THE COALITION CONUNDRUM AND THE EXISTENTIAL FEARS OF THE RULING PARTY
By Adakole Elijah
I have been inundated by a plethora of introspective musings regarding the tumultuous kerfuffle surrounding the internecine implosion that has beset the People’s Democratic Party in recent months, precipitating an unprecedented consolidation of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
This pervasive anomie, orchestrated by some of the party’s apparatchiks during the last electoral cycle, has continued to gain momentum in the aftermath, thereby exacerbating the existential crisis.
It is a matter of public record that prominent party members have vociferously avowed to lend their unequivocal support to the reelection bid of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the stalwart leader of the All Progressives Congress, effectively relinquishing the People’s Democratic Party to the ruling party’s hegemonic grasp.
Every attempt to extricate the party from the Machiavellian machinations of its internecine freebooters has proven abortive, prompting the progressive elements to exercise their constitutional prerogatives of thought, movement, and association by decamping to the African Democratic Congress.
Since their mass exodus, the new leaders of the ADC have been subjected to a barrage of vitriolic diatribes, with Senator David Mark being singled out for particularly egregious excoriation.
His successor, Senator Abba Moro, has been at the forefront of these attacks, averring that the decision to decamp was predicated on grievances and frustrated expectations.
In a subsequent media interaction, he further fulminated, “Don’t forget that we still have two former Senate Presidents and many ex-governors already still in the PDP. They are not walking. Sometimes, some of these exits are good riddance to bad rubbish because some of them may have been responsible for the crisis we have in this party today.”
This message was unequivocally directed at Senator Mark, with some social media detractors concocting a specious and fallacious narrative that the former Senate President’s electoral success was inextricably linked to Senator Abba Moro’s putative influence.
In a rejoinder aimed at vindicating the truth, I scripted a riposte, “The Sanctimonious Saga of Senator Mark: A Rebuttal to Erroneous Narratives,” wherein I emphatically asserted that the prevailing narrative was fundamentally flawed.
Permit me to illuminate the veracity of the situation. Senator Mark has consistently triumphed in electoral contests sans the incumbent Senator’s putative imprimatur. Pray tell, was it the incumbent’s companionship that granted the resounding victories in 1998, 2003, and his epochal triumph over two illustrious Generals in 2006? Nay! The incumbent merely ascended to the saddle after Senator Mark assumed the Senate Presidency.
It is a matter of public record that Chief Benson Abounu, a luminary of unimpeachable integrity, served as the inaugural Director-General of Senator Mark’s Campaign Organisation, ably assisted by Chief Donald Agida, the Campaign Secretary.
Furthermore, Chief Enyi Obande, a paragon of statesmanship, preceded Chief Abounu in this esteemed role. The incumbent merely joined the fray in 2011, a relative latecomer to the Senator’s campaign caravan.
Moreover, when the incumbent lent his support to General Onoja during the People’s Democratic Party primary in 2006 at the Otukpo Township Stadium, what was the outcome of that endeavour? And when, under Akume’s directives, the incumbent mobilised the people of Benue South against Senator Mark in 2006 preparatory to the 2007 senatorial elections, what was the resultant fallout? Again, during the rerun election between Senator Mark and Comrade Dan Onje, it was Hon Chris Adaba Abah, a stalwart of unwavering dedication, who coordinated the campaign and won the election with aplomb.
Are you insinuating that the former President of the Senate, a titan of Nigerian politics, is bereft of the right to seek political expression outside the aegis of the People’s Democratic Party? If the incumbent Senator has chosen to air his grievances against Senator Mark, that is his prerogative. However, the former Senate President is not bound by the same script.
This stratagem of denigrating Senator David Mark under the guise of fomenting discord between him and the incumbent Senator may not ultimately redound to the benefit of your candidate, for Senator Mark is not a participant in the same competitive arena. I implore you, do not craft a narrative that would suggest the incumbent Senator is the puppet master pulling the strings through your agency.
Back to the bone of contention at stake. What is amiss with the ADC coalition when the People’s Democratic Party unrepentantly appears to be colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress? Critical stakeholders in the People’s Democratic Party have variously indicated their desires and determinations to present President Tinubu as their sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election.
To test the viability of this transaction, the People’s Democratic Party had gone into an arrangement with the All Progressives Congress to present consensus chairmanship candidates in the forthcoming local government elections in Rivers State.
Why quarrel with others for doing what you started and continuing to do with glee? What is good for the gander is also good for the geese.
Elijah, the living ancestor (Adalekwu) writes from O’EJE Fortress, Otada-Otukpo.
