After about six years on the periphery of power, some members of the PDP are ashamed of flying their color in 2023. The party leaders think otherwise
WHAT’S in a name?
Some elements in the broken PDP are mobilizing others to make the party change its moniker. One of the re-branding enthusiasts is Doyin Okupe, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. Okupe has always been a spokesperson, media handler, and spin doctor.
Mutton dressed as lamb, Okupe doesn’t like to kick back and watch like many others of his generation do. At 68, he’s always seeking something twenty-ish. So he started a social media campaign to railroad the party into morphing before 2023.
He and his re-branding campaigners believe swapping the umbrella for something else will make the opposition stronger. They are probably borrowing a leaf from the APC – a merger of five political parties, including the ACN, the nPDP, the ANPP, the CPC, and a fraction of the APGA.
“To defeat the APC in 2023, I want the PDP leaders to think of changing the name of the party,” Okupe told the Punch late January. “They must also make the party itself the arrow head of a national movement to oust the present administration.”
Two things the campaigners are driving at: a name change and a merger.
According to him, the PDP with what he called ‘socio-political baggage and insurmountable moral burden cannot muster the moral rectitude, political strength and integrity to lead such a mass movement”. In other words, the current name, PDP, is accursed – with the stigma of looting and corruption the APC keeps talking about. (Okupe himself is standing trial for his complicity in Dasukigate, a multibillion-dollar arms vote scandal that took place in the run-up to the 2015 election the party lost.)
Okupe also believes the name has pushed the party beyond redemption. Nobody wants to touch it even with a long stick.
Beyond partisan devotion, these campaigners have their motivations. Just like every other party man, they want the PDP back in power after eight years in opposition. And, again, something else is in it for them: membership of a committee to look into the project; consultancy; and other jobs for the boys.
All of these, however, depend on the take of the party leaders: the BoT, the national executives, and the unseen figures who are movers and shakers, like Rivers Gov. Nyesom Wike and the former V.P Atiku Abubakar.
And from the look of things, these leaders have a lot on their plates. According to PDP Chairman Uche Secondus, the party is concentrating on a number of things. It’s battling Supreme Court to reverse the judgement that sacked Emeka Ihedioha as PDP governor in Imo. That is taking a lot of time and energy. Likewise the demand to rebuild the party, too. And the Edo guber election whose preparation is weak going by party leaders hopping across party lines to endorse the APC candidate Gov. Godwin Obaseki. A name change is likely the least of their priorities. So, obviously, Okupe and his cohorts will have a hard time pushing their campaign through
The spokesman for PDP made it even clearer after the party’s 88th NEC meeting in Abuja recently. He said the decision to stick with the party’s current name was taken during the meeting. “The party insists that the PDP brand is still the best in the political firmament of our nation,” said Kola Ologbondiyan. “As such, those canvassing for a change of name should forget it because we remain the Peoples Democratic Party.”
Rather than change its complexion in order to carry the day in the 2023 elections, the party said it will look inwards and auto-correct its misfires that led to its loss in the 2019 general election. Ologbondiyan told reporters that the PDP has constituted a committee to review the conduct of the elections. “This is to unravel what transpired during the polls, and guide the PDP in pushing for electoral reforms ahead of the 2023 general elections.”
For the merger, Okupe’s hope may not be completely lost. When the time comes, said Secondus, if there is need for people to pull their resources and pull their strength together, a merger can happen.
Parties may not always decide in Nigeria. The name-change, simple as it looks, may spark up a conflagration that will shock Secondus and others into submission. That’s if the brand zealots are also good brinksmen.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/the-leopard-wants-to-change-its-colour/
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