A’Ibom PDP: Before the bubble bursts

Obong Paul Ekpo

BY NATHAN UWEH

It is no longer news that the much anticipated 2015 general elections have come and gone with the victorious team jubilating ecstatically to the envy of the loser. It is a common knowledge that in Nigeria like in most African countries, there is no place for political losers as they are treated like pariahs  where nobody is supposed to even greet  talk to. Once you fail, you are on your own. No wonder politicians do everything to cling to power.

A close look of some former notable politicians of the PDP hue who until few months ago used to hold sway at the centre will confirm this. From former President Jonathan to his wife Dame Patience and their numerous aides, it has been one embarrassment or the other. Mrs. Jonathan was allegedly denied the use of the VIP Longue at the Port Harcourt airport; though airport officials later said that she was not denied the use of the VIP Longue but was only not allowed to use a taxi to the tarmac. Some former security aides attached to them are either dead mysteriously or are being persecuted by the new government like the case of Senior Agent, Gordon Obua, the chief security officer to the former president.
The All Progressive Congress, APC that won election at the centre is still behaving as if it is still in the opposition. The party has failed to different its new position as the party in power as it still spurns countless propaganda to rubbish the non existing PDP. Two after dethroning the PDP, APC is yet to find its rhythm forcing Nigerians to believe that it was not ready for power. Rather than own up to her short comings, APC is heaping the blame of it failure to hit the ground running since its inauguration on May 29 on the PDP.  Offering a lame excuse recently on the slow pace of the Buhari administration to take off, APC spokesman, Lai Mohammed said the government was trying to clean the mess left behind by the PDP after 16 years in power.
In all these, one thing is clear about the intention of the APC and its government; it never expected to win that election. The party expected the PDP to rig the presidential election so that it can use that pretext of a rigged election to let loose monsters from its terror cells in the north and south west to cause commotion in the country thus serving as a perfect ploy to bring in the military via a coup d tat to impose a strict sharia and marshal laws on the country. Their excuse would have been that they were doing it to prevent the disintegration of the country as predicted by the United State secret intelligence report which predicted that the country will break up in 2015.  But since the Peoples Democratic Party was smarter, it conceded power gracefully to the consternation of the unprepared opposition which is finding it difficult to settle into business. Right now APC and its government is resorting to open blackmail, intimidation, and arms twisting of the opposition to cover up for its inadequacies especially in terms of delivering the dividends of democracy and good governance.
The PDP has been very mature in its new position as the official opposition party in the country though most of its actions and reactions on certain issues are out off mark but not incendiary. Its propaganda machinery is too reactionary showing a clear incompetence of Olisah Metuh to be the proactive and offensive spokesman needed by the opposition to pre empts the government.  Before we sing nunc dimitis for PDP at the centre, we have to wait and see what becomes of the APC and her focus less goons there.
The case of the APC is even worst in Akwa Ibom state as the party from day one had prepaid itself for the odious task of contesting PDP victory at the tribunal. It never staked anything in the governorship but from day one was busy preparing for a fresh election. There was a time it was the talk of the town shortly after the result of the presidential election was announced Professor Attahiru Jega of INEC that when the then General Buhari takes over he will conduct a fresh election in Akwa Ibom where they, APC is sure to win.   Buhari is now the imaginary secondary school godfather that will rescue you from the claws of the big bully PDP.  True to their myopic and shallow mind sets, APC in the state is carrying out wild and ferocious underground campaigns, mobilizing the electorate for a re run election early next year.
Their tools are the usual blackmail and name droppings that worked magic for them at the centre during the presidential elections. They are promising more than a dollar to the naira exchange rate. They have even gone ahead to promise civil servants lucrative appointments insisting that  the present PDP government in the state is anti civil servants as it has not considered any of them worthy of any appointments. Just like the typical secondary school weakling, their big brothers, Buhari and Tinubu will deal decisively with their alleged PDP tormentors once and for all by pushing them into government house, Uyo by whatever means. To them and their notorious false hopes, it is only the APC that will guarantee the development of the Ibaka Deep Sea Port as a PDP government which is in the opposition will not have the capacity to initiate and complete such a huge project. Apart from the above, the APC in the state is busy recruiting new members on daily basics on the pretence that it is the numerical strength of party members that will encourage the government at the centre to do more for the state.
Though they are applying subtlety coated in subterfuge to carry out these campaigns, the impact it is gathering is tsunamic.  If the Election petition tribunal currently sitting in Abuja due to their lies and misinformation behaves funny, the PDP in the state might likely be caught off guard. The simple reason being that it has more or less after forming the government becomes desperate to execute its industrialization agenda. While it is busy trying to implement its development blueprint, the opposition is busy sabotaging it with all kinds of innuendoes worst than what happened during the build up to the general elections in April.
The PDP government needs to put its act together and know that even as it is busy trying to establish industries all over the place that there is an urgent need for the governor to embark on an extensive ‘thank you’ campaign across the state. This should be facilitated by the Bureau of Political and Legislative Affairs in collaboration with the government.
The political and legislative affairs bureau is the best platform to establish an interface between the government, the party and the people. It is also the government agency that is saddled with the first line charge of reaching out to the people to interpret the political and economic directions of the government.
The bureau has a responsibility to comb the entire state in its reach out campaign for reconciliations amongst the different interest groups in the party. Such groups who feel used and abandoned should be reintegrated into the main stream of the party. This will help the party to work with one voice, mind and direction.
The Bureau of political and legislative matters should deploy its wealth of inexhaustible experience and in grassroots mobilization to rally party members and the entire state in selling the new government. Periodic meetings with those at the grassroots   will not only give a sense of belonging to party members but will also enable the youths to asses opportunities available to them in the party programmes. The Bureau cannot just fold its arms and watch the opposition take the government to shreds with heartless propaganda
What the APC is doing right now in the state is an eye opener to every politician. At least it has helped to remind the PDP elites that party politics does not end after victory at the polls. Members need to be carried along in the next phase which is governance. Everybody needs to be carried along else they will be   delusional   and bored with the system as the next election may not really interest them again.
The PDP needs to put its act together by rewarding those who worked for her victory for as the holy book says, ‘a labourer is entitled to his wages’. This was her greatest undoing the general elections even though Adamu Mauzu had earlier warned the then President, Goodluck Jonathan against neglecting those who worked for the party’s victory as according to him,’ reward has a way of oiling the party machineries and sustain loyalty.