Bode George, Wike And The End Of PDP

For a man who once vowed not to remain in the country should Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerge as president of Nigeria it could have been tempting to discard the pledge by Chief Bode George not to serve in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Disciplinary Committee that was constituted by the national leadership earlier this week.

Just as the threat to relocate from Nigeria with the advent of the Tinubu administration, the pledge not to serve in the High Chief Tom Ikimi-led committee had sufficient reasoning, even if faulty.

As about one of the most vicious critics of the president who he regularly referred to as Bola or some other condescending names, it is now open to debate if Chief George really saw some truths that many of us did not see as concerning the capacity of the man that was adoringly referred to as the Pathfinder of good governance in Lagos.

His successor, Tunde Fashola was the Consolidator, and Akiwunmi Ambode was the Actualiser before he was blown away.

So, whether Bode George saw beneath the veneer of political erudition that Tinubu espoused in Lagos and the Southwest is now open to question.

However, his vow not to serve in the Disciplinary Committee recently empaneled by the Ambassador Umar Damagum-led National Working Committee, NWC of the party is another issue.

His reason was that Ikimi was his junior in the party and met him in the party having been the first elected National Vice-Chairman, Southwest of the PDP.

In an interview on Arise News Television on Friday, August 23, 2024, George who is generally reputed as a rich depository of the institution that is the PDP easily broke down the issues in the party that according to him project the twin moves of reconciliation and discipline as presently being out of place in the face of the internal dynamics in the PDP.

As he pointed out the crisis in the party that led to the humiliation in the 2023 General Election flowed from the management of the presidential primaries.

These problems that have now been generally summarized as the Nyesom Wike problem flow from the discourteous abandonment of the party’s principles and procedures leading to the emergence of the 2023 presidential candidate.

The stance of Chief George that the decision to go against the pattern of rotating all positions between the North and South every eight years is also widely held by many as the bane of the crisis in the PDP.

To the chagrin of many party stakeholders, the party after zoning the office of national chairman to the North failed to cede the presidential ticket to the South.

After eight years of the presidency in the North, the prospect of the presidency going to the same region for another eight years was one that was anathema to many of the stakeholders. Not least, Wike who contested the ticket with Atiku and former Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

As George said yesterday, the failure of the Northern chairman of the party, Senator Iyorcha Ayu to resign his position as promised to allow a Southerner take the position was seen as a serious snub of the South.

Unfortunately, Atiku who emerged as the presidential candidate was not proactive enough to persuade his ally, Ayu to step down.

Bode George did not say it yesterday, but it is generally known that a 20-man committee constituted by the party to find a running mate for Atiku after the presidential primaries recommended Wike by 17 votes. That recommendation was discarded after initial reports that emissaries of Atiku had offered him the position. The offer according to some sources was pulled back on the claim that Northern political leaders were not too comfortable having a personality like Wike so close to power.

However, few believe this given what is generally believed as the claim that even before the presidential primaries Atiku had already picked Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.

That relationship was underlined by the fact that PDP delegates from Delta State voted for Atiku at the convention with the conviction that their man was set to become vice president.

So against the background of the claims of Bode George and the perceived betrayals Wike suffered at the hands of the party, the determination of the FCT minister to destroy the party could well be understood. That is besides the enormous handouts given to the party since especially 2019 when Wike was known to have projected Tambuwal for the presidency.

When Tambuwal on the convention ground turned his delegates to Atiku, it was seen as the ultimate betrayal.

As it is said, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, so when Chief George implied the scorning of Wike and some other stakeholders one could well imagine the crisis the PDP is facing.

Even more, the party named a disciplinary committee that has two Atiku allies, Chief Tom Ikimi and Eyitayo Jegede as chairman and secretary. That certainly does not show the kind of sincerity that is expected of a party committed to correcting the errors that led it to the pit.

However, whether the betrayals are enough reasons for Wike to sink the party he this week vowed not to defect from is another matter. Better ask a woman who loved a man who has been scorned.

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