PDP’s 13 years of disaster

Most Nigerians then believed that our socio-economic problems were essentially brought by our long stay under military rule and these problems would go underground as soon as civilian democratic governance was enthroned. But after 13 years in power, things worsened under the PDP, with Nigeria being ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in […]

Most Nigerians then believed that our socio-economic problems were essentially brought by our long stay under military rule and these problems would go underground as soon as civilian democratic governance was enthroned. But after 13 years in power, things worsened under the PDP, with Nigeria being ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, with poverty as one of our distinguishing features. An average Nigerian today is seething with frustration, disillusionment and total loss of hope owing to the way the PDP governments in the last 13 years managed our lives.

Though the PDP has often claimed that the party adhered to the vision of its founding fathers ‘to form a large, all encompassing democratic party, with shoulders broad and strong enough as bulwark against military adventurism’ in practice what the PDP creates or created was a party run by few which lacks internal democracy and the will to carry everybody along. According to Reuben Abati, who now works with the PDP government, in his earlier column in The Guardian newspaper contrary to the PDP’s claim of national cohesion and keeping the military in the barracks, “Nigeria is as much a divided society today as it was in 1960. And the PDP should not take credit for keeping the military out of political power. The credit should go to the hapless people of Nigeria who in the face of the inefficiency of the PDP have nonetheless accepted democracy as a kind of blackmail”. And in terms of governance what the PDP was able to give Nigerians in the past 13 years was “tears, sorrow and blood” with deadly ethno-religious riots in virtually all the regions of the federation.

The PDP, contrary to its claims of upholding the vision of its founding fathers, the party in the last 13 years compounded the socio-economic problems the nation inherited from the 15 years of military misrule and in fact, what politicians did under the tutelage of PDP in the last 13 years was even worse than what the military did since independence. The brazen looting and pilfering of public funds under the PDP is unimaginable. The looting in the oil industry alone cannot be compared to any, even the Gulf War windfall scandal of the IBB era. Corruption under the PDP in the last 13 years is so deeply rooted, so widespread, that it was in effect a way of governance, one that could not be quickly overturned.

An estimated 20,000 people were killed since 1999 as a result of ethno-religious crises in many parts of the country and since 2010, the country is made to suffer deadly attacks from Boko Haram, which is now a tool the PDP uses to wreck havoc in some parts of the country, all in their desperate attempt to rule the country forever. The Boko Haram issue alone is enough for the PDP government to bury itself in shame; the nation is now policed by the military. How true then is their assertion of keeping the military in the barracks?

However, the PDP still has time to redeem itself. Instead of using crude methods to ensure stay in power, the party has 3 years to turn things around and accept true democracy where majority have their way and the minority are given their rights as citizens. But as we are now, the PDP might find it very difficult to use coercion in maintaining its dominance on the political landscape of the country beyond 2015. And it could also be important for the party to heed the advice of prominent Nigerians, and opposition parties and change the way they supervise elections, the way they govern the country and the way they manage public trust. PDP can still be a great political party despite the party being taken over by what many percieve as unscrupulous and rogue elements. But unless they change their ways of doing things, free themselves from military mentality and adopt civility in the way they run the party and the nation they are paddling the country towards doom.

Kabiru Danladi Lawanti is of Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria