, where new leaders will be elected, the party needs to start reaching out to all aggrieved members, youth groups, women groups, other smaller parties and all stakeholders that can help it build formidable winning structures across every geopolitical zone in Nigeria.
PDP must move from the analogue use of media to a very efficient and purposeful use of digital media, as the reality is that there are lots of its members such as Demola Olanrewaju, Adeyanju Adedeji. Anthony Ehilebo, Opeyemi Azeez Ahmed, Adelaja Adeoye, Vincent Arogbodo, Chinedu Nwosu, Paul Utho, Vox Populi, Lekan Durojaye, Zainab Dabo, Reno Omokri, James King, Olufemi Fani Kayode, Doyin Okupe, Babatunde Gbadamosi, Kamaldeen Abdulsalam and many others who can be of great advantage to the party in terms of media organisation.
As a matter of fact, PDP leaders at the National Working Committee level must come to join social media by themselves and begin to identify some of the supporting youths in order to attract and train them for future purposes. PDP must leverage on social media but not for hate campaign and malicious propaganda like APC did during the last general election.
Adelaja Adeoye is a blogger, social and political commentator who writes from Lagos Nigeria. Twitter Handle: @AdelajaAdeoye.
