Embattled Bayelsa State governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, may have to look beyond the Action Congress of Nigeria to actualize his second term ambition following his botched bid to get the ticket of his party
— Peoples Democratic Party.
Although the governor has not officially signified his intention to dump the party in the wake of his disqualification to take part in the governorship race on the platform of the PDP, reports have been rife that he has been holding talks with leaders of the ACN, All Progressives Grand Alliance and Labour Party with a view to running on the platform of any of the three parties in the February 2012 governorship poll.
But an ACN top national official told THISDAY yesterday that the timing was inauspicious for the governor to join ACN, as he would be more of a political liability than an asset to the party.
He said the ACN was no longer a dumping ground for renegades from other parties who only think of joining the ACN when they have problems with their own parties.
He added that the acceptance of any defector into the party would henceforth require stringent conditions from the party leadership.
Shedding light on why the ACN would not like to have anything to do with Sylva, the party chief said a smart politician like Sylva should have seen the handwriting on the wall since and mapped out an appropriate strategy that would have positioned him for re-election without having to go through his current ordeal.
He said he had expected that the governor would have quit the PDP during the general elections in April since he was not contesting then and would have seized the opportunity to consolidate his position by ensuring victories for his supporters who were running at the time.
By so doing, he added, the governor would have emerged a major political force and strengthened his bargaining power in the situation he has found himself.
“But he was too short-sighted to do that. He would have successfully ensured that those returning were elected on the platform of his new political party from the state House of Assembly to the National Assembly.
“Had he done this, he would have been in a comfortable situation, looking forward only to his re-election. But tell me, which forward-looking party would take him when members of his state and National Assembly have already been elected on the PDP platform and may not be willing to sacrifice their own careers for him?
“No party will accept him now because he will be a political liability. Even if he won the election, which is unlikely, the ground has been prepared for his many failures, including his possible impeachment by members of the state House of Assembly who would be remote-controlled from the centre. After all, we have witnessed similar incidents in the past,” he said.
The ACN stalwart said the way the PDP and the presidency had conducted themselves in handling the Bayelsa governorship primary crisis had shown their undemocratic traits, both in the individual and collective formation.
“I can tell you that we may not have the best of democratic practices in the ACN for now, but there is no party in the country that can actually stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us in terms of party management.
“What we are doing, of course, suits our present situation as a developing nation, democratically and this is why our recent efforts have been geared towards consolidation which will go on for the next four to eight years.
“But when you ponder the needless rancour the Bayelsa issue has created, which one would you prefer as a person: The shoddily organised primaries of the PDP or the neatly done selection process by the ACN?
“Look, in a parliamentary system of government, the party decides the choice of candidates and whatever it says is final. That is fondly the best approach in a resounding party system.
“The American system, as it were, sharply differs from ours because while the attention is usually on the party here, it is on the candidate over there.
“Consider the presidential system for instance; votes are canvassed across the states, as the candidate with the highest number of votes emerges. Also, funding is of immense concern to any intending candidate in the presidential primaries in the US.
“That is why citing the American system in contrast to ours is not appropriate. So each time you accuse the ACN of doing anything below expectations, we usually laugh it off because we wonder what you would say of the shenanigans in the PDP.
“Unfortunately, the Bayelsa issue is a big minus for the ruling party. They have not only messed up things for themselves, they have again shown that they are incapable of managing this country in all ramifications,” he said.