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Crisis in PDP Could Break Ruling Party Dominance, Says Analyst

   Peter Clottey 12 August 2010
   Nigerian  President  Goodluck  Jonathan  delivers  a  speech  in  Port
   Harcourt on 14 May 2010

Photo: AFP

   Nigerian  President  Goodluck  Jonathan  delivers  a  speech  in  Port
   Harcourt on 14 May 2010 (file)

   A   political   analyst  says  crisis  in  Nigeriaâs  ruling  Peopleâs
   Democratic  Party  (PDP)  will  break  its  dominance in the countryâs
   politic  as  well  as  strengthen  opposition parties to significantly
   garner grassroots support ahead of next yearâs general election.

   Professor Kabiru Mato, director of the political science department at
   the University of Abuja said a decision by President Goodluck Jonathan
   to  run  as  the  ruling partyâs presidential candidate in next yearâs
   election could plunge the PDP into chaos.

   âTechnically, we may say itâs the end of the very vexed arrangement of
   the party which rotates power between the north and the south. But, in
   some  sense if we are to base it on decisions of earlier meetings held
   yesterday  and  the  day  before by the expanded party leadership, the
   implication of the decision that perhaps it will be unfair to send the
   sitting president out just after a term,â he said.

   Local  media  reports  suggest  that the ruling party will soon decide
   whether  to allow the president to run in next yearâs vote in spite of
   an  unwritten  agreement that allows the presidency to rotate from the
   Christian south to the mainly Muslim north.

   Okwesilieze  Nwodo,  chairman  of  the ruling PDP was quoted as saying
   that  President  Jonathan  should  be  allowed to represent the ruling
   party in next yearâs vote.

   This  came after Vincent Ogbulafor former chairman of the ruling party
   announced his opposition to President Jonathan representing the PDP in
   next yearâs election.

   The  former  chairman wanted the unwritten agreement within the PDP to
   be respected since Mr. Jonathan is a Christian from the south.

   Ogbulafor  later  stepped  down  as  chairman  of the PDP after he was
   charged with fraud.

   Professor  Mato  said  no  candidate can win the presidential election
   without the support from the north of the country.

   âThis  might  be  the breaking grounds that a lot of Nigerians will be
   looking  for  to weaken the hold on Nigerian politics that PDP has had
   in  the  last  10  or  11  years⦠ I  will  assure you that (this is)
   technically  the  end  of  the  PDP  dominance  of Nigerian politics,â
   Professor Mato said.

   He also said that a majority of Nigerians want the ruling partyâs more
   than a decade dominance to be broken ahead of next yearâs election.

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