The endless legal tussles between Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff led factions of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with its ensuing disintegration of the party is a divine punishment for 16 years of massive looting of Nigeria’s treasury under the PDP, pundits say.
The Court of Appeal, sitting in Port Harcourt, had, last Friday declared Sheriff as the national chairman of the PDP following prolong legal battle for the leadership of the party.
The implication of the judgment is that the appellate court set aside earlier ruling of the Federal High Court in Rivers State in which Ahmed Makarfi, a former Kaduna State governor, was declared as the caretaker chairman of the party.
Chris Nwaokobia, director-general, Change Ambassadors of Nigeria (CAN), said “the sun of the PDP, which has continue to set farther from Nigeria’s political firmament, will continue until it becomes irrelevant and totally weak to contest the 2019 general elections.”
According to Nwaokobia, although, the PDP is making frantic efforts to merge with some political parties in order to form common alliance ahead of 2019, but several Nigerians pained over the party’s misruled are ready to do all it takes to hasten the death of PDP, once tagged “largest in Africa.”
“PDP is not structured as a party to play the role of viable opposition. For those who are saying the APC is responsible for what is happening in the PDP, they are true by half; because the same governors (Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose) that Ali Modu is fighting with are the ones who called him to PDP.
But Governor Fayose of Ekiti State, who is the current chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, has already informed of unforeseen circumstances that sprang up after some leaders of the party (including himself) asked Sheriff to lead the PDP, which made them to change their minds about Sheriff’s competence.
“So, PDP is a party paying for 16 years of locust. The universe is just and God is just; so, they are going to pay for their sins. But at the moment, these courts’ judgments will naturally not surprise anybody; because you have two powerful ex-governors backing each faction; they have money to go to court and they know the PDP language. It is all about who controls the stage. It is not about Nigeria and Nigerians; it is not about ideology; but about profiteering”, Nwaokobia, a professor, said.
He then assured Nigerians not to border too much over how to get a formidable opposition ahead 2019 election, because civil societies were already mobilising to provide alternative to what he called “leaders who have continue to rule Nigeria since independence in 1960.”
Dele Ajayi, a political commentator, opined that the PDP would no longer function as a party in Nigeria even if the name was change, saying that ‘the gods’ cannot forgive the sins the party committed against Nigerians for the 16 years it presided over the country’s affairs.
“The PDP at the moment is in coma and will not come out of it. God is punishing the party for the sins the party committed against the Nigerian people, because the money stole by leaders of the party were in billions, not million. They will continue to go down,” he said.
