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“The Governors Forum is now acting as an opposition to the federal government. It deliberately breaches the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the constitution of the PDP without any challenges. The forum has now become a threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria”– Chief E.K. Clark
THE struggle for factional hegemony within the PDP got messier last week, when Chief E.K. Clark, the grand Mandarin of Ijaw nationalism and “honorary godfather” to President Goodluck Jonathan, frontally took on the president’s most formidable ‘in-house’ opponents: The PDP governors and former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
We must thank the venerable old man, for revealing in its naked nastiness, the internecine fight for supremacy within the party. 2015 is really the name of the game and the president has not won the battle against his foes in a war of attrition, where no one can afford to take prisoners.
It is a fight to the finish, which explains the entrance of the “bunker-busting bomb (BBB)” that Chief E.K. Clark represents on the presidential side.Chief Clark openly told the nation that PDP governors and the old despot, Olusegun Obasanjo are conspiring against President Jonathan; but “they will fail”, he assured.
The redoubt from which the governors are cooking up their conspiracy is the Nigerian Governors Forum. Clark traced the history of the body, saying that “Nigerians hardly took notice of their existence”, but “a change came when Dr. Bukola Saraki used the platform to achieve his presidential ambition”.
Today, the PDP has lost control of its various organs and “the over-bearing influence of the Governors Forum in the polity has become a matter of serious concern”.
For Chief Clark, it is the “conspiracy” against Jonathan, which led to the outcry. The old man should have given himself the pause to note the evolution of the party system under contemporary capitalist democracy. Parties are no longer what they used to be.
In the 21st Century they evolved into opportunistic levers of power, because the central assumption today, is that this is the age of Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history”. Parties have no ideological positions that members subscribe to. The Nigerian experience since 1999, has thrown up the worst expression of this international trend.
The old man might also remind himself how the party was manipulated by President Jonathan to reach the height he now occupies.
There were no principles involved; nor fidelity to purposes beyond securing power. And with that access, Nigerians have seen the worst of prebendalism!
It was a context of systematic heist at the highest levels of the Nigerian state, which explained ObyEzekwesili’s accusation last weekend, that over $60Billion was frittered away by the administration in power.
Chief E.K. Clark is not exactly worried for Nigeria; he is not even thinking about the health of the “vote capturing” contraption called the PDP. Chief Clark is stridently condemning adversaries on the other side, from his place in the battle for hegemony.
If President Jonathan achieves victory over adversaries: the governors and Obasanjo, the old man will go back to the status quo ante: A PDP that is a vehicle of raw power and heist.
The boat is listing dangerously at the moment and there are not many life jackets to go around, while pretty few of the passengers have swimming skills. The next few weeks will see fiercer exchanges of missiles on all sides of this PDP family war.
