PDP: Nurturing a Culture of Impunity

Without doubt, one of the reasons the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost massively in the 2015 general elections is the fact that the party wittingly or unwittingly embraced, nurtured and promoted impunity as the hallmark of its conduct, even in the affairs of state. Having come to power through elections that were far from being free and fair, the party did not care about the peoples’ feelings.
For the first time in the history of democracy in Nigeria, a political party fielded candidates that did not go through intra party primaries. The authorities at various levels of the party apparatchik selected and imposed candidates. The broad membership of the party whose responsibility it is to elect party flag bearers at party primaries was completely alienated. Well-articulated and evidenced protests by disenfranchised candidates were treated with disdain; after all, they could not afford to pay the price for a party ticket.
Even President Good luck Jonathan made history by becoming the first PDP Presidential candidate that did not face any candidate at the party primaries and this was not because they were no interested and keen candidates, but because the party emasculated every form of opposition. The PDP candidate therefore went into the national elections untested, the ways and means of real politicking was lost on them as they understood only the processes and methods of political exclusionism and intolerance of opposition candidates. This must have formed the basis for the party’s decision to do nothing about selling its own candidate, but instead focused on ways and means of either disqualifying or eliminating the opposition candidate.
But they did not know what time of day it was; they failed to see the desperate yearning of the people for change, they refused to heed the very loud call that the system was grinding to a disastrous halt.
While the electorate were resolved to change the way things were done and not necessarily political parties, the electoral umpire worked hard to also reform the electoral processes, PDP did not care. Little wonder that when reality dawned on them, they attacked the electoral umpire and the newly introduced methods with all the venom they could muster, but that was doing too little too late.
The reform of the electoral processes where the people are now having more voice in the choice of their leaders has however been restricted to only four geopolitical zones in the country. The Southeast and Southsouth where the PDP still holds sway are still embroiled in all manner of electoral malpractices. They have not only rejected the new measures aimed at reforming our electoral processes and thereby create an environment of political responsibility, but they have completely destroyed just about every opportunity or avenue of having the people participate in the choice of their leaders. Instead of a reform, we now face a completely deformed and warped culture that has damaged the political psyche of the people of these zones. Elections in these zones are now completely hijacked by armed gangs, state apparatuses are now deployed to do the unwholesome, electoral officers are heavily compromised to thwart the will of the people, even where they (the people) have defied intimidations to come out and cast their votes.
We have seen the worst of this style of brigandage in Abia state, where a sitting governor has abandoned his mandate to govern but now supervises over criminality in the name of electioneering.
It is now official that Abia state has become the core dreg of the Nigerian society, it now sits at the bottom of the ladder of every form of development (economic, social, and human). While other states have had their elections, losers have congratulated winners and the rest of the society have since moved on with their lives, Abia is still in the throes of political death, held down by a brigand led by the outgoing governor. We must note that when one part of the country ails, the country cannot be said to be at ease. There is need for intervention from the highest levels of government in the area of security and the electoral process in Abia state. Even as a re-run of the governorship elections have been slated for the 25th of April 2015, INEC is encouraged to move its headquarters to Umuahia, to oversee the elections. In Abia, we have heard of cases where known government officials have led thugs to commit crimes including armed robbery; for that is what it is when a ballot box is snatched at gun point. Fortunately, there is no status of limitation in crime, so these acts of high crime must be necessarily recorded and dealt with at the appropriate time.
The build up to the containment and elimination of electoral fraud and violence in these zones must necessary start with the punishment of known perpetrators of today’s crimes. That is the only way that impunity will stop in our land.