THE REPEATING STUDENT.

THE REPEATING STUDENT.

Three months gone since the whole general election brouhaha, a lot have been said about the outcome of the election.

Blames have been thrown at fellow party members and in some cases, party defectors have not escaped the hammer.
The ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and of course the opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have in the normal manners of political parties traded words. What has been a phenomenal  quality of opposition parties Is to counter the ruling party be it pointing out the mistakes or trying to tell the people what they need to soothe the pain caused by the government in power both boiling down to demeanour the power of the ruling party.
All this they do to further boost their chances of winning in the forthcoming election.
But this is just a quota of what need to be done to return to power. The grand step in winning an election is going to the drawing board and observing the reasons the previous election was lost.
The PDP as a party lost a reasonably large amount of positions in the last elections and in no time have become second fiddle to the APC as far as Nigerian politics is concerned. The question then is, what steps they are taking to correct the mistake?
Former President Goodluck Jonathan obviously lost the election because he fell out of love with Nigerians but what happened to the other electable posts nationwide where they lost to APC – the then opposition. At many points in the last election and obviously elections before that have the PDP elected to the imposition of candidates in the primaries.
A quick look at the two governorship elections that happened in the second half of 2014, Ekiti state election’s loss came as a surprise to the APC. The actions that followed this loss said a lot about the prospect of the party’s target. Falling back to the drawing board and considering the mistakes made in Ekiti was the obvious reason the party was able to fight back to win the Osun state election. The PDP in this case chose to follow the path of candidate imposition which have turned out to be a party custom.
The PDP never seemed to learn from their mistake. This same path was followed in the March/April general elections leading to why they lost a lot of their candidates. Nigerians would expect that at this stage, lessons would have been learnt but they seem to enjoy swimming in the same pool that drowned them in the last election with the Kogi and Bayelsa states governorship elections both close by. Rumours of candidate imposition already trickling in and yet the party is showing no signs of pushing for a change of their culture.
One thing on the mind of many Nigerians is the urge to see the PDP stand as a very strong opposition.

But being an opposition is not just about coming out to tackle the ruling party in the pages of the newspaper but regrouping and planning on how to return as the major force in the political stand of the nation. If there is nothing chasing you, the likelihood of running drops. Nigerians still want the PDP to checkmate the ruling party because one thing they know is ,the more the PDP push, the more the ruling party will push to fulfil their campaign promises.
Conclusively, the PDP in their drive to return to the helm of power should go back to the drawing board and analyse what, where, why and when it all went wrong. Hitting a dart board with the eagles eye not been the primary target means total waste of time. The reason for getting a 9-point mark and not a 10 if not taken note of and corrected would lead to hitting a 9 or less. The PDP not going back to the drawing board would put them back on the same spot they are now.

ORHERHE EJIROOGHENE PAUL

Twitter: @EjiroOrherhe