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“There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just permanent interests.”
—Carol Moseley Braun
By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Somehow, there is something beautifully positive about the fact that Dr Alex Ekwueme, Chief Tony Anenih and several other notable members of the G-34, around whom other people coalesced, to form the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in late 1998, are not alive to see the state of PDP today.
It is somewhat interesting too, that former President Olusegun Obasanjo retired from partisan politics long ago and therefore has been immune from the self-destructive virus, which infected the PDP ahead of the 2023 General Elections, when anti-party activities burst on the political scene, pro-max, as said in Nigerian parlance.
The virus began to evolve in a pernicious process that virologists refer to as gain of function (GOF) mutation. Typically, GOF is a situation where a virus, after successfully crossing from one type of host into a different type, in a relatively crude form, begins to adapt in the new host and gains functionality to be able to ultimately overwhelm and destroy it. That in some sense is what has happened to PDP.
Despite its imperfections, PDP was able to hold power for 16 years, due primarily to the presence of strong enforcers like late Chief Tony Anenih and Chief Obasanjo, who bestrode the Presidency for eight years.
Ekwueme and several other respected PDP leaders from the South-East, who are late, would have been grieving today over the death of PDP in the geopolitical zone.
Manipulative forces outside the South-East and their collaborators from within the geopolitical zone together drew the party to the slaughter house.
Governor Mbah and other party faithful struggled and worked hard, earnestly hoping that they could pull off a political version of the 1989 Dammam Miracle, when the Nigerian U-20 football team beat the USSR team on penalties, at the FIFA World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia.
Circumstances beyond his control drove Mbah to resign from the party and pitch his tent with the All Progressives Congress (APC), effectively following in the footsteps of Senator Kenneth Nnamani, Senator Chris Ngige, Governor Hope Uzodimma, Rochas Okorocha, Ikedi Ohakim, David Umahi, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and many other notable political juggernauts from the South-East, who also blamed the party’s history of not being nice to the South-East for their decision to join the APC.
On this score of being intentional in pursuing permanent interests, marketing strategist and perception management consultant, Joseph Ibezim, fully agrees with the position of Saul D. Alinsky, who said: “Political realists see the world as it is: an arena of power politics moved primarily by perceived immediate self-interests, where morality is rhetorical rationale for expedient action and self-interest.”
It is only from this perspective engraved in marble by Jimmy Dean, who posited, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination,” that a fair-minded person can understand and interpret the decision of Mbah to make political hay while the sun is still shining. After all, the Bible says in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
When the time and season became ripe, Mbah moved to pitch his 2027 re-election tent on what he had assured himself to be firm ground, a party with a stable internal governance structure that would give him more certainty in his quest for a second term ticket.
As our sister publication, Daily Sun noted in a report, his defection was a political earthquake, given that he moved with his entire cabinet, lawmakers, council chairmen and party executives. It would take a miracle for the PDP to remain alive in the South-East as he was the last man standing, being the only PDP governor in the geopolitical zone.
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As Vice President Shettima Kashim declared, Mbah is now at the top of the APC pecking order: “From our convention and constitution, the governor is the leader of the party in his state. Your Excellency, you are now the leader of the APC family in Enugu State,” he said, assuring that all Federal Government initiatives planned for the South East will certainly reach the region.
He said further: “We are one big family tied to a common destiny. Rest assured that you will be treated justly and fairly.”
For Mbah, his defection was necessitated by the need to align Enugu’s vision of transformation with the national reform agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
“Today, I stand before you to announce a break from the past and to share a decision that will shape the road ahead. This concerns our values, how we organise ourselves politically and how we secure the future of our projects and our people,” he said, adding, “The PDP supported us through a demanding campaign and joined in celebrating the victory. Yet, leadership sometimes demands difficult, even painful decisions in the service of higher principles and goals.
“And there always comes a time when everyone must make a bold choice to determine their destiny. Today, after long reflection, we have made the decision to leave the PDP and join the All Progressives Congress.”
Ibezim, who has never shown inclination to be associated with any political party, preferring to be very Swiss (neutral), is quick to appreciate the germane reasons that compelled Mbah to jump ship from PDP to APC.
“Right from formation and although the 16-year run of the PDP at the centre, the geopolitical zone solidly stood with the party, even to its political detriment in 2015, for which the Muhammadu Buhari administration severely punished the zone in every way, even dismissively referring to the zone as a dot in a circle,” Ibezim recalls. But Senator Enyinnaya wore the derogatory description as a badge of honour. For a while, the expression, Onye Dot, popularized by him, trended on social media.
Despite the long years of strong loyalty to the party, the South-East always got the short end of the stick; it was not always properly rewarded for the unflinching support it gave to PDP.
In the days of former President Obasanjo, Senate Presidents from the South-East were routinely pulled down in ways that left ash in the mouth. The only person that escaped that treatment was Senator Ken Nnamani, who incidentally presided on the day that the National Assembly consigned the proposed constitutional amendment embedded with the Third Term Agenda, to the dustbin of history.
Against this background, Mbah believes that doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is foolhardy. “It has, therefore, become necessary to seek affiliation where our interests as a region are represented in the form of fair partnership,” he said, to explain part of the reasons for defecting.
From every indication, Mbah has become enamoured with President Bola Tinubu, who he sees as a visionary leader, “a partner in purpose, a man with the courage to look beyond today and make the tough choices that secure lasting prosperity for tomorrow. Together, we share a conviction that transformation must be bold and disruptive; that roads, railways and airlines must stretch out from the heart of the South East; that Enugu’s promise, its security, its schools, its hospitals, its markets and communities, must be reinforced,” he said.
Without a doubt, Mbah has put down verifiable dividends of good governance driven by prudent husbanding of resources. This is reflected in massive infrastructure expansion, improved security, revived public utilities and economic growth.
A shortlist: Smart Green Schools nearing completion and primary healthcare centres in all 260 wards, crime down by 80 per cent; maternal, under five and infant mortality rates reduced by 400 per cent, public water supply and over 1,000 kilometres of paved roads.
As would be expected, the response of the PDP dripped with vitriol. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said: “The PDP is utterly disappointed by those actions, having regard to what we know behind the scene. But having said that, people have a right to decide what they want to do; the consequences can follow.”
While the defection was still rumour, the party hierarchy had threatened to impeach defecting governors like Mbah and Senator Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State.
It remains to be seen how PDP hopes to achieve its goal of impeaching Mbah.
