MARKAFI VERSUS SHERIFF: BEFORE WE FORGET HOW IT STARTED

Several reactions have expectedly greeted yesterday's Supreme Court judgement in the matter between
Senator Ahmed Markafi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff regarding the authentic National Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party(PDP).

I agree with some commentators that the outcome of the protracted legal battle as contained in the judgement of the apex court is good for the survival of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and by extension, our democracy.

I am one of the believers in a multi party
democracy with at least two strong political parties to allow for healthy competition.

I am a subscriber to John Dalberg- Alton's philosophy that "Power tends to
corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".

I believe the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) lost power partly because of an attempt to wield absolute power
through the imposition of a one party system on Nigeria,notwithstanding the constitutional provision for plurality of parties.

It was almost impossible to actualize
a political aspiration on any platform other than the PDP.

The result was the creation of a behemoth and a mere platform for the fulfilment ambitions.

Only a few members believed in the Party because rather than market ideals, ideas, programmes and values, it was busy
marketing just power and opportunities. So, the Party became an aggregation of strange bedfellows who were bound together by nothing other than the quest to take a bite at the national cake.

There were exceptions anyway. The popular refrain then was, "If you want to
win elections and access political power, join the PDP" That was the party which conceded its topmost position to Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff in February, 2016 against
every permutation and known rules of fair competition.

The question of who made Sheriff the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) is the crux of
this piece.

This became necessary in view of insinuations by a section of the social media sympathetic to the PDPto the effect that other people, particularly the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) was responsible for the emergence of Sheriff as National Chairman of the Party and its accompanying crisis which we hope was resolved yesterday by the Supreme Court.

The nation was thrown into confusion as the media announced the selection of Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff as National Chairman of the PDP by its national caucus at the expense of an initial twenty nine interested members who were later pruned down to seven. Sheriff was said to
have been favoured for the plum job by the Governors, Senators, and the National Working Committee(NWC) of
the Party.

How then was another Party responsible for the choice? Or how did another Party instigate the crisis? Are we in effect saying that the National Caucus of the PDP receives instructions from the APC on matters affecting their Party?This is the height of buck passing.

If the highest echelon of PDP goofed in the choice of Alhaji Sheriff, they should apologise to their members and work towards rebuilding the Party instead
of making it look like the crisis was sponsored by external forces.

Unconfirmed reports said Sheriff was favoured because of his strong financial war chest and strength in the North East Geopolitical Zone.

It would be recalled that prior to assuming the National Chairmanship of the PDP, Alhaji Sheriff was, at
different times in the course of the present democratic experience Senator, Governor and Chairman, Board of
Trustees(BoT) all in the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

So, let's put the blame where it rightly belongs so as to learn from the experience.

Buck passing forbids soul searching and leads to avoidable repeat of negative
history.

Omen Bassey .