Things Fall Apart In Wadata House

By Usman Mohammed

Chinua Achebe's epic novel "Things Fall Apart" best describes the circus of crisis the PDP has become as the nation watched with bated breath as the once touted largest party in Africa broke up into small splinter cells. With acrimony and intrigue the PDP emerged from the much heralded unifying convention, a broken and limping party. But alas the downfall of the PDP predates their failed convention.

Indeed the harbinger of doom predicted this years ago and was sacked then killed in a mysterious air crash, all because he said the obvious. General Azzazi (RIP) said it that the manner in which a former President was rail road end into power has become the lodestone upon which the nation was plunged into violence and may eventually lead to the death of the PDP. Indeed just like Nostradamus, the man who saw tomorrow, General Azzazi was labelled a heretic and persona non Grata but today even in the grave the voice of Azzazi rings clear as a reminder of what he predicted.

Even the defeat of this President in the last polls has not erased the umbra of his shadow despite the attempts of the party to move on. Cometh the hour, Cometh the man Ali Madu Sherrif. Championed as the moneybag destined to save the broke PDP, Ali Madu Sherrif was carried aloft as the man who will lead the PDP to their predetermined El-Dorado. The situation was really daunting.

A party smarting from a crushing electoral defeat in which most of the actors in the plot betrayed their benefactors by pocketing the funds earmarked for electoral victory, plundering the war chest even before the war was won. A party fractured by the intrigues of 16 to19 that led to the balkanization of the party and the emergence of a powerful faction that defected to the APC and upon whose back President Buhari rode into power. Alas the PDP has not only learnt their lesson's but face with gigantic disaster as their house fall apart.

The emergence of Ali Madu Sherrif as the Interim Chairman was one mistake a plethora of analysts warned them against but the party bigwigs weren't ready to fund a broke and broken party for their endless greed had left Wadata House threadbare. Staff were owed salaries. Utility bills were left unpaid. Wadata house was literary falling apart as the once envisaged oasis of the PDP had become as poor as a church rat.

Ali Madu Sherrif was the one who sat and paid staff by hand. He refurbished the dilapidated secretariat although the specter of his alleged ties with the nemesis of the nation, Boko Haram, made him a hard sell to most Nigerians. Indeed many analysts warned that in a bid to save their party without spending their wealth, the PDP will live to rue the day they handed over the party to Boko Sherrif.

When greed trumps commonsense even Ben Bruce the commonsense man was mute preferring to spread the gospel of commonsense on twitter but failing to do likewise closer home. Hence now the dice is cast, isn't it expected that Sherrif wouldn't go away quietly? And the duo of Fayose and Wike who danced around him with their tainted support were the twin Judas that stabbed him in the back.

Only a fool will trust these two who have a track record of being turncoats and back stabbers but alas in politics there are neither permanent friends nor permanent enemies, only common interests prevail. Jerry Gana and his faction led by Mantu, have an altruistic goal to return PDP to its former glory hence they cannot be faulted. However the lodestone of Sherrif and his excess baggage weighs down their ideals. Markafi and his faction, is now the most dangerous of the lot.

Even Sherrif is not as diabolical as the plot set in motion by the Markafi faction. These strange bedfellows who also secretly and now overtly detest Sherrif have only one thing in common with Goodluck Jonathan. Instantly this group has shelved the zoning arrangement previously agreed upon and have set in motion the framework to return the former President who is on a self imposed exile back to power. All these men thrived under his regime and thirst for the good old days when money was awash in their hands and there was only a toothless EFCC who couldn't even bark at them in a bid to ask their source of income.

Hence the plot thickens to return the "lucky one" to power. Most should quake at such a thought. A return to the dark days of old when Boko Haram declared the North East their Caliphate and flew their black flag openly over Government structures in defiance. Sherrif stage a comeback as he holds the keys to Wadata House, the seat of PDP power and he will not relinquish it without a fight. We seen and watched a battle of royalties on Monday when the three rival Chairmen attempt to resume duty in Wadata House.

But to rejoice at the down fall of PDP is akin to throwing away the baby with the bath water. Nigeria needs a strong opposition party to keep the ruling APC clean and honest for without the PDP, Nigeria will become a one party state. Anyone who sees the current crisis in PDP as good doesn't wish Nigeria well for a reformed PDP will be an asset to this nation.

The Jerry Gana led faction seems to uphold these ideals. But the plans of Wike, Fayose and Akpabio who want to return the PDP to its path of regional party politics soaked in ethno-religious grand standing should be discouraged. Such a line lost them the seat of power in the first place hence a return to such will not yield a dissimilar result. Sheriff is on his own.

Only the courts can vindicate him as many move away from the alleged Boko Haram sympathizers. The ubiquitous SAN'S are already preparing their briefs in preparation for a titanic legal battle. They will indeed be smiling to the bank like Chester shire Cats. Things fall apart and the centre cannot hold as PDP descends into anarchy with 3 factional Chairmen. Hummmmmmmm! What a pity.

USMAN MOHAMMED
Lapai-Niger State
07060815443
[email protected]

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