Former President Goodluck Jonathan may not be relevant under the All Progressives Congress (APC), and there is absolutely no way he would claim, going forward, that the demise of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State does not affect him. It is a big time misfortune and a relegation of political relevance on the part of Jonathan to have allowed the APC wrest power from the PDP in his home state. The last lifeline Jonathan had, having lost in 2015 to President Muhammadu Buhari was the control of Bayelsa by the PDP.
The foregoing said, to the issues that gave rise to and a miscalculated justification of the former president’s tacit support for the APC in Bayelsa. It is a known fact that Governor Seriake Dickson of Byelsa State had not much respect left for Jonathan, and that led to his refusal to adopt the preferred choice of Jonathan to be the flag bearer of the PDP in the just concluded gubernatorial election of November 16. It was contingent upon the bad blood that existed between Dickson and Jonathan that led to the unwillingness on the part of Jonathan to throw his dwindling weight on the candidate of the PDP, Douye Diri in the ill-fated election that took place nine days ago.
There are a number of extraneous variables that contributed to why Douye Diri lost the election, and these I am not inclined to bring to the discourse at this point, however, it would amount to a political infancy on my part if I fail to touch a little on the dominant factor that went against the PDP. It is not news that Diri was handpicked with impunity that speaks loudly of political recklessness, characterised by the imposition of godson by the godfather politics of primitive Nigerians.
Bayelsans from the PDP favoured Timi Alaibi, and he would have emerged the winner of the PDP primary election if the game had gone fairly in keeping with due process of party politics based on party rules and regulations as it were. Sadly, Timi Alaibe’s ambition to govern Bayelsa hit a brick wall one more time, no thanks to Seriake Dickson, who as it appeared had no love lost for Alaibe.
Consequent upon the failure to present Alaibe to fly the flag of the PDP, bearing in mind the lack of popularity of Dickson because of his perceived poor governance by Bayelsans from all works of life, Bayelsans being frustrated began to express their frustration aggression through protestations evident in mass defections to the APC, the dominant opposition party in the state.
The defections that happened virtually every other day leading to the election may not have had the currency it enjoyed were Goodluck Jonathan favourably disposed to retaining the dominance of the PDP in Bayelsa. His body language spoke volumes with all efforts at the reconciliation of warring factions of the PDP meeting deadlocks. At that juncture it became abundantly obvious that the irredeemable could not be salvaged. The fate of the PDP was nailed irredeemably.
Now, back to the crux of this piece, had Jonathan looked further beyond the momentary actions and happenings in the PDP in Bayelsa, and critically took to mind the place of the bigger picture, the fate of the party that gave a minority the opportunity of becoming the president of Nigeria, he would have played politics by allowing the PDP irrespective of who is flying the party’s flag to emerge. This is the case, bearing in mind the possibility of regaining his leadership status via Douye Diri and relegate Dickson to an insignificant background, sometime in the first year of Diri’s administration had he emerged the winner of the election.
To kill a fly perching on someone’s head, it requires caution so as not to inflict injury on the head. No doubt Dickson sinned against Bayelsans by his disregard to the kingmakers and the people of Bayelsa by not allowing the people to have their way, however, that is not a justification for inflicting a terminal injury on the PDP, the party that made Jonathan become a onetime president of Nigeria.
In conclusion, going forward, with hindsight it would dawn on former president Jonathan that he shot himself in the foot by working against his party, the party that gave him almost everything.
John Wanogho's Blog 