Facing the challenge of PDP chair

But beyond the pride, the song and dance of occupying the office, the sheer size of the party poses a huge challenge of leadership for whoever wears the crown: how does he contend with the task of managing the disparate elements and conflicting tendencies that make up the party? How does he, for instance, in […]

But beyond the pride, the song and dance of occupying the office, the sheer size of the party poses a huge challenge of leadership for whoever wears the crown: how does he contend with the task of managing the disparate elements and conflicting tendencies that make up the party?

How does he, for instance, in the current circumstance of the lingering dissonance over zoning policy within the party, manage the lingering tension and intrigues without allowing the constant specter of the contention to cause a collateral damage to the integrity of the party and its leadership?

The task of rising to the occasion by galvanizing deep-seated interest in and passion for some redemptive actions that will pull back the behemoth, which is the PDP, from the path of self-destruction, is imperative.   He must have a handle on this.

The party is blessed with experienced party men who can accomplish this.  And here is the good news: PDP leaders and members do not need to go far in their quest for someone to saddle with this task.  They have, right under their nose, a young and experienced hand in Gambo Lawan, former National Chair of the defunct Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM).

It was during his leadership of the GDM, under the transition programme of the late General Sani Abacha, that Lawan defined the political trajectory that he charted from the confines of Borno politics, where he was chair of the Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (the biggest council in the state), into the vast mosaic of national politics.

When he assumed the leadership of the party alongside his counterparts to wit: Isa Mohammed (United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP); Barnabas Gemade (Congress for National Consensus, CNC); Suleiman Ahmed (Democratic Party of Nigeria, DPN); and Magaji Abdullahi (National Congress Party of Nigeria, NCPN), he was, perhaps, the least known nationally.

But by the time the transition programme almost ran its full course with the effortless endorsement of Abacha as the consensus presidential candidate of four parties, it was Gambo Lawan’s GDM that upped ante and dared to be different by placing a democratic hurdle before Abacha.

It was the collective decision of the GDM National Executive Committee (NEC) under Lawan to throw the presidential ticket open for contestation in April 1998 that heightened the political drama at the party’s Maiduguri convention.  I was one of the Abuja-based journalists that covered the convention.

The party, which was under the stranglehold of some Abacha’s Presidency forces, was the only one of the five so derisively referred to as “five leprous fingers” of the same hand by the southwest opposition political elite, that dared to do the right thing, seemingly.

Lawan’s NEC had refused to consensually endorse Abacha, who was not a member of the GDM, as its presidential candidate. Some elements in the party had argued at the convention that without first resigning as military Head of State and joining the party, Abacha could not participate in the party’s presidential primaries.

The theatrics of converging on Maiduguri and closely monitoring the political process at the stadium by presidency forces, who were reporting the step-by-step developments at the convention to Aso Rock Presidential Villa, was a classical case of frightening intrigues and cold calculations of which detective novels are made.

The party had subjected the nomination of its candidate to the democratic due process by allowing Mohammed Dikko Yusuf and Tunji Braithwaite to throw their hats in the ring.  With the duo in the race and present at the venue of the convention (presidential primaries), there was the hurdle of bringing in Abacha’s name on the ballot of the party wherein he was not an official member of the party.

Although the intimidation and the arm-twisting that manifested through the predetermined amendment of the party constitution to pave the way for Abacha to be presented as a candidate without resigning as military Head of State succeeded, the GDM presidential primaries was, indeed, a different kettle of fish.

But it was to the credit of Lawan that he allowed the wishes of his NEC members to throw the field open for Yusuf and Braithwaite.  He could have, in concert with the Presidency forces, shot down their wishes and railroaded the party into the path already taken by the four other parties: presenting and endorsing Abacha as their consensus presidential candidate.

That was the defining moment and backdrop in political party management and party leadership that have now placed Lawan on a solid ground to jostle for the national chair of the ruling PDP.  There is certainly something about Lawan that strengthened his resolve to ensure that the GDM observed the democratic due process.

Whatever it is, an opportunity has presented itself for that virtue to be investigated, interrogated, harnessed and harvested.  Regardless, the fact is, Lawan has experience on his side and, quite surprisingly, he is just 53 years old, the same age with President Goodluck Jonathan.

There are problems within the party that must be quickly solved ahead of the 2015 general elections so that the internal wrangling and/or intra-party squabbles that dealt a blow on the party in the last general elections, especially in the southwest zone, are resolved and not allowed to repeat themselves.

In fact, this would require the versatility and sagacity of someone with a can-do spirit, someone who is ready to go the whole hog and embrace positive compromises in the interest of harmony within the party. I do not harbor any doubts that Lawan fits the bill.  He has the advantage of being in the same generational group with many of the PDP governors and with whom they (the governors) would be able to relate horizontally.

Indeed, it is with utmost sense of responsibility that I recommend Lawan to all stakeholders in the party for the challenge of leading the fresh charge to rebuild the party and equip it for complete overrun of the opposition parties in the next general elections.

Ojeifo, Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine, contributed this piece from Abuja