Ogbulafor: OBJ’s joker?

Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 09.03.2008

Sunday Tribune learnt, that much as Anyim had secured the support of almost the entire members of the National Assembly, the insistence of former president Obasanjo that he should not be considered caused the last minute withdrawal of support for him by the state governors.

At a national caucus meeting of the PDP which reportedly took place at the Presidential villa on Friday night, Obasanjo was said to have accepted to back down on his support for Egwu following insistence by the northern members of the caucus that they would never back his candidate.

A futuristic Obasanjo had earlier put Ogbulafor with whom he enjoyed mutual confidence during his days as President and Ogbulafor as the National Secretary of the PDP during the reign of Chief Audu Ogbeh, at stand-by as a compromise candidate.

Ogbulafor had distanced himself from the crisis that ensued between the Ogbeh led PDP and Obasanjo even as indications were rife that the Ogbeh led PDP exco was scheming to edge him out because of his ambivalence on the crisis.

Sunday Tribune however gathered that the treatment meted out to Ogbulafor in 2005 by President Obasanjo, when he was unceremoniously removed from the National Working Committee of the party haunted him till early Saturday morning.

He was said to have visited the former BOT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih twice in the last 24 hours, where he went to solicit the support of the Edo-born politician and narrated the odds he went through in the hands of Obasanjo.

He was also said to have visited other notable leaders when it was getting clear that he might emerge the national chairman.

Meanwhile, the PDP Convention did not hold without some characteristic palpable tension and anxiety. For close to a week, the Federal Capital Territory stood still for the party. The city was filled to the brim with delegates and members of the party who had converged for to vote in national officers of their choices

The crowd in Abuja was mammoth for the convention such that members of the PDP who could not secure accommodation were left with the option of sleeping in obscure places around the town. It was an attestation that the national convention was held with very high expectation by the all faithful of the party.

The convention had for long been generating heated tension across the country, not only for the PDP members, but essentially for watchers of the Nigerian politics considering the implication and effect of the outcome on general politics and governance in Nigeria.

The PDP is the ruling party and hence has the tendency to influence the polity either for good or bad. The expectation on the national convention before Saturday was that the party would be able to relaunch by purging itself of its old attitude considered generally as outlandish and undemocratic.

Before the Saturday’s convention, members of the party were sharply polarised along different political interests. A section of the party was rooting for a new order and with determination to rid the PDP of the influence wielded on it by supporters of the former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

The other group comprising the established members of the party was keen on retaining the existing order that never seemed to be in harmony with democratic tendencies and precepts.

The clash of interests between the two groups had raised the tension over the convention to a feverish pitch. It was a reason that some political analysts felt that the PDP jamboree of Saturday was to define its future in any form, while others felt that the party may never be able to find a good rhythm for floating as the most powerful political party in Nigeria should it fail to make a good impression with the convention.

Somehow, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua made the difference for the PDP at the convention. Given the events at the convention on Saturday, it is certain now that the President has put life into his claim of commitment to the principle of democracy, transparency and the rule of law.

That the national convention was held with little crises attested to the preparedness of the PDP to reconcile itself with the reality and position itself for future challenges. To make up for its past lapses, therefore, the new executive officers just elected would need to go the extra mile. The ability of the party to do so could, perhaps, establish a possibility that the PDP would remain a party for the future in the overall politics of Nigeria.