The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, once acclaimed largest political party in Africa, remains disunited months after the recently concluded general elections.
Prior to the 2023
polls, the party was already standing on a shaky note, and losing the
presidential election appears to have put the final nail in the coffin.
At the return of
democracy in 1999, the PDP not only controlled the nation’s presidential seat but
dominated in both chambers of the National Assembly. This was the scenario
until 2015 when the All Progressives Congress, APC, staged an upset following a
merger of different parties.
This is aside from
the fact that more than two-thirds of the States in the federation were under
its rule. Some party members had even boasted the party would preside over
government affairs in the country for several decades. But that never came to
fruition.
It will be
recalled that the tide began to tilt against the PDP following its choice to
field former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election amid
opposition from some prominent politicians, especially from the Northern part
of the country.
Some politicians,
mainly from the northern extraction, opposed Jonathan’s second-term presidency
on the premise that power ought to return to the region following the demise of
President Umaru Yar’Adua, who died only two years into his presidency.
Jonathan, the then
Vice President, completed Yar’Adua’s four years term and won another four years
in 2011, thanks to the massive goodwill he enjoyed from the greater number of
Nigerians. He was also said to have promised earlier to run for only one term but reneged.
In 2015, Jonathan,
who ran under the platform of the PDP, lost to Muhammadu Buhari of the then-newly formed APC.
The PDP made
another attempt in 2019 through Alhaji Atiku Abubakar but it was still APC that
won the polls.
However, with 2023
in sight, expectations were high that the PDP would make a comeback, even more
as many Nigerians felt Buhari, who emerged as President in 2015 and in 2019
amidst heightened hope as a messianic figure, did not perform well.
The rest is now
history as the party came second, with Bola Ahmed Tinubu winning the
presidential election. His victory is now a subject of litigation before the
Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
PDP discarding zoning
Some believed that
the PDP did not handle the controversial issue of zoning well in the first
place.
The debate over
the zoning principle in the PDP ended in May 2022, nine months before the
presidential election, following its decision to open its 2023 presidential
ticket to all sections of the country.
The party’s
National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, disclosed the party’s position
following the end of the party’s National Executive Council, NEC, meeting.
He said the
decision to throw open the ticket was in line with the recommendation made by
the party’s zoning committee.
“After extensive
deliberation, NEC aligned with the recommendation of the PDP National Zoning
Committee that the Presidential Election should now be left open. The party
should also work towards a consensus candidate where possible,” Ologunagba
said.
PDP’s decision was
totally at variance with the position of the Southern Governors’ Forum.
This is believed
to be one of the major reasons that further diminished the party.
Peter Obi, Labour Party & Obidients
Hitherto the
emergence of Peter Obi as the Labour Party, LP, flagbearer on May 30, 2022,
days after resigning his membership in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, not
much was known or heard about the party.
Obi was the
running mate to Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 election.
But the popularity of the former Anambra State governor surged after
he joined forces with the LP, with a section of the youth (popularly known as
the ‘Obidients’) taking his ambition as a personal project.
Obi is famously
known for his consumption-to-production rhetorics. His advocacy and promise to
fight corruption and insecurity, create jobs, a conducive environment for
businesses, and improve education, healthcare, infrastructure, and the economy
attracted him many followers.
Atiku admitted
Obi’s negative effect on the PDP’s fortunes when he spoke after the declaration
of Bola Tinubu of the APC as the winner.
He said that the
PDP lost a considerable number of votes to Obi in the presidential election.
“It is a fact that
he took our votes from the southeast and the south-south — that, of course,
would not make him a president,” Atiku said.
G-5 phenomenon
The G-5 members
are ex-Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu
(Abia), Samuel Ortom (Benue), and Governor Seyi Makinde (Oyo).
The governors,
angered by the outcome of the party’s presidential primary election won by
Atiku Abubakar, demanded that the party Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, should step
down. They believed it was against equity and justice for both the National
Chairman and the Presidential candidate to come from one region.
But the party’s
presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and some other party leaders refused to
succumb to the demand, insisting that if at all, it would happen after the
election.
Permutations were
also rife after the primary that Atiku would pick Wike as his running mate, but
in a twist of events, he settled for Okowa, who some stalwarts considered less
strong in the party than Wike.
The G-5 phenomenon
no doubt escalated the crisis in the PDP and they have remained a strong factor
till date.
Recent
developments even show that the crisis has festered. The choice of Minority
Leaders of the National Assembly was an eye opener that the much sought peace
is yet to return to the PDP.
Former Sokoto
Governor and Atiku’s ally, Aminu Tambuwal, who was speculated to be favoured by
the party, lost out in his bid to become the Senate Minority Leader. It was
rather Senator Mwadkwon Davou from Plateau State that carried the day.
Wike’s group was
said to have sustained a swift opposition against Tambuwal’s emergence.
As it stands, with
Wike and several other members, all but set to dump the platform, the PDP faces an existential threat more than ever.
The former National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo on the party’s current state, admitted in an exclusive interview that everybody was worried and was working hard to see what they could do.
The former
governor of old Enugu State also disclosed that there is an ongoing internal
reconciliation even though the party would not want to go public with what they
are doing now.
”We are trying as
much as possible to concentrate on what is going on in the court, not to run
foul of the court until they finish what they are doing. They are almost
rounding off; we will talk again in the near future.
“We are doing more
internal reconciliation than going public with what we are doing at the moment.
Everybody is
worried; we are all working hard to see what we can do,” Nwodo said.
Meanwhile, a media aide to Atiku Abubakar,
the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Paul Ibe, said
that he believed, notwithstanding the challenges in the party, his principal
won the 2023 presidential election.
He admitted that
the PDP has set up a reconciliation committee and that Atiku was involved in
its process.
According to Ibe,
the party is also reviewing what happened and how it conducted its affairs
during the election, insisting that persons in the PDP who deliberately and
knowingly sabotaged the party would be sanctioned.
”It is only in a
matter of time that the PDP will be in a better position to ensure that all of
the negatives we see in terms of economic and political decisions will be
reversed. So Nigerians should just wait a while.
”Yes, whatever
that might have played out, all I can assure you is that the minority
leadership of the party will align. I will assure you that. And they will
align. They have already spoken. It is nothing to worry about because even the
APC also, the chairman of their party, had the cause to raise reservations
about what played out. It was not peculiar to the PDP alone.
”The party has set
up a reconciliation committee. He (Atiku) has been fully briefed about it and
the meeting that they had. He is involved in the process, don’t forget that he
was a co-founder of the party and a major stakeholder. So there is a process in
place; it is only a matter of time before all of the contending issues are
resolved.
”The party is also
reviewing what happened and how it conducted its affairs and the election. I
think it would be an opportunity to reflect, and whatever it is that should
have been done but was not done, they will take cognisance of it.
“So, the review process is ongoing, and it is only a matter of time before they make their findings public. There were mistakes; people would make mistakes; it is part of being human. And for those who deliberately, knowingly sabotaged the party, there are chances they would be sanctioned.”
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