Makarfi's Leadership Of The Pdp: The Same Old Song And Dance

Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in a state of ecstasy and euphoria following rulings in favor of Senator Ahmed Makarfi's faction of the party. The judgement brought to an end the deep chasm and hostilities that divided members of the party into Makarfi and Sherif factions. It has renewed the confidence of party stalwarts, who have been tongue tied following the party's dismal performance in 2015 general election. The euphoria for victory at the court has given PDP the audacity to rewrite history and boast of sweeping a landslide victory in the election, which some of its hopeful contenders may not live to see in 2019. The ruling All Progressive Congress, which snatched power from the PDP, a party that arrogantly bragged to hold on to power for a consecutive 60 uninterrupted years of looting and election rigging, had been voted out in 2015 by the electorates in Nigeria, after 16 years. The same old politicians who milked the nation dry through 16 years of luckluster performance and kleptocracy are now out with a renewed vigor and self confidence, campaigning and assuring Nigerians of a better future if voted into power in 2019. Mr. Good Luck Jonathan, the man who led Nigeria for 6 dark years on the platform of the PDP, and who presided over the election that rescued Nigeria from brigandism and ruination, told leaders of the party that current efforts at reforming the party which gave victory to Makarfi are “a clear sign” the PDP will win in 2019. In rejoicing with Makarfi, the Deputy President of the senate, a die hard PDP protogonist and stalwart, Ike Ekweremadu, told the nation that God gave victory to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) because he loves Nigerians. Peoples Democratic Party former Ministers Forum who met in Abuja recently, had resolved to field one of its members as the party’s presidential candidate to clench power from the ruling APC in 2019. On the other hand, Strategic Review Committee for the repositioning of the PDP, shameless foot soldiers of the party, gun for hire propagandists, loud mouth champions of identity politics, religious bigots and political jobbers like Professor Jerry Ghana, Femi Fani Kayode and Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu Turaki are working tirelessly in earnest, abusing and manufacturing lies to woo Nigerians to PDP against 2019. The noise being made by the PDP shows that our politicians take us for ordinary fools who can be used at will. They tend to forget that Nigerians are not gullible or myopic lot. The much talked about failure of the two-year old APC led goverment, which its opponents use to campaign against it, is not an opportunity for the PDP to soar up its declining popularity. Nigerians are discerning and focused people who can read between the lines, every statement made by politicians. If the PDP feels that the excruciating economic pains and political chicanery it surreptitiously but mischiviously employed to get our sympathy and increase the diminishing number of its gullible cheerleaders, senator Makarfi and his team will be disappointed. The esposure by the National Security Adviser, late General Andrew Owoye Azazi will suffice at this juncture. Azazi blamed the rise of insurgence by the fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram in the country on the internal wranglings of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The bombings, suicide attacks and jail breaks that have been raging the northern part of the country “could be traced to the politics of exclusion of the PDP in the region,” according to Azazi. The former NSA made the sweeping rebuke during the South-south economic summit, where the collapse of the nation’s security challenge was deliberated on. He quickly pointed out that even if all leaders of Boko Haram are arrested, "I don’t think the problem would end, because there are tentacles," he concluded. Despites the genuine effort by President Muhammadu Buhari to crush the fire power of the murderous Boko Haram, it is still killing innocent Nigerians through suicide attacks and ambushes in the North East, partly due to insidious "tentacles" that finance its operations. The North East has been, and it is still the theater of violence orchestrated by the heartless Boko Haram. It is the part of Nigeria that feels the direct brunt of untold devastation inflicted upon its people-the innocent victims of a senseless carnage. Our houses have been burnt, our property destroyed before our gloomy, forlone and helpless faces. Our daughters, the fruits of our eyes, and wives; our pride, have been abducted, imprisoned and made as sex slaves by their wicked captors. Our children-our most valued treasure- have been put asunder and turned into orphans and destitutes, hewers of wood and drawers of water. In a nutshell, we have been reduced to the "ruined and wreched" survivors of the Boko Haram killers. Do peole who have not experienced this unprecedented violence expect us to give a thumb up or shake hands with the people who were supposed to have given us protection, but deliberately refused to take action while were being mercilessly killed? The new leadership of the PDP under Senator Makarfi is akin to having an old wine in new bottles. We don't expect anything new from it but the same old song and dance. By Saleh Ibrahim Bature