MY SYMPATHY WITH THE PDP

    Politics is inevitable since, it appears everywhere in life activities, whether you like it or not. It appears even in various offices where you have to play some roles that will endear you to your employer in order to gain promotion or else, you will remain where you are till doomsday. It must be played from inside and outside for it to be enjoyable .That is, both the card carrying members and the sympathizers. As a critic, and as an analyst, in my own way of politics, it became to me an area of interest to look into the reasons that the PDP lost in the 2015 presidential election. There are as follows.

(1). The inability of the spoke’s men both in the party and government levels to put Nigerians on their right sensibilities on some of the key areas that the previous administration had done well and their wrong ways of presenting information to the public.

(2). the inability of their publicity to align with the realities on ground and galvanize the people of Nigeria with appropriate information management tools that will cushion some areas of flash points.

(3)The inability of the party to understand those elements of saboteurs within the system and make appropriate management of them because, they are unavoidable in the system. That is, the inability of the PDP leadership to convert the saboteurs among them as their willing tools against the APC who manipulated them, than to have allowed them to be destructive tools against them in the party.

(4).The inability of the party spokes man to have allowed Alh. Lai Mohammed to have singlehandedly devastated the party and to have had upperhand over them in publicity in putting them on the defensive side while they were in power without any tactical efforts to bring his party to its knees.

(5).The insensitivity of the PDP to adjust and understand the feelings of Nigerians that pushed them into uncontrolled change mantra.

(6).The failure of the former president to sack the former INEC chairman, professor Attaru Jega, when he created polling units in the north where the polling units in a state outnumbered the polling units in the entire southeast states to play it to the hands of the APC even after the protest in Enugu by south easterners and in Lagos by the OPC. What a mockery and an indirect upper hand in the game from outside!

(7). The shouting of the missing funds in order to attract the publicity of the APC and catch the attention of most Nigerians as an indirect plan to bring the ruling party down by the right wing politicians in the government .The APC publicity officer utilized it in criticizing the PDP and presented his party as the only one that had the solutions to all Nigerians’ problems.

(8).The removal of fuel subsidy as a New Year gift that raised the pump price to N150, which should have been reversed after several days of protest led by the defunct ACN leaders in Lagos state.

(8).The tergiversation in the campaign officials who appeared with the JEG almost every time on the television campaign and did different things in their secret domains that favoured the APC , which tantamount to anti-party and paid them by losing elections at senatorial level.

(9). the delay involved before the removing of Alh. Bamanga Turku that characterize massive decamping of some key PDP members.

(10).The unavailability of the campaign funds at those areas that the funds were needed during the election, mostly at the grass root.

(11)The skills of the game changers that culminated in changing Mr. President.

(12)The collapse of the PDP in the southwest wing due to tribal interest to realize the seat of the vice president for the region.

(13).The problems associated with the power sector.

(14)The strategy employed in combating the Boko Haram insurgence and the lost out in the information management on Chibok girls. It includes human rights issue ;the ill-treatment of Nigerian soldiers; the allegation of forcing soldiers to face BH with inferior or no weapons; the allegation of divulging vital information to BH to ambush Nigerians’ soldiers by the GOC 7 mechanized brigade, general Mohammed Sani with impunity in their night duty ground operation in which fine soldiers died; nonpayment of soldiers’ allowances; the continue holding of the protested soldiers for court-martial in which most Nigerians seek presidential pardon but was not heeded to; the two times falsehood that the military have rescued some of the chibok girls which provoked anger ,created public distrust and doubt whether the previous administration could effectively protect lives and properties as well as the territorial space of the country if voted into power for the second term owing to the number of LGAs that were lost to BH. Though, they were recaptured before the election and the popular tactical maneuver insult, to mention but a few.

   There is high hope that the PDP will mount back to power in 2019, and in order to get it right on track, the following must be done:

(1).Rebranding and repackaging of the party .This can be done through good projects initiative and jingles in the PDP leading states, in order to bring back the time.

(2).By installing a new publicity officer. For the PDP to become a strong and an admired opposition party with massive sympathizers; it must have a good publicity officer and not the type that is in the office at the present.

(3).By compiling the areas of imperfections in the APC led administration and criticizes them constructively in the public domain in addition, suggests the best way it should have been done. Though, the APC has started falling by flying a kite in Us on when its cabinet would be formed ,than in Nigeria, unequal balance of power- tribalism and sectional appointment in key positions, selective probe in the fight against corruption, travelling to US with empty cabinet which prevented a prompt assistance from the Us until when the cabinet will be formed, etc.

(4).By embarking on reconciliation to bring back all the PDP key members that decamped to the APC and rebuild all the internal collapsed structures starting from the time that Alh. Tukur was removed from the office.

(5)By embarking on recovering strategy from the grass root.

(6).By embarking on the completion of abandoned projects as well as death track roads in the country and publicize the information so as to galvanize the people.

(7).By embarking on a new mass media orientation strategy on new plans that will favour the ordinary populace in Nigeria.

(8).Through strategic and careful selection of the presidential candidate in 2019 among the zones.

Most importantly, the PDP publicity officer is incompetent and cannot project the party to the people .It deserves to be changed. Can a man who cannot defend himself when he had power, defend himself when power is taken away from him? It is unfortunate! It should be changed with a competent person that was not part of the previous administration and must have integrity with high public trust in order to mount a trusted opposition against the APC or someone with similar character of Governor Fayose or Femi Kayode to stabilize the party or come inform of assistant to the present spokes man to rescue the party from the incompetent hand .This is because, he does not know how to inform the people so as to win their hearts and minds. He is more of conservative than change in strategy.

Above all, the PDP must play subtle roles that will save the party’s spokesman and other members from more disgrace and to help them to pay back the loots, knowing that an insult or disgrace to one is disgrace to all which will destroy the image of the party. The party should not allow the media publicity to continue be in mute because, it is a way to keep the party silent by the ruling party .The PDP must use this opportunity to unite as a family by bringing together all the key founding fathers and plan on how to win 2019 presidential election. The PDP must make it clear in the media that the party is not corrupt as generalized by the APC because, corruption is everywhere .It should note that most of the APC members were PDP members ,so corruption cannot be limited to one party.

    Lastly, I believe that, if all these noble concepts and other intuitions are subtly utilized, it will be a matter of this tenure that the PDP will bounce back to power in 2019, before it may be sent oblivion by the APC that is awash with carpetbaggers.