It was appropriate and commendable that the UK Labour Party got back to sanity at their just-concluded conference. Bravo to both the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

One marvels at the capacity of "spoilers" to make life hard and harsh for leaders. It happens everywhere, with Nigeria witnessing a unique brand of such cloak & dagger politics right now.

Okay, maybe not exactly the same details and matrix, but it's about two leaders who won posts together and the whole question of "natural succession". Boss seems not willing to "let go", and deputy seems eager to "take over" - with all the mess and spoilers in between! There is then the small matter of traps and counter-traps, corruption charges, and fall-guy/sacrificial lamb scent to it all. Oh, we speak of course of President Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar. It is a Bad, Sad Tale!

Unlike the Labour Party, Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party, PDP, (now-factionalised) has been unable or unwilling to close ranks. It has backed the boss, and the VP has gone to court. The drama continues.

Perhaps not surprising, for Nigerians generally believe that the PDP has squandered eight years of our democratic experiment - failing to deliver good governance. Most of its governors have just been named in a sordid report by the anti-corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu, at a special senate briefing this week. The governors -caught off guard - are now in open revolt. What a party!

If anyone today is looking forward, with renewed hope, to the 2007 elections, it is certainly not the party members. Unlike the UK Labour, for this lot, it seems the party is finally over!