Follow Us on Google
Chukwudi Nweje
Ordinarily, it would be safe to say that Enugu is the home of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), reason being that since 1999, the party has won almost 100 per cent of all the elections conducted in the state, from local government to federal.
Presently, every occupier of any elective position in the state is of the PDP; from the governor; three senators and six House of Representatives members; 24 state assembly members and 17 local government chairmen as well as 260 councillors.
National Chairman of the PDP, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu emphasised that during the party’s presidential rally at Okpara Square, Enugu, on February 14 and was upbeat that the party will repeat the feat on February 25 and March 11 elections.
Addressing a crowd of PDP supporters, Ayu said: “Since we formed the party in 1998, Enugu has always voted PDP. PDP is in your DNA and I believe in 2023, you are still going to vote PDP from top to bottom, from bottom to top, starting with the election that is coming up in the next 11 days; Atiku Abubakar will emerge as your president with Ifeanyichukwu Okowa as his Vice President.
“I want to assure you that immediately after that, your governor is going to be Mr. Peter Mbah who will continue the legacy of the PDP in Enugu State and I believe that the development strides that have been achieved under the PDP leadership in Enugu will continue.”
Deputy Governor, Cecilia Ezeilo who represented Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi at the rally also expressed the optimism that the party would emerge victorious in all the elections.
Welcoming the presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his entourage to the state, Ezeilo reiterated that Enugu State has been PDP since 1999.
“Since 1999, we have been doing it and this is not going to be a different case. I am begging all of you, as you have been doing it, let us do it again, I thank you all,” she stated as she urged Enugu people to vote for PDP.
Atiku also spoke in the same manner as he restated that he was going to be the stepping stone to an Igbo presidency.
In an ecstatic tone, the former vice president said: “I am very, very pleased with the attendance and the crowd I have seen here in Enugu today, whoever says there is no PDP in Enugu is not saying the truth. There is PDP in Enugu and Enugu has been PDP from inception and is still PDP today and will continue to be PDP.
“When I came here few months ago to attend a zonal conference of the South East, I said to the South Easterners or to the Igbo, I am going to be the stepping stone to an Igbo presidency and I mean it.
“Whether an Igbo man is from the South East or from the South South, it is the same race. And today, my running mate is an Igbo man. It is a universal ethnic group; it is a universal race.
“I want you to continue supporting the PDP because PDP is Enugu and Enugu is PDP. I want to let you know that this country is geared towards electing a PDP government; you will not be an exception and you will not be a minority.
“The next government in this country is going to be formed by the PDP, and therefore, as you have always been, be in the mainstream of Nigerian politics because that is the only way that can bring about the prosperity, the economic development, the peace and the security you are looking for in this part of the country and also in the country in general.”
Governorship candidate of the party in Enugu State, Peter Mbah, who spoke earlier, highlighted the dominance of PDP in the state, stressing that the state has remained the greatest home of PDP.
“PDP Enugu yesterday, PDP Enugu today, PDP by the grace of God Enugu tomorrow.
“We have always carried PDP as a banner with so much pride; I want to assure you that PDP is Enugu and Enugu is PDP,” Mbah stated.
Regardless of the assurances, recent happenings had threatened the invincibility of the PDP in the South East, such that even in the thick of the presidential rally, there was palpable apprehension over the fate of the party in the Coal City state.
One of the issues was the absence of the Governor and a former governor and PDP senator, representing Enugu East Senatorial District, Chimaroke Nnamani, at the event.
Ugwuanyi who is the candidate of the party for Enugu North Senatorial District in this Saturday’s polls, belongs to the group of five aggrieved PDP governors, otherwise called G-5, led by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
The G-5 governors and many of their supporters, had vowed not to have anything to do with Atiku unless the party’s National Chairman, Ayu, was removed.
The issue has been thorny with concerns over its likely implications on the fortunes of the PDP in the elections.
In addition, another major factor in Enugu State politics, Sen. Chimaroke Nnamani has thrown his weight behind the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, whom he campaigns vigorously for. Accused of anti-party activities, the national leadership of the PDP recently slammed the former governor with expulsion, an action Nnamani has challenged in the court.
Those who have grasp of Enugu State politics said whatever Sen. Nnamani was doing with Tinubu would be of no significance because Enugu people will not vote for APC. “Chimaroke is on a wild goose chase,” said a strong PDP stakeholder from the senator’s constituency.
Nevertheless, what the foregoing point to is that all is not well with the PDP in the state, especially as it concerns the national elections. The big question, therefore, is, to what extent can all these affect Atiku’s showing in the state?
Meanwhile, a suit seeking to disqualify all the candidates of the PDP for this year’s general elections, dangled on the state like the Sword of Damocles. One Chika Idoko, Enugu North Senatorial candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court, claiming that the PDP’s primary election which produced the candidates was in contravention of Section 77 of the Electoral Act and should thus be voided, while the party should be punished in line with extant provisions of Section 84 of the same Act.
He argued that the party submitted its membership register to INEC on May 6, 2022, less than 30 days to its primary election, contrary to the provisions of the law.
However, reprieve came the way of the party on February 17, as Justice Folashade Giwa-Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court, Enugu, held that the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the suit and that it will be an exercise in futility to continue with the matter and therefore struck it out.
The judgement elicited wild jubilation across the length and breadth of the state as a negative ruling would have changed the political tenor of the state and possibly affect the fortunes of the PDP in the coming elections.
Director of Public Communications and spokesperson of the PDP Governorship campaign in the state, Nana Ogbodo described the judgement as victory for democracy.
“We appreciate our party faithful and supporters for their standing with the party every step of the way and urge them to get their voters cards ready to go out there to vote for the PDP on the 25th of February and 11th March 2023,” Ogbodo enthused.
But the conspicuous absence of Ugwuanyi who is also the South East leader of the PDP, at the party’s presidential campaign rally in Enugu, has continued to give people cause for concern.
People see the development as an indication that all hope of settlement between the group and Atiku was lost.
Another issue that could mitigate the performance of the PDP in the presidential election is the clamour for national consensus for a new Nigeria, driven by the standard bearer of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi.
But dispassionate political commentators insist that the state remains a traditional base of the PDP. For them, no other party has posed a threat to the PDP in Enugu State in the past 24 years. So, the LP candidate might have a good run but not to the extent of decimating the PDP.
This school of thought strongly believes that the PDP winning machine is still potent in the state. They say so bearing in mind that several candidates of the party are formidable, from the governorship, National Assembly to the state House of Assembly, adding that Ndi Enugu were already used to the PDP and its umbrella logo.
They further said that the party boasts of well-rooted structures across the 260 wards in the state which would be very tough to uproot.
Above all, nobody would doubt the place of Ugwuanyi in the politics of the state. Commentators agreed that he holds the ace when it comes to swinging the pendulum of the presidential poll in the state.
There is the thinking that Ugwuanyi would not at the end of the day, work against the interest of his party as the leader in the geo-political zone. Holders of this opinion describe him a true party man and recalled that though the governor was not at the presidential campaign rally, but he received Atiku at the Lion Building, Government House of Enugu State, that day.
