Sunday 28 October 2012

Is Airhiavbere new face of Edo PDP?

The Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] in Edo state seems to have gone into limbo since the last governorship election in the state where they suffered a disastrous defeat in the hands of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN].
The PDP performed so poorly in the governorship election that it did not consider challenging the election at the elections tribunal. Even when its governorship candidate in the election Major General Charles Airhiavbere decided on his own to contest election at the elections tribunal to challenge Oshiomhole’s qualification to contest the election the party disassociated itself from the petitions, preferring instead to leave everything for God.
Besides the governorship polls the PDP has done very badly in all other elections conducted so far in the state including the 2011 General Elections into the state House of Assembly and the National Assembly.
The reasons for the poor performances of the PDP in recent elections in the state had been attributed to poor performances of the PDP government in the state in the last eight years administration of former governor of the state Chief Lucky Igbinedion.
Of all the four aspirants that wanted to carry the party’s flag to contest the governorship poll odds favoured Major General Charles Airhiavbere. There are many reasons for this. First he recently retired from the Nigeria Army and joined partisan politics, so he had not yet been soiled by the poor performance of Igbinedion in office like other contestants, secondly and perhaps the most important was that the people saw General Airhiavbere as a honest, detribalized and an hardworking man. A personality of an impeccable integrity. In fact during the factional crisis that engulfed the party in the last three years General Airhiavbere was not known to belong to any of the factions. He was at the forefront for the reconciliation of all the different factions and groups in the state.
The PDP was polarized by internal wrangling with two big factions emerging. One of the factions is led by the former Chairman of the Board of Trustee of the party Chief Tony Anenih while the other faction was led a former governor of the state Dr Samuel Ogbemudia. It was a bitter wrangling that has also contributed to the PDP losing all the elections conducted in the state in the last three years.
With the coming of General Airhiavbere into the party and his joining the governorship race, he was able to unite all the factions of the party in the state. Now there are no factions of PDP in Edo state as Anenih and Ogbemudia have come together to move the party forward in the state, thanks to General Airhiavbere’s unifying policies.
Dr Ogbemudia himself attested to the fact that there are no more factions of PDP in the state, he told journalists recently in Benin that the last ward and local government elections conducted recently in the state has helped to reunite the party once again. He said what caused the factions in the first place was the culture of imposition, imposing candidates on the people without given them the right to choose their leaders. He said but with the last ward, local government and state congresses of the party in the state the race was thrown open and people were allowed to elect their leaders freely.
But the outcome of the last governorship election in Edo state and the defeat of the party in the state in the last three years is an indication that the party had been ruled and governed by some fifth columnists, people who are in the party but are not working for the party. The general feeling of party members in the state was that the leadership sold out, in fact it is been circulated that party leaders had already submitted names to Oshiomhole for consideration as commissioners in the next dispensation. It is believed that part of the agreements reached between the leadership of the party in the state and Governor Oshiomhole was that the governor’s election will not be challenged by the party as the governor was said to have promised an all inclusive government that will accommodate PDP members.
The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state Mathew Urhoghide denied any alliance between the party and the governor, he said instead the party decided not to challenge Oshiomhole’s re-election in court to avoid waste of public fund. He said the governor will have to use public funds meant to build roads, hospitals, schools etc for what he called unnecessary litigation.
Many are however of the opinion that the best thing the party should have done after the July 14th governorship election was to sack the entire state executive of the party to pave way for the reorganization and transformation of the party in line with Presidents Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda.
By far the most popular PDP member and leader in Edo state remains General Airhiavbere, during the primaries and the governorship election proper he toured the entire state to solicit for support and cooperation for the party. Even when the party state executive refused to go to the tribunal to challenge Oshiomhole’s re-election, party members at the grassroots and ward levels urged him on. They told him to go ahead to challenge the election and they were ready to rally round him, infact some party members volunteered to stand as witnesses for him against party directive.
The general feelings of the party members is that the new face of the PDP should be built around Airhiavbere. One of the leaders of the party in the state Donald Ehimekpen said Airhiavbere is the only person who can bring the party alive once again in the state.
“Before Airhiavbere joined the party in 2011 the party was dead in the state even the support they got so far was as a result of Airhiavbere’s dexterity and competence”, he said.
The fact that the PDP could not win one single local government in the last governorship polls was because the last nine years of PDP administration in the state was a complete failure and the people were yet to forgive and forget the misrule that characterized that period. With the bad image the PDP already acquired in the state all the characters that played any role in the anti people regime and who are still holding offices in the party should be forced to step down to pave way for a successful rebuilding of the party ahead of 2015 general elections and 2016 governorship election when incumbent governor Oshiomhole would have served out his two terms.
General Airhiavbere had said during the governorship campaigns that he decided to join the race in order to correct the wrongs done by the PDP when the party was in power in the state stressing that he voluntarily retired from the army to serve his people.
While appealing to aspirants to discuss issues during the campaigns rather than abusing fellow aspirants, he asserted that “the state government should stop this continuous campaign that the PDP destroyed the state for ten years. I believe that government should concentrate on how to fix our roads, prioritize projects rather than the window dressing we see every day in the state.
On the future of the PDP in the state a national leader of the party in the state and one time governor old Bendel state Dr Sam Ogbemudia said ‘the future is promising and glaring if the old problems are solved. One of these problems borders on injustice. Injustice produces state of disaffection, inequality, oppression and victimization etc. All these combined weaken the party and could not subsequently be able to provide an effective bulwark to either stem, prevent and weaken any opposition. Once these problems are solved the party will bounce back’.
Dr Ogbemudia however advised that the party must put its house in order.
SundayTrust

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