By Dan
Amor
You must be aware of
the current travails of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the former governor of Borno State and
immediate past Acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose lot
we no longer envy. At first, this politician was seen by a section of the PDP
Governors Forum as a messiah who would help recoup the glory of the party
having lost out in the intricate power calculus that was the 2015 general
election. Indeed, he had a cult following in these matters.
*Sheriff |
The followership comprised awed admirers
of this controversial politician as well as those decidedly unfamiliar with the
man but adored him for his proven intrepidity, his loquaciousness and his
heroic willingness to speak truth to power no matter whose ox was gored.
Everybody knows how Sheriff, a master in the art of political defection or what
one humourist called “jum- pology” (the art of jumping from one political party
to another) emerged as chairman of the party. Despite the disdain with which
many party faithful held him, some thought that, given his enormous financial
energy and his ethnic affiliation, he would help stabilize the party within an
interim period of three months during which his committee would superintend a
national convention.
That was not to be! Due to his legendary
loudness and implacable capacity to advertise his ego coupled with his
incredible personal ambition and intellectual as- sumptions, party stakeholders
especially the Board of Trustees members, former governors, National Assembly
caucuses, state chapters and youth councils started suspecting his subterranean
moves as he was incapable of uniting the diverse forces to- wards one
direction. The fear was that Sheriff had planned to maintain a vice grip of the
party till 2018 and then turn himself to a phony presidential candidate. This
resulted in the stern opposition Sheriff encountered by party members who did
all they could to redeem their party’s image by invoking its constitution to
organ- ize a fresh national convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state
capital last May at the expiration of Sheriff ’s interim tenure.
The convention attracted all the notable
members of the party including Sheriff who agreed to the convocation of the
convention in tandem with the party’s constitution. He was to bolt out of the
convention venue when he sensed that all his permutations would not hold water.
As a party determined to redeem its battered image and forge a united front
towards providing alternative platform for Nigerians to effect lasting changes
in all ramifications, there was an amazing bout of consensus.
The outcome was the emergence of Senators
Ahmed Makarfi and Ben Obi as Chairman and secretary, respectively, of a new
Caretaker Committee that would pilot the affairs of the party and conduct
another convention after ninety day. Having lost his interim National Working
Committee chairman- ship, Sheriff returned to the drawing board to plot some
divisive means of throwing spanners into the works of the party. Whereas the
Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee’s effort at reaching out to stakeholders is
gathering momentum, Sheriff emerged from his co- coon, broke into the party’s
national headquarters and declared himself the national chairman. Even
erstwhile protégés and fanatical admirers of this Borno-born politician began
to shudder. Outraged, the massed punditry of the vibrant and ever-crusading
Nigerian press came out in full cry. A spectacle, this: the “Chairman” at bay!
And since the new caretaker committee chairman, Makarfi and his secretary, Ben
Obi have the sympathy of the Press, having been accorded full mandate by all
stakeholders in the party according to its constitution, the world now knows
that Sheriff is a spoiler. On Wednesday June 15, all the papers in the country
circulated Makarfi’s revelation that Sheriff is a pimp who has made himself a
willing tool in the hands of the ruling All Progressives Congress to
destabilize the PDP.
This development coupled with the bull-dog
tenacity of Sheriff and his cohorts shows that the Borno-born politician is
acting a script. It is an established fact that certain PDP governors
unknowingly played into the hands of Sheriff and his sponsors when they foisted
him on the party. If they had not entered into an unholy covenant with Sheriff,
the nation would have been spared this avoidable trauma. He who brings home
ants-infested faggots should expect the visit of lizards. Sadly, it is not that
the party lacks honest and sincere leaders. But trust the embattled Sheriff,
sticking to his guns that he is a messiah while he is not. How can you allow
your skin to be flayed for a pot of peppersoup while at the same time parading
as the one elected to salvage your party? Who elected you? Edmund Burke, the
English political philosopher said many years ago that a politician’s platoon
is his support base. If the party’s BoT, National Assembly caucuses, state
governors, elders, youths, state executive councils including those who worked
in your erstwhile National Working Committee, are now in one camp against you,
who are you working with? Where is your support base? Sheriff should give
Nigerians a breather. We are so familiar with these shenanigans to be coned
time and time again.
You allegedly had a nocturnal meeting with
a North West APC governor who promised you security and other perquisites in
order to disorganize your party and you are truly manifesting all forms of
primordial tendencies before our very eyes. Where is your toga of
statesmanship? What the APC has shown clearly is that it has an unparalleled
disdain for the rule of law.
The danger in its action is that it would
promote impunity and imperil not just individual safety but the safety and
freedom of our nascent democracy. No doubt, the moves and pronouncements of its
officers since the inception of this administration can only validate the claim
of the PDP that the APC is not comfortable with a strong opposition. It hints
at a ploy to conclude with some cloak of formality that we are yet headed for a
one-party dictatorship. On his part, the PDP should, however, continue to wear
its victim’s robe with subdued ostentation and close rank and work with the
Makarfi team for victory will smile on them some day. It is no tea party to act
as an opposition party in a season of high profile inanities.
*Dan Amor,
a public affairs analyst, resides in Abuja
(danamor98@gmail.com)
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