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Nigeria: One-Party State?
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Leadership (Abuja)
EDITORIAL
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Abuja
PDP national chairman Vincent Ogbulafor stirred a controversy recently by saying that his party would rule Nigeria for 60 years. Not minding the criticisms that statement attracted, Ogbulafor edited it at a rally of the party in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Saturday: the PDP will rule for the next 100 years, he said.
There is nothing wrong in a politician prophesying about his party's fortune. But Ogbulafor's campaign message exposes itself to several misinterpretations: The ruling PDP has, in the last nine years, not demonstrated that it is a democratic party. It has had little tolerance for the opposition that Ogbulafor accused of not working hard. PDP is often synonymous with election-rigging; its thugs in association with INEC and security agencies prevent voters from exercising their franchise. Its winner-take-all policy threatens to turn the country into a one-party state. Yet, had democratic elections been permitted, the PDP's rule would have been limited to four years. If the party's leaders think, however, that they can retain power by hook or crook, then anything can happen. Those who make peaceful change impossible, John Kennedy warned, make violent change inevitable.
It is normal in the normal PDP way for its national chairman to behave the way Ogbulafor did, but as a new comer to the throne, U should look back and ask what happened to Ur predecessors from Solomon Lar,Audu ogbe,Barnabas Gemade etc. for you to have where to start your abuses the day you are kick out of the system as it happened to those b4 U please guide your words or else the day you receive the kind of shocker Tony anini got you will be speecheless.
Ogbulafor's talk is very dangerous talk for our nascent democracy. He does need to stop forthwith.
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