By Paul Nwosu
It is beginning to look as though the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) is engaging in too many public quarrels over support groups.
The first salvo was fired by the party’s national leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, when the newly formed OK Movement, in its overzealousness, constituted and announced a 59-member campaign committee for the 2027 election. In a statement laced with unmistakable vitriol, Dickson described the support group’s action as “nonsensical”. To observers like us, the choice of words immediately raised a red flag.
If his intention was to ensure party discipline, then he got it wrong. He came across as unduly overbearing, authoritarian and grossly lacking in human management skills for a man who had once served as a governor.
An experienced politician of Senator Dickson’s standing should have known that the OK Movement acted out of exuberance and eagerness to advance the political prospects of its principals, not out of any deliberate intention to slight him or the National Working Committee (NWC).
As the party’s leader, he should, indeed, be happy that his new party is attracting such enthusiastic support. Any misstep by the group should have been treated as a family matter and addressed behind closed doors, rather than taking the matter to the balcony and announcing to the whole world that the group had acted stupidly. Haba, Oga Leader!
What the NDC already has in the Obidients and Kwankwasiyya movements is precisely what its major opponents in the All Progressives Congress (APC) are working hard to build through the City Boy Movement, Rainbow Coalition and other groups jostling for recognition.
And if the bitter truth must be told, the NDC was an empty house, a mere political carcass, much like the Labour Party before political heavyweights such as Peter Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso and others joined the party, bringing along their well-organised and formidable movements.
These support groups have impressive track records of helping their principals and their parties secure victories in constituencies where they fielded candidates. Senator Dickson’s alarm, therefore, and the manner in which he raised it publicly were uncalled for and smacked of an unnecessary complex.
The whole world knows that Dickson is the founder and leader of the party. Nobody is trying to supplant him. Nobody is “dragging the party with him”, as we colloquially say in this clime.
But he should allow those who have taken shelter under the NDC canopy to help him transform it from an empty political warehouse into a formidable political platform powered by winning machines, the very assets most party leaders crave.
The party’s National Chairman, Senator Cleopas Zuwoghe, appears to have borrowed from his leader’s headmasterly approach. His recent press conference on the same matter sounded more like a quarrel with his own party members.
Listening to him, one would think he was referring to strangers or intruders who had come to take over his job. He said that, although he was happy that the Obidients and Kwankwasiyya had come to support their candidates, they must understand that they are not the “managers of the party” and that he cannot “submit his assignment to them”. He insists that their role is merely to protect the candidates’ votes. What a job description!
He went on to caution the two groups against actions that could undermine the NWC or threaten the unity of the party.
But the question is: Have the Obidients and Kwankwasiyya, which have previously helped their principals secure victories, ever undermined the NWCs of their former parties or worked to disunite those parties? Or have they not simply mobilised support for their principals and the candidates they believe in?
As far as admirers of the NDC are concerned, these are issues (if they are really issues at all) that should have been resolved quietly, away from public glare.
If anything happens to the party because of one man’s overbloated ego, no one should blame President Bola Tinubu or the fifth columnists already waiting for cracks within the party to exploit and do what they know best.
The NDC leadership must demonstrate maturity and resist the temptation to be carried away by the influx of new members and the party’s growing popularity. Rather than quarrelling publicly with the support groups whose energy and mobilisation capacity could strengthen the party, its leaders should learn to manage their enthusiasm, harness their strengths and channel their efforts towards a common political objective.
A party aspiring to challenge the establishment cannot afford to turn its own allies into adversaries.
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