The Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in an address
delivered at the National Convention of the People’s Democratic Party (P.D.P)
on Saturday, 24thMarch, 2012, at the Eagle Square, Abuja, appealed
to his party members in this manner, “As Nigeria’s foremost political
party, the PDP should continue to lead by example with an utmost sense of
responsibility in order to set the pace in the march to consolidate and
stabilize our democracy. I urge all our members to remain committed, and to be
prepared to continue to work for the interest of our party and the country.”
President Jonathan in that same speech urged all members of the P.D.P.
to remain united and place the party’s interest above personal ambition.
From what we have seen so far in the case of Edo State, since the
conclusion of Governorship election on July 14, 2012, retired General Charles
Airhiavbere and some of his supporters in the state chapter of P.D.P, seem not
to take the advice of the President and the entire P.D.P. leadership into
consideration. The President from the body language of the General and his
supporters in Edo State is seen and regarded as any other party member whose
admonition could be ignored. This is not good for the P.D.P. as a party and it
is also not good for the country. Hence, my humble intervention.
To drive my point home, I am constrained to refer to Arizona Senator
John McCain’s concession speech entitled “American People Have Spoken”
delivered in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 4, 2008. The day Barack Obama was
declared the 44thPresident of the United States and the first
African American to hold that office.
What is however instructive in Senator McCain speech, was his desire
above any other consideration to have an American where the votes of the people
count and their wish respected. Senator McCain went on to say in the opening of
that speech, “My friends, we have – we have come to the end of a long journey.
The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly”.
“A little while ago, I had the honour of calling Senator Barack Obama to
congratulate him”. For me as a journalist, this is the spirit in any decent
political set up. In all honesty, it was this type of spirit that every true
son and daughter of Edo State expected to see after the results of the July 14
Governorship election was announced by INEC. Disappointingly, however, this was
not the case. Retired General Charles Airhiavbere and his few supporters
have since opted to continue with his case at the Edo State Election Petition
Tribunal, even though the party under whose ticket he contested the election
had since washed its hands from the petition. The P.D.P. deputy governorship
candidate in that same election, Mr. Johnson Abolagba, has equally abandoned
the petition. Saying “My loyalty to my party, the P.D.P. has never been in
doubt... I am convinced, as a party man, that the Edo P.D.P. and the position
it has taken regarding the election is superior to my individual ambition or
the ambition of any member of the party”.
Now, the questions that readily come to mind, is, why is retired General
Airhiavbere holding on to his personal decision in this matter. Is the
General’s individual ambition in any way superior to the overall interest of
the P.D.P. in Edo State? What leadership example is he trying to portray by
ignoring his party’s decision and directive? I am particularly worried, because
General Airhiavbere, just retired from a regimented set up- the Nigerian Army,
permits me to assume that he chose the military because of the character and
nature of the profession. I know the military to be an honourable and
disciplined profession. His recent behaviour is not at all a good testimony to
the Nigerian Armed Forces where discipline is supposed to be supreme. I am
therefore at a loss, as to the reason(s) why the General has refused to obey
his party’s decision. However, my personal experience in life shows that
discipline does not invite supervision by an external force but is imposed by
the individual from within. Indeed discipline is either self-discipline or it
is nothing at all.
What General Airhiavbere has so far failed to realise, is that, whatever
invariably become the outcome of the Edo State Electoral Petition Tribunal,
will not in any way diminish Adams Oshiomole’s popularity in Edo State today.
He has earned this via hard work and purposeful leadership which has been
lacking in Edo State for some time now. To be simply put, he has performed as a
governor. Evidence on ground in Edo State has showed that after Dr. Samuel
Osagbovo Ogbemudia’s regime as Military Governor of defunct Mid-Western
Nigeria, no other governor has been able to do the works Oshiomole had done in
his first term in office. He has been able to prove once again, that it is
possible to run a government with available resources in a classy, efficient
and considerate manner, in Edo State. Why for God sake should such a man be
distracted from delivering the basic dividends of democracy to the people?
I presume these were the entire factors that the P.D.P. leadership
considered both at the state and the national level in arriving at their
decision to withdrawal the petition from the Edo State Election Petition
Tribunal. For the information of the General and his likes, I am forced to
divulge this little secret, if this will make him and those pushing him, come
to their senses, and learn to be true party people. Sometimes in May 2012, I
was privilege to join some highly respected Nigerians in the dinner table of
the P.D.P. National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in his private residence in
Abuja. Alhaji Tukur as a true democrat decided to know the level of preparation
for the Edo State Governorship election and sought to know the exact feelings
of the people of Edo State with regard to that election, not from party
sycophants but from people who are ready to give an untainted account of the
political situation in the state. I listened with rapt attention in that
informal meeting as an indigene of Edo State, as the National Chairman was told
the home truth that it will be extremely difficult for his party to re-claim
the governorship position from Mr. Oshiomole for now, I must confess that the
ACN as a party was not the issue in this matter. The P.D.P. National Chairman
was told that the Edo State people would do all they could to ensure that
Oshiomole was re-elected because he had truly performed, and that the people of
Edo State were not only in love with him but solidly behind him like an Iroko
tree, so as to consolidate the gains already made in the state. In spite of
this fact, Alhaji Tukur as a true leader insisted that everything should be
done to support the candidature of the General and the P.D.P. He said after all
it was up to the people of Edo State to decide who they want as governor comes
July 14th. Although, Alhaji Tukur, made no other comment, it was
obvious that he was ready to accept whatever the outcome of that election would
be, so long as it was free and fair. As far as he was concerned, himself and
his party were ready to respect the wishes of the Edo State people. The Edo
State P.D.P. and national leadership of the party will forever earn my respect
at the way and manner they conducted themselves after the Edo people have
spoken.
But to be candid, I am worried about the way and manner General
Airhiavbere and his supporters have been carrying on, it has become clear, that
there is indeed no better place to observe the thrusting indiscipline in
Nigerian behaviour than in politics: frenetic energy, rudeness, noisiness –
they are all there in abundance, held in place, as it were, by that vulgar
piousness (which we always mistake for piety). My question is what point is the
general trying to make? Will his recalcitrant behaviour make him now and in the
future a better politician? Is this not a case of rampaging selfishness which
is another name for indiscipline?
I am worried because I know, that leaders are, in the language of
psychologists, role models. People look up to them and copy their actions,
behaviour and even mannerisms. Therefore, if a leader lacks discipline, the
effect is apt to spread automatically down to his followers. The less
discerning among these (for example the vast majority) will accept his action
quite simply as “the done thing,” while the more critical may worry about it
for a while and then settle the matter by telling themselves that the normal
rules of social behaviour need not apply to those in power. Or those who seek
to acquire power.
Recently also, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, cried out that the party was losing its members to
opposition political parties.
He attributed the exodus to crises bedeviling the
party across the country, just as he inaugurated an eight-member committee to
reconcile all aggrieved members of the party.
The Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas committee might not
be able to do much, if party members are not ready to obey the instruction of
the leadership of their party. This is the kernel of the matter. Alabo, that I
know very well is straight, sincere and rock solid and can hardly stomach any
form of indiscipline. It is either some party members shape in or shape out,
that I know his committee would advice.
The PDP National Chairman rightly put his finger on
the reasons why P.D.P. has long stop making any political head way in Edo State
when he said, “for instance, the PDP lost the recent governorship election as a
result of infighting in the party”. He stressed:“See Edo, why did we lose the
election? It was because of factions arising from misunderstanding. It is like
big dogs fighting and the lean one came to take the bone away. It is important
for me to reconcile our people, to rebuild our party and you cannot rebuild the
party unless you reconcile.”
Mr. Chairman Sir, for all this to make any meaning,
retired General Charles Airhiavbere and his supporters must be prevailed upon to withdrawal
their petition at the Edo State Electoral Petition Tribunal and learn to toe
the party line. Reconciliation without obeying party instruction and order will
not in any way help the P.D.P as a party.
Mr. Omonhinmin is a
Media Consultant based in Lagos.
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