OBJ Exit And The Liberation Of PDP

 BY ERAHODU OSAGHALE
The dramatic departure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from the PDP marked a major turning point in the dynamics of national politics, which may not be easily recognized amid the high level propaganda war triggered by the electioneering season. To the uninitiated who constitute a majority, the self-expulsion of such a bigwig of the PDP is a loss to the party. Indeed, Obasanjo himself packaged the event as a parting shot aimed at doing political damage to President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP as a climax to months of brazen anti-party activities that included public criticism and spurious allegations against the President and openly hobnobbing with the APC leaders. As a result, his eventual departure was not surprising, just as his hostility to the President and the party was obvious.

But, as the saying goes, there is more than meets the (ordinary) eye in Obasanjo's quitting the PDP, the implications of which actually amount to a victory for President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling PDP. The significance of the event stems from the personality of Obasanjo as a famed founding father and pioneer president of the PDP, who managed to impose himself on the affairs of the party and by extension the nation, to the extent that even after his two-terms in office, he paraded the corridors of power as would a power behind the throne. This domineering posture was however initially backed up by the response of the military power elite in 1999 to the unexpected sudden demise of General Sani Abacha who was then holding the baton as the successor in a decade and a half of continuous military rule in Nigeria.

Against a background of mounting local and international rejection of military dictatorship and facing the Abiola/June 12 debacle, the death of Abacha proved to be a dead end for continuation of direct military rule and a compelling factor for the then top military brass to strategise a tactical transition to civil rule, that would also provide a soft-landing and protection against the high risk of vengeance backlash from the emerging civilian political class, several of whom had suffered indignities under military rule. That was how General Obasanjo's “prison to presidency” saga became part of the 1999 “army arrangement” orchestrated by the junta to diffuse the Yoruba time-bomb primed by June 12 and the alleged killing of Abiola with a double edged design that also facilitated their desired soft-landing and proxy interests in ” stepping aside”, rather than beating a retreat from political power.

With General Obasanjo as the proxy-president,  the barely-concealed anointment of the PDP as the party of choice and the “smooth” transition to “civilian democracy” conveniently completed the “army arrangement” to hand over power with the left hand and retain its remote control in the right hand. This was the origin of the apparent domination of the democratic dispensation by the anointed figure head of the military junta, General Obasanjo, who transformed his zealous commitment to their agenda into his megalomaniacal indulgence in selfish schemes for tenure elongation, Papa Presidency after his exit, life-leader of the PDP, anointer-in-chief of all “juicy appointments” at federal level and political oracle of the nation. To all intents and purposes, the PDP and by extension,  governance of Nigeria was totally under the over-bearing influence and control of General Obasanjo from his swearing in as President in 1999 to the better half of 2014. The General left no one in doubt about his empire building schemes and plots.

Coming from that perspective, even laymen should be able to read between the lines on the issue of Obasanjo's exit from PDP to realize that it was in fact a major victory for President Goodluck Jonathan's Presidency that is also in the interest of the PDP and the genuineness of its democratic credentials. Since 1999 when the 'army arrangement' was imposed on our transition template and OBJ anointed as landlord/caretaker, General Obasanjo has been calling the shots and “doing and undoing” without let or hindrance under the aegis of the military power elite in the background. Whatever ruinous record is being attributed to the PDP today is directly attributable to the field day of Obasanjo as President and later his heydays as Papa President and life-leader of the party, a period spanning eight years as President and about eight years of life-presidency! Expectedly, nothing said or done during this period could have ever remotely recommended to OBJ dumping PDP, even though it was the silent prayer of many insiders who saw him as the proverbial bull in a china shop.

At this juncture even the uninitiated must have caught the drift of this brief diagnosis of the politics of Obasanjo's self-eviction from PDP. In a nutshell, OBJ has now found himself out of control of the affairs of the PDP beyond his ward level where, by his own admission, his relevance relegated him to. Like Humpty Dumpty, Obasanjo has suffered a heavy fall from the heights of presidential power and influence to the valleys of vainglory where all that was left was to grumble and grapple but never in firm grip of the reigns of power.

 His decline into decadence coincided contrastingly with the divinely-ordained emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan from the clutches of stooge status to his rightful rank as Executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Emboldened by divine empowerment that did not need the cantankerous arrogance of drunkards of power, President Goodluck Jonathan has humbly achieved a vivid record of performance in the positive transformation of the stagnated potentials of Nigeria into icons of optimistic visions of a better tomorrow. To this unprecedented achievement, we must now also add the subtle but successful liberation of the PDP from the curse of military manipulation and remote control against the national interest. Yes, it is also very instructive that the good riddance to bad rubbish of the PDP always finds suitable dumping ground in the APC !

ERAHODU OSAGHALE writes from Benin
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