By Emmanuel Onwusoro.
My interest in writing this piece is informed by what I witnessed at the last People’s Democratic Party,PDP, presidential campaign for the 2023 general elections held at the State Pavilion,Ado-Ekiti,Ekiti State, on Tuesday January 16,2023. It is neither to demonise the party nor its leadership, and equally not to play the role of a political spin doctor. By my profession I have chosen to remain apolitical. Though,political scientists and other experts have described man as a political or social animal.
To many people and some obscurantists, the erstswhile Leviathan or behemoth party in the country has lost its bearing in Ekiti, and the dirge had been sung for it as members move on as if the party no more exists in the state. But the crowd/supporters (whichever one you take) that surged the campaign venue was/were awesome. I don’t want to indulge in unnecessary adjectives and adverbs to describe the turn out at the venue as some of our colleagues are wont to do. The outing that day to me, can be anchored on the effective mobilization drive by those who wanted to show the world that the party is still alive.
The atmosphere, they would say, made the joy of one the arrowheads of the party in the State and Senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Abiodun Olujimi to know no bounds. Olujimi went extra-mile to offer umbrellas to those in the scorching sun. This is despite alleged deliberate declaration of a one-day fasting and prayer by the road transport workers of Ekiti State chapter which paralyzed movements of commercial vehicles,motorcycles, popularly known as ‘okada’ and tricycles,particularly in Ado-Ekiti, the State capital. There were equally alleged reports of prevention of vehicles conveying supporters coming from the hinterlands to the campaign from getting to the venue. This was even announced by the master of ceremony during the proceedings when he appealed to the alleged masterminds to allow their supporters be at the event.
But to me the picture at the campaign could signpost a rapproachment for the resuscitation of the soul of the party in the State. Believing that underground work is afloat. For some years,Ekiti PDP has remained an entity wracked or bedevilled by intra-party conflict. Not because the party is peopled by those with sophomoric understanding of party politics/governance,considering people like the Fayoses, Olujimis, Elekas ,Kolawoles, Ogundipes, Oguntuases, Arokodares, Odeyemis, Odebumis, Anisulowos, Faseyis, Ogunsuyis,Akinrimolas, Omotosos,Ogunsakis, Omolases just to mention a few. No, it got to this sorry situation when its leaders failed to effectively manage the crisis at its incipient stage.
Surprisingly, the party shot itself in the foot by allowing the situation to degenerate and torn apart by leadership crisis and factionalization which contributed immensely to its desultory outing during the June 2022 gubernatorial election. Since then the party has been at the crossroads. Well, naturally such situation cannot be ruled out in politics. If the party is actually on a fence-mending mission with a view to putting its house in order before the presidential and other elections,one believes it will impact positively on the party as it will go to the polls as a formidable force and a united family, and by extension divest itself of any potential opprobrium as it was the case during the governorship sweepstake. In other words,the party has begun to pick its bits and pieces together and embraced image sprucing to restore itself to the pedestal of honour.
Discernable minds know that at the campaign nobody was mentioned as the substantive chairman of the party in the State. The question then was with a shredded umbrella, and the leadership interregnum, who then would spearhead the quest to take the party to its political eldorado. But respite has come for the party in the State with the coming on board of a Care- taker Committee put in place by its National Working Committee (NWC),headed by Sadiq Obanoyen,which apparently will quickly set machinery in motion to ensure the party delivers substantial votes for the victory of its presidential candidate and others jostling for different positions in the forthcoming general elections on the platform of the party in the state.
At the end of the day, the Care-taker Committee is expected to midwife a fresh vista that will take the party to the promised land. A news release by the party’s National Publicity Secretary,Hon. Debo Olagunagba,’ urges all leaders,critical stakeholders and members to continue to work together and remain focused on the task ahead’. And this will lend credence to the remark of the national chairman of the party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu during the campaign, that Ekiti PDP would be genuinely rebuilt as people’s party when the party’s presidential flagbearer comes to power.