This may not be the best of times for the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The once dominant party, which ruled Nigeria for 16 years, is losing even the areas that were previously considered to be its stronghold to its biggest political rivals, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP).
Eight years after losing out to the APC at the Federal level, the PDP’s fortune appears to have dipped and the party itself is burdened by lack of cohesion, leaving political observers in the country to conclude that a bleak future awaits the party.
It would be recalled that the PDP had a good run at the Federal level at the outset, dominating both the executive and the legislature for a straight 16 years.
It is also a known fact that many of the founding fathers of the party, which used to pride itself as the largest political party in Africa, are dead. A few have left for other political parties and the rest have taken the back seat in the running of the party due to frustration from the younger elements who believe they have all it takes to manage the party.
These elders clearly had decided to keep their fingers crossed and watch the young Hawks distort the vision of the founding fathers of the party, thus paving the way for the party’s defeat in major electoral contests in the last few years, especially in the last general election.
These young hawks have jettisoned the party’s supremacy, loyalty and the values that once held the party together. They openly flirt with other political parties and dare the PDP leadership to do its worst.
It is unbelievable how some aggrieved party members and leaders openly supported the ruling APC in the last general election, while one of its runaway leaders, Mr Peter Obi became a rallying point for a lesser known Labour Party.
Surprisingly, Obi who was the PDP vice presidential candidate in the 2019 Presidential Election led the LP into victories in the South-East, some North Central states, South-South and quite unbelievably, in Lagos in the recent presidential election.
Also five of the party’s state governors, the self-styled G-5 Governors, led by former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, did not hide the fact that they worked for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, who was eventually declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Cracks began to appear within the party after the leadership jettisoned its zoning principle by choosing its presidential candidate from the North, the region where its National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, also hailed from.
THEWILL recalls that the founding fathers of the party adopted power rotation as a way of dousing the fear of dominance by one region over others. And with such a solid foundation, it was not a surprise that the party dominated and ruled the country continuously for 16 years.
Wike and his allies, citing the rotation principle of the party laid down by the founding fathers, called for Ayu’s resignation. They had argued that since Ayu and Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate, both came from the same region, one of them had to give up his position to a southerner.
But Ayu insisted that he would not resign his position on the basis of the demands of the G-5. In response, the five governors of the party and their allies in the ‘Integrity Group ‘ shunned the PDP Presidential Campaign and mobilised against the Atiku in the election. They all worked for Tinubu.
Despite the removal of Ayu via a court decision and the fact that the party is currently at the Election Petitions Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the presidential election, leaders of the party who felt aggrieved before the election have not changed their positions as they still remain in the party and openly boasted how they aided the party’s defeat in the election.
Only last week, a former Governor of Ekiti State and PDP chieftain, Ayodele Fayose, disclosed that he worked for the candidate of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during the last presidential election.
Speaking during a TV programme, Fayose said he chose to work against his party’s standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar, because the “PDP has not been fair to me”.
He said, “I never worked for the PDP during the last election. I cannot work for two people at the same time,”
“The reality is that I worked for Asiwaju Tinubu. He is a respectable person from the South-West. It is the time of the South.”
Also a former Chief of Staff to the Rivers State Governor, Chief Tony Okocha, said that ex-Governor Nyesom Wike made it possible for the APC and Tinubu to win the last presidential poll in the state.
Okocha said APC leaders in the state are pleading with the President to concede the ministerial slot for Rivers to Wike.
He said Wike committed huge material and financial support to the poll for Tinubu to win.
Okocha said that without the influence of Wike, Obi could have swept the state.
He said, : “The point I’m making is that neither my former boss, ex-Governor Rotimi Amaechi and his group nor Sen. Magnus Abe and his group worked for Tinubu.
“What helped us in Rivers State was the stupidity of PDP, we all know. At the centre of that is the spin doctor, Nyesom Wike, the then Governor of my state.
“Since the inception of PDP in 1998, Rivers State has been a safe haven for PDP. It has won elections back-to-back. Even when we were in government, PDP still defeated us in Rivers.
Wike gave instructions to his PDP family because they had no candidate to vote for. ‘Work with APC’ and it was me they were coming to work with because I was the arrowhead (of the APC).
“Abe had left for SDP, Amaechi was not keen. I’m bold to say that Wike took care of the election bills. He was the one that paid the piper.
“Without Wike’s huge support, material and financial, Peter Obi could have swept Rivers State.
Even to localise Wike to Rivers State, you are short-cutting and short-circuiting his influence. If the G-5 governors were intact with the PDP, their party would have won.”
“The point was made clearly that it was Wike, otherwise, I would have appropriated it to myself. I was keeping the house. He (Wike) played 70 per cent or more of the role that made the election of Tinubu in Rivers State possible.
“It has been acknowledged by all of us, including Magnus Abe, in one of his grandstanding appearances. He said that in the PCC, they didn’t reckon with Rivers State but winning Rivers State was to show that Wike was the game-changer”.
The rotation principle, which was jettisoned, created the crisis that led to the poor performance of the party in the last general election.
THEWILL recalled that at a stage before its crumbling, PDP leaders were boasting that the party would continue to win the presidential election and control the federal structure for 100 years.
Its dominance was so overwhelming that one of its former chairmen, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor predicted that the PDP would control the country for 60 years.
Ogbulafor made the controversial comment in 2008 while he was occupying the topmost position in the party.
He said “Some time ago, I used to read in the newspapers that the umbrella of the PDP was torn. Each time I read that, I would laugh and then say to myself that the umbrella is still strong and very intact and ready to accommodate more people.
“The PDP is a party for all and it is set to rule Nigeria for the next 60 years. I don’t care if Nigeria becomes a one-party state. We can do it and the PDP can contain all.”
Explaining why he uttered the statement, years later, the Abia-born politician said: “When I was PDP chairman, there was peace, and I brought in four non-PDP states: Abia, Imo, Sokoto and Bauchi. 28 states were under me; 28 PDP governors and a good number of National Assembly members and that was why I said PDP would be in office for 60 years.”
Ogbulafor also recalled how he counselled former President Goodluck Jonathan not to tamper with the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), warning him that such may have dire consequences.
“I advised him not to touch the structure of governors. He went and tampered with the structure; that was when they said 16 were greater than 19.
“So, some solid governors left the party; people like Rotimi Amaechi, Bukola Saraki and Aliyu Wamakko. Those are areas where you get a good number of voters. When they left, the party collapsed.”
The party is yet to rise from the ruin of 2015 when about seven governors left the party to join other parties in forming a coalition that resulted in the birth of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party that gave the PDP its first defeat in 2015.
Can the party bounce back to winning ways? Only time will tell. The atmosphere is too cloudy to suggest that.
Most of the party’s leaders are already flirting with President Bola Tinubu and the APC possibly to get the crumbs as ministers or board chairmen.
Aside the G-5 Governors who had visited Tinubu in recent times, others like the former National Publicity Secretary-General of the PDP, Olisa Metuh and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, have visited Tinubu and had discussions with him.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
