Come Home! Dr. Victor Adoji, Come!

The seeming unending political hiccup in the primaries of the Kogi East chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calls for an unsolicited admonition for a self-reappraisal by the various gladiators in that party.

To start with, a simple definition of a political party is that it is an organization of people who share the same views about the way power should be used in a country or society through government, policy-making etc.From this definition, one can unambiguously assert that it is intolerable to remain with and in a group whose political ideas and philosophies are extremely at variance with your own.  It is however therefore discretional to, among the plethora of other political platforms within the Nigeria’s political landscape, cherry-pick a credible alternative, if one must tenaciously pursue his political ambition.

One thing is certain, whatever has an enduring legacy must have had an excruciating painstaking building process. In other words, the PDP has come a long way and it took the efforts, sacrifices and patience of all the men and women who can today be considered as its stakeholders to have nurtured the party this far. Although disagreement is an indispensable element of politicking, but when it assumes a habitually destructive dimension borne out of perpetual exhibition of impunity to the disdain of some section of the same party, then there is definitely a pathological and fundamental difference in political ideologies of members of that political party.

It’s however instructive to note that no matter how long a lizard stays in the bush, it can never turn to an alligator. So, the impunity you find in the PDP today did not just start today; it’s already intractable and there is absolutely nothing a single man or group can do about it. If some founding members of the party like Professor Jerry Gana, Audu Ogbe, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, just to name only a few, couldn’t stand the internal squabbles in that great party, what can such a refined, intelligent and liberal debutant personality like Dr. Victor Alewo Adoji do that can make a reasonable difference?

However, it’s probable for some of the stakeholders in that party to feel that they have invested so much, in terms of molestations from the various oppositions that the PDP must confronted in the time past, financial contributions, and a host of other building processes that they might have gone through and so would not stay aloof and watch a new entrant ‘reap’ from their ‘sweat’. And that line of thought is not going to change any time soon.

Perhaps, the fact that, on the one hand, the PDP has been in the opposition for nearly a political term now and certainly, must have gone through some season of austerity has necessitated the beckoning of DrAdoji by the young population of the party who saw the Zenith Bank Bourgeois as possessing the financial war chest to reflate the party. On the other hand, the fear of the incumbent Senator Attai Aidoko that if the National Working Committee is allowed to engaged the indirect (Delegate) primary election method, which obviously would be determined by the man with the biggest purse, he stands no chance of victory, made him deploy his own winning strategy. Now the Kogi East chapter of the party is in disarray and the pendulum is likely to swing in the direction favourable to the ‘old horse’-Aidoko.

Nevertheless, it’s common knowledge that the rumoured postponement of the primaries to the last day of this week is a cleaver ploy by the party’s hierarchy to drag all the already aggrieved aspirants in the party to a point whereby it will be too late for them to pick the Form of another political party and further their ambition there.

Therefore, what do I advise those progressives who, as sheep, have found themselves in some conservatively minded political wolves? Please come home! Take your time and work with like minds so as to gradually build a new party like the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) which has now been widely accepted to be the most credible political party in this current political dispensation.

Interestingly, the sky is too wide for two birds to collide. If your intention is to lift our people from poverty and set generations unborn on the path of sustainable development, then there is every need for all men and women who have discovered that they can never have common political dealings with their present party to regroup in APDA and chart a common course onward.

Who said Dr. Adoji, with the kind of brand name he has built for himself and the support base he has in the entire Kogi State and particularly Kogi East, cannot become governor of Kogi State in the next election flying on the platform of the APDA? Possibilities abound with the APDA as a virgin party which can either independently grow to stand on its own or later form an alliance with any other political party to form government at the centre which can open up opportunities for service to humanity at the highest level.

In conclusion, let those progressives who have been shortchanged or will eventually be shortchanged at the primaries in all the other parties know that they do not belong there. The only usual thing you will be told would be that “it’s a family affair and it will be resolved amicably.” That is a cliché! Run from them. You will wait for compensation for ever. Ask many who have walked that path before you.

Come home Victor! Come to a party whose members have learnt some great lessons from other political parties and have vowed not to let anyone go through such anachronistic and tortuous experience anymore. You can realize that lofty ambition in APDA!

– Enejoh Solomon writes from Abuja.