THISDAYonline

It is hardly surprising that President Olusegun Obasanjo has convened an extra-ordinary meeting of his party men with the objective of reshaping the party to make it effective and dynamic. It is so because this coalition of disparate Nigerians called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is wantonly bruised. It now straddles about with a red eye. But the red eye which the party wears is self-inflicted.

The ailment is a product of misconception. It is borne out of an exaggerated sense of self. As a party, the PDP has no ideological underpinning that it can flaunt. It has no programme of action that it can parade. In countries where democracy derives from conviction and belief in a way of life, amorphous and omnibus coalitions such as the PDP will not be taken seriously by the electorate. But that is not the way we do it here.

But the PDP did not make itself. It was made by the military which midwifed the transition to civil rule programme that ended on May 29,1999.

The then military government had its reasons for choosing the PDP as the ruling party. It was on the strength of this military bias that the party held sway in most parts of the country during the elections that culminated in the new democratic dispensation.

The choice of which party should rule was not exactly left with the electorate. The electorate, to some extent, did have its say. But the military establishment had its way.

Against this background, the PDP came into power with a misreading of the political barometer. It thought that it could play God. Because it thought that it had no rival, it did nothing to make itself an organic entity.

The mental flight in which it was caught held it down. Consequently, reason and good sense took flight. This tendency has been symbolised by the leadership of the party for some two years now. The leadership of the party, from the outset, did not see the PDP as one big family. They believed in different things and adopted different routes to arrive at their political Damascus.

The problem with the party began immediately it won the presidential elections. Those who found themselves at the helm of affairs began to despise the rest. It was in this way, for instance, that Chief Don Etiebet who contributed in no small measure to the success of the party was dumped by Olusegun Obasanjo immediately he stepped into office. Etiebet and others like him are licking their wounds. But is the party the better for it?

The leadership of the party also shot itself in the foot early enough when it instigated the musical chairs that has been rocking the Senate.

This is one party that has a comfortable majority at the National Assembly, yet it cannot ensure stability within its ranks. It is so because the party leadership is behind the crisis in the Senate. It is strange that a president who was elected under the same platform as the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, would gleefully sponsor their impeachment. That does not show cohesion within a party. Instead, it smacks of divisiveness.

The inability of the PDP to remain united does not manifest only with the crisis at the National Assembly. The President's relationship with state governors elected under the same platform as himself speaks volumes of the trouble with the party. In Nigeria's political history, never have Nigerians been embarrassed by this level of discordance between the president and governors from his party. From Abia to Akwa Ibom, from Bayelsa to Delta, and beyond, there is no harmony between the President and his governors. Yet, they are all products of the same party.

In the states controlled by the PDP, most ministers and other officers appointed by the President to serve in Abuja are at war with the governors in their home states. The party leadership did not just instigate such crises, it enjoys the ugly set-up.

And now, it is the same PDP government that appears set to prosecute six of its senators, all of them products of the same party. This is being done not because the government which, to a large extent, symbolises the party is interested in probity or transparency, but because it is out for vendetta and mischief.

In the face of all these odds, the PDP is now peopled by a motley crowd of the disgruntled and the disillusioned. But there is a limit to which a people can bear their degradation. That explains why splinter groups now exist within the party.

This tendency has given rise to new political groups all derived from the PDP fold. There is, for instance, the National Solidarity Association, which features most of the associates of former military president, Ibrahim Babangida.

There is also another one called National Frontiers which draws its membership largely from Chief Sunday Awoniyi's faction of the PDP.

The names which the new groups parade are no cheap ones. The influence they are likely to command cannot also be underrated. It appears that Obasanjo has amply realised this. This may well explain why he aspires to reshape the PDP for the challenges ahead. From what Obasanjo is trying to do now, it has become even more sensible to say that reality is a late dawn.

Before now, the President has been busy throwing brickbats. Where he is expected to be suppliant, the president has been brash and uncouth. In the area of socio-economic engineering, the PDP government has not impressed anybody. Right now, the government is at draggers drawn with the populace over the appropriate pricing of petroleum products. The value of the naira has plummeted to an all time low. Prices of foodstuff are shooting skywards.

Across the states, there are expressions of regret. The people are looking for a way out. They are looking for an opportunity to ventilate their bottled emotions. Yet, as they plot their escape from the prison yard of the ruling party, the man who has aborted their dreams is insisting that he would rule them for eight years. And some of his lieutenants are telling the people that they do not have a choice or a vote on this matter.

But as the president and his men get set to impose themselves once again on the people, some powerful elements in the party are beating their chest, swearing in the name of their political gods that Obasanjo cannot have his way. They will readily tell you, for instance, that Obasanjo can use all the political machinery at his disposal to get the party's ticket for a second term.

But they are almost certain that such a return ticket will be worthless since it would never take the president to his destination.

This is the challenge, which the Bernarbas Gemade- led PDP faces. It is a challenge that requires, in fact, demands urgent attention. Gemade has a duty to tell Obasanjo the truth. It is incumbent on the National Chairman of this ruling party to make the president realise that the PDP does not begin and end with him.

Gemade should also tell Obasanjo to be a repentant General. Having treated most of his fellows unfairly, it is not too late for the president to retrace his steps and seek to be at one with those he has offended.

He can do this by mending the cracks which he created at the National Assembly, reintegrating the party faithfuls he dumped into the mainstream, and learning to work harmoniously with state chief executives, especially those from his party.

If the PDP leadership fails to do this, it will have nobody but itself to blame if the PDP goes to the grave with its self-inflicted red eye.