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On August 31, Nigeria’s ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) turned twelve.

As expected, the party pulled out all the stops in

its self-congratulatory mission. A press statement from the party’s

Chairman and National Publicity Secretary described it as, “the most

successful political party in Nigeria’s history.”

The statement listed the party’s many reasons for

celebrating: 29 state governors, 96 Senators, 260 members of the House

of Representatives, uninterrupted occupation of Aso Rock since 1999,

Nigeria’s first civilian-to-civilian transition, a telecoms revolution,

amongst many others.

The party however conveniently forgot to mention

many other achievements – the fact, for example, that the transition it

is boasting of was described by the head of the European Union observer

mission as having “fallen far short of basic international and regional

standards for democratic elections…”

Shortly after the murder of Bola Ige, Attorney

General and minister of justice, in his home in Ibadan in December

2001, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka described the Peoples Democratic

Party as a “nest of killers.” Barely two years later, following the

sacking of the Anambra State government house and abduction of Governor

Chris Ngige by thugs loyal to Chris Uba, a powerful member of the PDP,

Soyinka restated his charge.

“I repeat indeed, insist that there is a nest of

killers within the PDP. From Ngige’s recent experience, the well-laid

plans for his ultimate fate, it is evident that the vipers in the nest

do not strike only outwards but inwards,” Soyinka was quoted as saying.

Shortly before then, Iyiola Omisore – principal

suspect in the murder of Ige – was elected from prison to the Senate,

on the platform of the PDP.

Has the party forgotten so quickly the unresolved

murders of high profile members: National Vice Chairman, A.K. Dikibo in

2004, and governorship aspirant Funsho Williams in Lagos in 2006; to

mention just two?

This is also the party that produced Lamidi

Adedibu, the man who ensured that Ibadan politics did not rise above a

crude, thuggish scramble for power and money. In 2007, Obasanjo said of

Adedibu: “Let it be known to all in the PDP that in Oyo State, the

southwest and all over the country, Baba Adedibu is the father of the

PDP, who cannot be looked down on, rather, we will continue to pray for

long life and good health for him so that he will always be there for

us.”

The PDP also did not remember to take credit for a

vocabulary of militancy introduced into the political space. Former

President Obasanjo famously described the 2007 governorship elections

in Lagos State as a “do-or-die” affair.

The party’s disgraced Deputy National Chairman, Bode George, announced that the party would “capture” Lagos.

In July, former governor of Cross River state,

Donald Duke, said of his former party: “PDP held a lot of hope for

Nigerians. It started off as a great party.

But today, it has ceased to be a party. It is now

a platform to win elections,” Mr. Duke said. Mr. Duke must know what

he’s talking about, having won two elections on the platform of the

party.

One of the first things that any observer will realise about the party is that it is a nest of delusions of grandeur.

In April 2008, the then Chairman of the party,

Vincent Ogbulafor, announced that the party would rule Nigeria for the

next sixty years. “I expect that every Nigerian will soon join the PDP.

I don’t care if Nigeria becomes a one-party state. If we succeed in

bringing all the states under the control of the PDP, we would have

achieved a lot.”

A few months later, Edet Nkpubre, National

Vice-Chairman of the South-South region of the PDP updated his boss’

declaration. “Ogbulafor said PDP will rule Nigeria for 50 years, but

I‘m saying that the party will rule for 100 years,” Nkpubre said.

This is clearly what forms the very kernel of

PDP’s philosophy. Here is a party that judges success by quantity, not

quality; to wit its oft-pronounced self-description as “the largest

political party in Africa.”

Here’s a party that has ruled Africa’s most

populous country for eleven years, yet failed to cobble together even

the mere outlines of a coherent manifesto.

It would however not be fair to deny the party

credit for the economic reforms of 2004 to 2006, and the isolated

successes of agencies like NAFDAC and the EFCC during the Obasanjo era,

and perhaps the Niger Delta peace plan. But in truth, those successes

are few and far between. On the whole the PDP has failed the country

woefully, and, just like the country it is in charge of, lacks any

justification for celebrations.

All the other parties themselves however also

deserve censure. Every one of them is a PDP-in-waiting – one only need

turn to the states ruled by these parties to see that they are not very

different from the PDP. Alien to them all is the idea of a manifesto.

The leading opposition parties at national level, the Action Congress

of Nigeria and the All Nigeria Peoples Party are perpetually in crisis,

consumed by internal wrangling while the PDP runs the country further

aground.

The truth is that Nigeria, as things stand now, is at the mercy of

all its political parties. Were the PDP to relinquish control of the

national government to another party today, there is no evidence that

Nigeria would fare any better. Might this realisation – that it is not

much worse than its alternatives – really be what the PDP is

celebrating?