When the progenitors and ubiquitous sycophants of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, claimed with curious and condescending certitude years back that the former ruling party would be in power for 60years, they obviously did not reckon with the invincible electoral power vested in the people. Well, the party did rule for 16years, not 60, before being swept away by the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2015 general election.

Apart from losing the presidency, the party lost many traditional states to the drumbeats of change as beaten by the APC. You know the rest of the story of the PDP’s fall from the zenith to zero.

As things stand now, the PDP is dangerously cliffhanging as many of those that benefitted from it, those who swore by its green-white-red colours during bloom time, have jumped ship. Those who didn’t seek pastures greener have been cowed into ominous silence and acute paranoia as the fear of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is a constant shadow in their lives these days.

With the consequent resignation of its former national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, rechristened ‘Game-Changer’ during electioneering in May 2015, paving the way for the emergence of his deputy, Uche Secondus, from Rivers State, to take over the reins of the party.

If Secondus thought he was home to roost, he underestimated the agitation, angst and anger of some party leaders who maintained that the position should be reserved for the northeast since Mu’azu, from Bauchi State, did not complete his term.

Leading the opposition vanguard was Ahmed Gulak, former senior special assistant on political matters to former President Goodluck Jonathan who actually instituted a case against the leadership of the party at a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Abuja, and got judgment in his favour.

Gulak’s riotous invasion of the PDP secretariat however prompted an emergency meeting of PDP governors, who then asked Secondus to step down in compliance with the court order that gave him a 14-day ultimatum to do so.

Consequently, Sheriff was appointed at a meeting attended by the party’s governors and other stakeholders but his appointment was rejected by many party leaders including National Assembly members and the Board of Trustees owing to his purported affiliation with Boko Haram.

However, beleaguered PDP’s spokesman, Olisa Metuh, said Sheriff’s selection was ratified by the party’s National Working Committee, Governors’ Forum and National Caucus. He did not however mention the National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the highest party organ after the Convention. In his acceptance speech, Sheriff pledged to midwife a smooth convention that would usher in new executives for the party and galvanise all party members and structures into action to ensure the re-emergence of the PDP into a formidable force that will retake power in 2019.

In the midst of the pervasive gloom and doom around the party, a new dawn beckons. May 21st has been set aside for the convention of the party. A zoning committee led by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Udom, zoned the positions of President and Vice President in the 2019 election to the North and South East while the southwest gets the national publicity secretary among other positions.

Now, this is the crux of the matter. Without gainsaying the fact, the incumbent National Publicity Secretary of the party, Metuh, currently being prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly receiving N400 million from the Dasukigate scandal, had done a marvelous job of keeping the opposition on its toes before he was arrested. A fine gentleman and successful lawyer, his erudition and analytical mind were a thorn in the flesh of the APC-led government. It was only tactical albeit disingenuous that he was taken out of the way by the ruling party.

As the PDP puts its house in order, realign its members and prepare for the 2019 elections, starting with the May 21st convention, there is a strategic inevitability to elect a spokesperson who is at once eloquent, perspicacious and fearless. Not surprisingly, the searchlight has already been beamed on Governor Ayo Fayose’s special assistant on communications, Lere Olayinka.

A journalist, public commentator and former media aide to former Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni, Olayinka’s cutting-edge communication skills and fiery bravura and invaluable experience in political communications give him a comparative advantage over the other contenders to the office.

At once Fayose’s muse and mouthpiece, Olayinka is young, urbane and conversant with trends and evolutions in the global political landscape.

He comes well acquitted, no doubt, for the position. And he is already garnering a groundswell of support from even unlikely quarters.

Olayinka’s suitability for the PDP’s publicity secretary job was recently put in perspective by former spokesman of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign and former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani Kayode.

An accustomed and acknowledged smooth talker who served as special assistant on public communications during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, FFK, as he is popularly known can therefore not be accused of infantile flippancy when weighing in on the affairs of his party.
On the evening of Sunday, May 8, FFK posted a tweet from his official twitter account stating, “I wish to express my support for Lere Olayinka for the position of National Publicity Secretary of the PDP. Lere will do an excellent job.” It would be recalled that some time back, renowned Canada-based Professor and public commentator, Prof. Pius Adesanmi, posited; “Lere Olayinka has been consistent with his opposition to Mr. Fayemi’s government.

He has led a very successive Facebook campaign which I follow closely.” Adesanmi further opined, “I have followed Mr. Olayinka long enough to be able to offer a considered assessment of his methods. You may hate the fact that he works for the degenerate PDP establishment (I do) but you cannot take away the empirical thoroughness of his critiques. He is unrelenting.” That is the stuff of Olayinka that he is now being perceived as the catalyst, that individual that can articulately marshal and convey the party’s policies and positions on national issues with grit, gut and gusto.

Article sent in by Seun Oloketuyi, a media entrepreneur