Bode George’s crusade for constitutionality over arbitrariness in PDP paying off

If there is any founding father of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that is still beside himself with joy over the Supreme Court Judgement of July 12, 2017, which legitimised Ahmed Markarfi as the authentic chairman of the PDP, that founding father is Chief Olabode George.

He is not only joyous that the judgement has rescued the party, which once pride itself as the biggest party in Africa, from the bottomless pit of leadership crisis it fell into shortly after the 2015 general elections which it lost woefully to the All Progressives Congress (APC), his happiness stems from the fact that the judgement is an endorsement of his strongly held view that the PDP is not a party an individual or a group of persons, no matter how powerful they are or the position they occupy in the society, can hijack and run like a personal estate.

Rather, the decision of the apex court in Nigeria, he said at a press conference he addressed in Lagos on Wednesday July 19, 2017 was an affirmation that the party, which some of its founding fathers had boasted, albeit carelessly, will rule for 60 years, was a party ran by its constitutional provisions; and warned that the Supreme Court’s decision should serve as a warning to all those who thrived on impunity or believed that the PDP was a party anything was possible and called on such fellows to think again.

“In fact, in a larger sense, the Supreme Court’s judgement is not necessarily a narrow arbitration of intra-party differences. It is more. It is about the fundamental underpinning of all our democratic principles. It is about whether the legal provisions and the abiding constitutional document of a party can be indiscriminately abused and flung into the gutter merely to appease individual ambition.

“No democracy can endure on the whims and the caprices of anyone. Democracy is never about what soothes our fancy and what does not. Democracy is always about the strict adherence to laid down principles. It is always about the deference to the rule of law. It is always about the respect for constitutional guidance. It is always about defined procedures and ethical balance.”

With the judgement, he said that the party was now in a position to play the role of an opposition party which it is legitimately entitled to saying “we thank God, the legitimate and responsible opposition is back! That is the core value of democracy. We are ready for the Nigerian people. We are prepared to play the assertive role of responsible opposition. We are repositioning ourselves for the new challenges.”

Though, not expressly stated at the press conference which was also attended by other chieftains of the party in the South West, it was obvious, especially, from the prayer points of the man who said the opening prayer that the judgement has reawaken Chief George’s ambition to occupy Wadata House as the next chairman of the party. The man had prayed to the almighty God to grant Chief George his desire to chair the party which elicited a loud and prolonged amen from the crowd of PDP members, mostly women leaders from across Lagos State.

In his speech titled “The Triumph Of The Righteous” George spoke on so many issues that led to the party’s 14 months crisis of self destruction which he identified as lack of respect for the party’s constitution and guiding principles, discipline, arbitrariness, personal ambition over general principles and practices of a collective organisation.

In a vague reference to Governors Nysom Wike and Ayo Fayose of Rivers and Ekiti states respectively, he said, “Those who brought Sheriff may be well meaning. But they forgot that to lead an organisation you always need those who are tested, proven and well accustomed to the tenets and the norms of such organisation. When you bring someone who is not well attuned to the rule of the game, the result is always disastrous. That is what provoked the near destructive grapple we just went through.”

Though, the Supreme Court through the judgement has pulled the party out of what he described as the Hobesian state, George believes that enduring peace can only return to the party if members begin to obey the constitution of the party and not lord their personal ambition over the party and its members.

“And without the rule of law, without respect for constitutional order, the society slips into chaos and the rule of the jungle where anarchy and the riot of the fists and the reign of the cudgel will prevail. We have been brought back from the abyss. We have been redeemed from a slide into destruction. The nation itself has been retrieved from this close withdrawal into the Hobbesian state of nature where life will be short and brutish.”

Though, the party has in the spirit of magnanimity in victory and said that there was no victor, no vanquished, George sounded a note of warning to those he described as sleek and dubious characters saying, “Let me reiterate again that this is not the time to be scheming in the shadows for personal ambition. This is not the time to engage in perpetual blame game and continue to slog it out in the barricades. This is the time of purposeful reflection and rebuilding. This is the time to mend the broken places and rectify the wounds of old. This is the time to move forward with great contemplation and determined zeal.

“We must rebuild the nearly shattered fabric of our party. We must be vigilant. We must be sincere with ourselves. We must put aside personal ambition for selflessness and sacrifice. We must withdraw from narrow focus and move towards the broader avenue of rebuilding our party and make it more relevant to the ordinary people, the weak, the poor, the disadvantaged and all those who are presently elbowed out of the Nigerian dream. We must move away from greed to collective discipline. We must move away from personal satisfaction to the general good. We must continue to support those who remained steadfast, devoted, dogged and unshaken amid the storm and the turbulence of the last fourteen months.

“Again, while we now preach and acknowledge that there is no victor and no vanquished, we are now eternally vigilant against those serial dissidents and reckless characters who insist on betraying the party’s trust. We will not sit down and watch if anyone tramples on the core value of our party again. We will no longer tolerate those sleek, dubious and ambivalent characters who pronounce allegiance to PDP in the day time while they hobnob with APC in the shadows of the night. We are not fools. We know who our leaders are.

We know the authentic voices of statesmanship and men and women of honourable heritage who never wavered amid the severe challenges of the tumultuous period. As we stretch out our hands to embrace the prodigal sons, we insist that the rules and the tenets of the party’s constitution remain sacrosanct. We insist that there will be no sacred cows. The party remains supreme. The constituents and the ideals of our constitution must never again be eroded without the necessary consequence. There is no more room for shameless opportunists who want to reap where they did not sow.”

In spite of the set back which was the hallmark of the crisis, George still believes that it has taught members and the leadership of the party some lessons saying, “Even as we insist that there is no victor and there is no vanquished, we cannot ignore the glaring lessons we have learned from these torturous two years of self-imposed chaotic eruptions that almost annihilated the cohesiveness of our party and invariably provoked a monolithic one-party state, shattering the normative essence of plural democracy.

In this regard, he said, “The first lesson here is that a free association like a party is always guided by its own rules, its own norms and principles. And once you are part of such association, you must abide by its laws. In this wise, no one is greater than the summative essence of a party. No one can rewrite the very defining identity of an association just to soothe his fancy.

“Secondly, individual ambition can never override the general principles and practices of a collective organization.

“The third lesson is that leaders must never play God. You cannot impose your whims and caprices upon everyone without suffering its consequences.”

He, however, did not fail to announce to the gathering that as the party settles down to a new beginning the authentic and valid executive of the party in Lagos State “as recognised by our Caretaker Committee is the one led by Honourable Moshood Salvador, his Deputy Chief Ola Apena and his Secretary Prince Muiz Dosunmu. This is true in law. This is true on all moral ramifications. Anything else is a fraud. Any other platform is null and void, a flagrant non-sequitor.”

He described as unnecessary the call for the re-branding of the party as according to him, the PDP remains the only authentic, even in its present form, pan-Nigeria party with membership in all the nooks and crannies of the country.