PDP MAKES VIOLENT CHANGE INEVITABLE     

Osita Okechukwu    

PDP in the event of violent change should be held responsible; for the avoidance of doubt CNPP has carefully reviewed Engr Buba Galadima's statement and agreed with him that PDP should acknowledge the great saying of Edmond Burke that, 'those who make peaceful change impossible, makes violent change inevitable.

This is what we understand from his statement, a reflection of the thought of the voiceless Nigerians. PDP's Electoral Phobia is the greatest threat to peaceful change in Nigeria.

It is our considered view that PDP has in the past ten years been subverting our nascent democracy; to the extent that both local and international observers have ruled out the possibility of free, fair and transparent elections in Nigeria. This loss of confidence in our democratic process started when the PDP introduced Do-or-Die political culture and dreamt of ruling Nigeria for 60 years and by extension forever and went ahead to implement this ideology in the 2003 sham elections.

 Unaware of the intendment of the then leader of the PDP, ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, now chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, the world pleaded with the opposition parties to head to court, hoping that the 2007 elections will be better, then came the 2007 elections and like the subsequent bye-elections became dirtier.  

PDP in an effort to actualise their ideology to rule for 60 years, demolished democratic institutions, corrupted the judiciary, to the extent that Justices Opene, Adeniyi, Egbo-Egbo of the Appeal Court and Federal High Courts and other justices were dismissed. The Electoral Commission was made a department of the PDP and lost its independence.

To compound the matter, the pledge President Umaru Musa Yaradua made during his inauguration to the effect that he will reform the electoral process to international best practices,were not honoured, even when he went ahead to set up a non-partisan 22 man Electoral Reform Committee {ERC}, chaired by former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammed Lawal Uwais and fortunately to Nigerians the ERC religiously followed the granite terms of reference. What happened?

PDP outrightly rejected the core recommendations of the Uwais' ERC Report:- namely the insulation of the president from single handedly appointing the chairman and key officials of the Electoral Commission, the shifting of burden of proof to the Electoral Commission instead of the petitioner, the reduction of timeline of post electoral disputes to 6 months, before swearing in of the winner, instead of the absurd situation where post electoral disputes subsist for three years. The only one reflected in the seven tepid and self-serving Executive Bills President Yaradua presented to the National Assembly is the First-line-charge of funding of the Electoral Commission. Of what use is first line charge of funding to a biased referee?

The germane questions are:- can there be free and fair election or in other words peaceful change, under a partial and baised Electoral Commission? Can any president whosoever appoint his enemy to chair an Electoral Commission where he is also a candidate?

PDP should be held responsible not Engr Buba Galadima, in the event of collapse of our democracy; for with over 800 out of 990 members of the State Houses of Assembly nationwide, over 250 out of 360 members of Federal House Representaives, over 80 Senators out of 109 and 28 governors out of 36: PDP is the only party  that has the capacity to amend the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to create the legal framework in line with Uwais ERC Report template to restore the sanctity of the ballot box.

The question is, why is PDP consumed by Electoral-Phobia inspite of the structures and spread highlighted above? PDP's Electoral Phobia is the greatest threat to our democracy.

The retention of Professor Maurice Iwu as an axe-man; inspite of proven gross electoral misconduct, hence over 1000 post electoral petitions, clearly demonstrates that PDP does not want peaceful change. It must be stated that peaceful transfer or hand over from an incumbent government to the opposition winner is the bench mark of growth of democracy in emergent societies like Nigeria.  

PDP introduced Do-or-Die political culture in our clime, in an effort to consolidate One Party State, tendencies that are antithetical to stability, peaceful change and security of any nation.

PDP should bear in mind that the only constant in the affairs of man is CHANGE, our appeal to PDP is to make change in Nigeria peaceful not violent. PDP has the capacity to make peaceful change possible, what they lack is the political will.

Osita Okechukwu

National Publicity Secretary

CNPP