The Price of Leadership

President Goodluck Jonathan

(Thisday) With the resignation of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, some share the belief that it may not be a bad idea for President Goodluck Jonathan to also rethink his already divisive re-election bid, writes Ojo M. Maduekwe

When the five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), reasons adduced to their action was that the former national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s style of leadership drove them to the edge. After a sustained pressure, the remaining PDP governors and party stakeholders led President Goodluck Jonathan to accepting Tukur’s resignation. Although that paved the way for a fresh opening, the defectors said it was too late for them to return to the PDP.

There was then the question of whether it was indeed late for them to return or that Tukur was never their problem. The demand from some quarters in the North for the presidency to return to the region, not Tukur, is said to be chief amongst the reason for their resolve to pushing for ‘change’ in the affairs of the PDP.

In essence, it won’t be late for them if President Jonathan decides to yield to their personal aspirations. Nigerians would likely witness a reverse defection from the APC back to the PDP if President Jonathan, for instance, drops his ambition to save the PDP from being eroded by an encroaching opposition and to a larger extent, the country from the precipice.

Realising that this was why the PDP leadership under Tukur went to court to challenge the defections on the grounds that there was no faction in the PDP, as a person, Tukur had argued and continued to do so that it was personal aspiration that was the cause of the rift within the party.

Tukur, while hosting some clerics few days after he had left office, said he became PDP national chairman to reform the party through promoting the principle of election as against selection and the idea of consensus instead of imposition, but was road-blocked “by those who believed that the old order in PDP must be retained, not for any good thing, but for their selfish interests.”

Like Tukur, a former Attorney-General of the Federation, Richard Akinjide, held the same view that there was no faction in the PDP. In dismissing the claim, Akinjide had argued that legally, the governors and lawmakers were still members of the PDP as they must resign their positions before defecting.

Akinjide believed that in the coming days, there would be lawsuits to determine whether there is faction in the PDP and also if the defectors are right to defect to the APC without declaring their seats vacant. “If you read the Constitution properly, you cannot cross or walk from one party to another without first resigning and vacating your seat,” he was quoted saying.

“A section that deals with that is very clear in the Constitution. A lot of things you read in the papers or hear on the radio or watch on the television are mere hypes. I have reasons to believe so because very soon, people will go to court to contest it. Those people that said they are crossing have not crossed to anywhere. I am saying this categorically; the Constitution is very clear about it and you cannot change it,” Akinjide added.

Since the rancour began in the PDP over the need for the President to abide by an alleged gentleman agreement of serving one term in office and returning power to the north, President Jonathan has refused to categorically state if he’ll be running for a second term in 2015. This is against the backdrop of some of his regional kindred asking him to forge ahead.

Through his media aides, he has equally denied signing any agreement. Akinjide has also said on the Channels Television ‘Politics Today’ that he was part of the system that produced President Jonathan and so, “It is not true that he agreed that he would not run. I challenge anybody to bring evidence to dispute that.”

As aggrieved members continue to make demands on the PDP leadership and presidency, some believe the issue has gone beyond the president’s rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. They canvassed for the moral slant to the issue and said the matter now should be how to save the PDP from self-ruin and prevent the system from degenerating. They said a game changer for the party, and a cause for the APC to go back to the drawing board would be for President Jonathan to accept to back down on his ambition, beyond undermining his rights.

Apart from dousing the tension in the polity, it is believe that President Jonathan accepting not to contest in 2015 could save the PDP, strangle the APC and catapult him to a front seat row of honour and near sainthood which former President Obasanjo traded for a failed third term agenda and that the late former South African President, Nelson Mandela continues to enjoy even in death.

When the seven PDP governors walked out of the special convention of the party in August of last year, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, had said the action would influence events in 2015, “especially if the PDP is not able to manage its internal crisis” and find the ways to returning the governors to the party. Perhaps, one of the needs to return them to the fold was what led to Tukur’s resignation.

By the time Tukur resigned, the APC rank had swelled with the defection of some aggrieved PDP governors and House of Representatives members. Already, the defection of 11 senators on Wednesday has increased the political fortunes of the APC and depleted that of the ruling PDP.

Some of the defected governors and House of Representatives members had maintained that Tukur’s resignation won’t bring them back to the PDP. The reason is because they perceive President Jonathan as still nursing a second term ambition- reason he was said to have dragged his feet in letting off Tukur.

There are some party members who are stalling, pending any last minute announcement by President Jonathan, to decide on what path to take. Take for instance former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who being a part of the then breakaway new PDP, has refused to defect but has not denied the fact there was a mounting pressure for him to cross over. It would not be his first anyway. He once left the PDP for the ACN in the countdown to the 2007 general election to realise his failed presidential ambition.

Thus, as pressures continue to mount on Tambuwal to defect, Atiku has urged the APC leadership for more time to make up his mind. “And for the next few weeks, I will be travelling across the country in continuation of the consultative process,” Atiku wrote in a letter he personally signed to the APC when asked the time he would defect.

Love for the party he helped co-established in 1998 and, a belief that the new PDP leadership would address his grievances is said to be reasons he’s taking his time on the way forward. While the PDP continues to drag its feet on how best to engage the former vice-president, Atiku began his consultation tour of the country over the weekend.

One of the founding members of the PDP, Atiku has always nursed the ambition to be Nigeria’s president. When his aspiration clashed with his boss at the time, President Obasanjo, he left for the Action Congress to fulfil his ambition. His refusal to defect is said to be because he hopes President Jonathan would either refuse a second term or allow others equal opportunity.

Having left the PDP before, Atiku’s demand from the APC to allow him more time to consult is being viewed as a calculated move to prevent being beaten twice. Except frustrated out of the PDP again, some believe the PDP remains a better option for him to realise his presidential ambition even though the APC is equally considered a viable alternative.

It is also believed in some quarters that the PDP fielding Atiku would put to rest the ambition of the APC to take power from the party come 2015. Reason is that Atiku, aside splitting the General Muhammadu Buhari Northern monopoly, has some of his associates, like the defected governors, in the APC, who would most likely reverse their defection in the event that President Jonathan backs down.

Sadly again, not many see the former veepee becoming the president of the country as he is viewed as being too ambitious.

A cardinal question remains, would President Jonathan be willing to pay the ultimate price as some experts describe it by jettisoning a personal ambition to save the dwindling fortunes of one of Africa’s most successful political parties? Indication is that the president, urged by his supporters, would rather he was allowed to assert his constitutional rights to be voted for. And when it happens that the president maintains his rights but the many grievances of others including Atiku remain unaddressed, an Atiku and others leaving the PDP at this point would further dent the badly depleted party.

Many contend that there is the need for President Jonathan to properly think through his decision in the light of the subsisting complications. Observers therefore believe that it would augur well for all if the PDP leadership realises that, like President Jonathan, there are others whose rights it is to aspire to be president. But one thing is certain, the PDP will have it tough in 2015 if it fails to accept these facts and lose other key members to the APC.