NEW PDP FACTION: A DANGEROUS PATH TO DEMOCRACY

NEW PDP FACTION: A DANGEROUS PATH TO DEMOCRACY

                     By:
Nurudeen Dauda
      December 21,2017
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com

Perhaps Party politicians, especially,  from the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, might be "happy" with the emergence of "New" or "Fresh" Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In concrete terms, in Democracy we do not need one party system. We need a strong as well as vibrant opposition party in Nigeria whether it is the PDP or APGA or LP with a national spread in terms of political support based if we must get it right.

Politicians must be reminded that conflict is a "permanent" feature of human associations. Forming new party will never stop "disagreements" or "misunderstanding" amongst members. Political party members should and or must find a way of resolving their internal crisis. In my opinion, the best thing to do is to try and resolve their disagreement through consensus or concession or compromise or both rather than forming new parties.

Politicians must learn to manage their differences. Conflict is everywhere. Defection from one Political party to another or formation of new ones will never stop conflict. Having strong opposition party in democracy is desirable because it will force the ruling party to be doing the right thing even if it does not want it.

The "excesses" that was said to have been committed by the PDP during its 16 years reign, in my understanding, was essentially due to "weak" or "no" opposition party in the country. For the years of its reign all the parties at the time were not strong enough to face it. The then opposition parties were either "regional " or "ethnic ".

I firmly belief that the only way to put the governing party on its "toes" is by having a strong opposition party in Nigeria. The only way to prevent civilian dictatorship in a Democratic system is to have a "strong" opposition party which will offer credible alternative to the electorates. In my view, some of the ways to keep the ruling party "on track " are having credible electoral process and strong opposition party.

Democracy is a system of government which offers periodic choice of leaders based on issues or performance. The merging of the Action Congress of Nigeria , ACN, Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, All Nigerian Peoples Party and the faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA to form APC came as a "relief "to many political observers who believe in having strong opposition party. Before then we did not have strong opposition party in Nigeria.

However, soon after the defeat of PDP in the 2015 general elections it went into an internal crisis which led to a litigation which lasted for about two years. During that period the party was so weak to the extent that,in my understanding, it did not provide the needed role of a strong opposition party. 

Majority of PDP supporters were said to be with the faction of Senator Makarfi as such his victory at the Supreme Court against Senator Ali Madu Shariff came as a good news to many political observers, especially those who belief that having "strong" opposition party is necessary in democracy.

Having a credible as well as strong opposition party in a democracy will  keep the ruling party on its toes, prevent civilian dictatorship, encourage respect for rule of law, respect for electorate, and provide freedom of choices to the electorate.

The recent development in the opposition PDP is "sad" to opposition party politics in Nigeria. In my observation, if we must have peace in our political parties both the ruling APC and opposition PDP must shun "impunity" and "imposition" .

May God bless Nigeria!

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