Since January 20, 2011 when its elected Chairman, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo resigned under controversial circumstances, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has literally been adrift. The party which went into the national elections under the leadership of Alhaji Bello Halliru Mohammed as Acting National Chairman may have won the April presidential elections but its overall electoral performance slided down the scale. Following the appointment of Alhaji Mohammed into the Federal cabinet by President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, its National Secretary, assumed duty as the party’s second acting National Chairman in six months. The need for a full term leadership has never been more urgent.
A lot has been written about the qualities expected of the new leader which from every indication, the North East zone will produce. The party’s decision to concede the position to the zone had quickly produced a motley crowd of aspirants, ranging from Bamanga Tukur to Hassan Adamu (Wakili Adamawa), from Architect Ibrahim Bunu to Dr Shettima Mustapha and Alhaji Gambo Lawan. At this defining moment when the PDP – Nigeria’s foremost political party -- stands the chance to either reinvent itself through a new leadership, or risk being relegated to the background, it is important to look deeply at the men jostling for the post.
Of the lot, Alhaji Gambo Lawan clearly stands out, the major reason that this piece focuses primarily on him. Not only does he belong to the younger generation that many have advocated should mount the leadership of the party at this crucial moment, he is probably the only one with a solid national party leadership record. While the others are eminently qualified for the job in their own rights, there is no gainsaying the fact that the PDP is a sick party in desperate need of young, focused, energetic leadership. Alhaji Lawan who has exhibited the desire and capacity to reconcile its aggrieved membership, appears fully primed for the task of re-launching the party to its leading position.
The charismatic former Chairman of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council under the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and former Deputy National Chairman of the National Conference of Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria (now ALGON), has over the years risen from grassroots political leadership to national prominence. His profile had risen steadily within the state as well as within the defunct SDP that in 1993 he was appointed member of the National Campaign Committee for the Moshood Abiola- Babagana Kingibe Presidential ticket, playing a commendable role in the campaign that resulted in the impressive showing of the party in the entire North East zone.
On the death of Abiola and the formation of five political parties by the Sani Abacha regime, it came as little surprise that Alhaji Lawan chose to join the Grassroots Democratic Movement, (GDM) for which he was later elected its National Chairman from 1995-1998. It was a befitting position for a political strategist famed for his organizational skill as well as his reach to the grassroots. In just three years, Alhaji Lawan was able to reposition the GDM, considered the weakest of the five political parties on inception. His policies resonated well with Nigerians at every level, and from an initial position of weakness, the party made appreciable inroads in states and constituencies across the country in the local and national elections of 1996-1998. Little wonder that in recognition of his sterling leadership qualities, all the five registered political parties of that era (GDM, UNCP, CNC, NCPN and DPN) chose him as Chairman/Leader of their joint forum.
A foundation member of the Peoples Democratic Party and member of its Borno State and North East Zonal caucus, Alhaji Gambo Lawan is a veteran of national political campaigns where his grassroots mobilization efforts and political negotiating skills are found useful. He was one of the arrowheads that campaigned for Barnabas Gemade’s emergence as National Chairman of the PDP. As Chairman of the Publicity Committee of the Campaign, he traversed every nook and cranny of the country to sell the Gemade candidature to party leaders and members across Nigeria. On Gemade’s eventual victory, he was made his Special Adviser on National Assembly matters. Subsequently, when the PDP decided to bring on a new national leadership in 2001, the lot also fell on Alhaji Lawan to lead the campaign for Chief Audu Ogbe as Chairman /Director-General of his Unity Team Campaign Organisation.
He has repeatedly been called upon to bring his wealth of political experience to bear on the party’s successive presidential electioneering campaigns, as member of the Campaign Committee of Obasanjo-Atiku tickets of 1999 and 2003, the Presidential Campaign Committee for Yar’adua-Goodluck ticket of 2007 as well as the trail-blazing Presidential Campaign Committee of Goodluck- Sambo ticket for the April 2011 elections. Though his party has never produced the governor of his Borno state, he has remained steadfast and loyal, even as little patronage has come his way. Apart from the period between January 2001and 2003 when the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him Chairman of the Board of Directors, Warri Refining and Petro-Chemical Company, Alhaji Lawan has remained in private business. He sits on the boards of several going concerns ranging from multinational corporations to the media. He has won several awards among which is Nigeria’s Local Government Chairman of the Year (1991), and has been honoured with the keys to the City of Kansas, an honour that only a few non-US citizens are privileged to receive.
Surely, if Alhaji Lawan’s antecedents are considered, the search for the PDP national chairman will be clearer. Not only will he bring integrity into the party leadership, he will bring his wealth of experience as an organizer to bear on its national politics. His choice will also correct the imbalance in the North East, in which Borno has consistently been relegated when national positions allocated to the zone are to be filled. For a man well known as a stickler for rules and procedure, he will bring about the much-needed party discipline, unity and internal democracy that majority of PDP members yearn for, in the running of its affairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment