OYO101: Real Peace or Political Survival? Inside GSM’s Latest Message To Aggrieved PDP Members !! By Muftau Gbadegesin

OYO101: Real Peace or Political Survival? Inside GSM’s Latest Message To Aggrieved PDP Members !! By Muftau Gbadegesin.

The increasingly open confrontation of unvarnished hostility between members of the same political party in Oyo state have become the staple of various political gladiators across party lines.

From the ruling People’s Democratic party (PDP) bitter polarization exemplified by the vote of no confidence passed on the Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, plus the parallel congress held across two separate venues to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership tussles and disputed state congress.

That all is not completely well with the two dominant parties in the state is an understatement. And that the balkanization and polarization have simply become somewhat synonymous with party politics in the state. In other words, the two parties have become the hotbeds of various internal wrangling and intensive bickering.

“We said something to ourselves that we may have a disagreement because there will always be disagreement in every human interaction” Governor Seyi Makinde told the new PDP state party Executive on the 16th of November, 2021 “but what we are saying is that even if we have a disagreement, let us get ourselves together to get power and then those disagreements will go to the Government House where we will all settle it”.

As noted last week, most Nigerian politicians are only interested in power with little regard for political ideology. It is why they jump from one party to another. This is because power is tied to the apron strings of their continuous relevance, and political survival. In a way, it takes political creativity to solve and resolve various political fisticuffs and disagreement pitching members of the same party against each other. Which is what Governor Seyi Makinde and his Governor’s Advisory Council have not been able to fix.

In a sense, it is hard to read politician’s mind same as it becomes harder when they get to power. Apart from guessing what step a politician will take in matters of politics and policy; it’s also difficult to predict their next line of action plus whether they are going to keep to their words and fulfil their numerous promises.

That is why the mistrust among politicians is even more intense, rampant, pronounced and ubiquitous than the distrust between them and the masses. The masses for example only have to wait for another poll to fire or hire the candidate of their choice. Most politicians lack that patience. Since it doesn’t cost them much to sever any frosty relationship with their colleagues who ditch them the moment they get to power.

One major factor fueling the ongoing intra-party crisis across the dominant parties in the state is lack of trust. For Oyo PDP, internal crisis rocking the party stemmed from mismanagement of the electoral victory. Resources control, appointment, recruitment among others formed part of the issues rupturing Oyo PDP. It was pretty hard for the party to hit the ground running on a smoothly.

Which point to the simple fact that managing human being is not as easy, predictable and straightforward as managing other type of resources. For instance, man is not an object to be treated with kids gloves or levity. Their various egos even become harder when they are driven by higher interests such power, influence and material wealth.

With clash of interests come flurry of disagreement, conflicts and crisis which hitherto morphed into festering crisis turning friends to foes. Isn’t it surprising that the same set of people who assiduously worked for the electoral victory of Governor Seyi Makinde in 2019 are the ones drumming for his downfall. Or isn’t it shocking that the stiff opposition coming from aggrieved PDP members is more louder and more intense than the one coming from the opposition APC?

There is a solid reason to that. And that is why the Governor is making efforts to return aggrieved PDP members back to its fold. “As the leadership and administrator of the party in Oyo State” the Governor said, “we must have the commitment to be fair and just to all the party members and even to those that claimed to be aggrieved. Once you bring them to the fold, deal with everybody as one. Let us try our best to do all we need to do and leave the rest for God.”
But peace cannot be achieved in an unjust settings. Fairness, justice, inclusiveness and equity are precursor to peace, anytime, anywhere.
Majority of the problems confronting PDP in Oyo state are result of unfair treatment, intimidation and use of state resources to victimized members at the loggerhead with the Governor. They are the outcome of injustice, exclusion that have gone on for years. Where there is injustice, there can never be peace.

And that is why the new promise of reunification between the aggrieved PDP members needs to be examine critically. It is one thing to make promise, it is another thing to fulfill. And politicians are darn clever at making promise but not so good fulfilling it.

Furthermore, the aggrieved PDP members are now being considered as an integral to what the party in the state. Of course, they’ve always been crucial and their withdrawal or crossing to other party is likely to affect PDP chances in the next election.

In addition, there is more to resolving the crisis rocking Oyo PDP than simply asking aggrieved members to embrace peace. It is often said that man will do anything and everything to survive. And that is why the embittered PDP members will go to any length just to have their voices heard and their demands met.

For peace, as Albert Einstein declared cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

OYO101, Muftau Gbadegesin’s opinion on issues affecting Oyo State, is published on Saturdays. He can be reached via muftaugbadegesin@gmail.com and 09065176850.