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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
After the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) suffered its third consecutive defeat in the 2023 general elections, which was won by the All Progressives Congress (APC), the question on the lips of many has been what the future holds for the party. Four months after the election, the party is yet to get its acts together.
Having ruled Nigeria for 16 unbroken years, beginning from 1999, the party had lost power to the APC in 2015 and all efforts to bounce in 2019 was unsuccessful, as its presidential candidate, in the 2019 general elections, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar lost to the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari.
Prior to the 2023 general elections, the party had expressed optimism that it would displace the ruling APCy. The optimism was hinged on the fact that President Buhari would not be on the ballot in 2023 and that the discontent in the country over the alleged dismal performance by the APC controlled Federal Government in the last eight years would also be a boost.
However, the party was hit by crisis following the nomination of Atiku and former Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as its presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively. Consequently, various organs of the PDP became polarised with five of its aggrieved governors, comprising Nyesom Wike of Rivers State; Samuel Ortom of Benue State; Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, on one hand, and Atiku and the former national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, on the other hand.
The governors, under the aegis of G-5 had insisted that Ayu must be replaced with a southerner as a condition for peace. Eventually, the two groups could not find a common ground and that led the party into the last general elections divided, as the G-5 that had pulled out of the PDP presidential campaign kept a distance from the party.
Analysts had attributed the party’s loss at the polls to the schisms in its fold prior to the general elections. The PDP had lost the presidential election in the G-5 states, which were hitherto the opposition party’s stronghold.
In the aftermath of the election, Ayu was suspended from the party by his ward in Benue State, leading to his eventual replacement as national chairman by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC). The former chairman’s suspension has been affirmed by a Benue High Court.
Ayu’s exit notwithstanding, the peace that exists in the party is still peace of the graveyard. The G-5 governors, who have served out their terms, with the exception of Makinde that is serving a second term, have continued to flirt with the Federal Government. The former Rivers State Governor, who is the leader of the group, had met at least twice with President Bola Tinubu since his assumption of office as president at Aso Rock. In the first meeting Wike was in company with a former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, and the Oyo State Governor, Makinde. The second meeting with the President had in attendance members of the G-5 comprising Wike, Ugwuanyi, Ikpeazu, Ortom and Makinde.
PDP as spectator in NASS election
Analysts are of the opinion that one area the party’s fatigue arising from the loss of the 2023 general elections manifested fully, was in the recent election of the presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly.
For the first time in the last eight years, the opposition party failed to give a direction to its members in the national assembly, in the contest for the presiding officers of the two chambers.
After the PDP lost the 2015 general elections, it mobilised its members in the Senate and House of Representatives to move against the APC’s preferred candidates for the positions of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives. An alliance between the party and some APC members led to the emergence of Bukola Saraki as the president of the Eighth Senate, with Ike Ekweremadu from the PDP as his deputy. In the House of Representatives, the PDP also collaborated with members of the ruling party to install Yakubu Dogara as Speaker.
In 2019, the PDP openly endorsed Ali Ndume and Umar Bago for the positions of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, and directed its members to support the duo. However, both men lost out in the contest for the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly.
Ironically, the PDP was more of a spectator in the recent contest for the leadership of the National Assembly. Daily Sun reliably gathered that a top official in the opposition party had made attempts to get members of the PDP in the Green Chambers to leverage on the number of the opposition lawmakers to field a candidate for the position of the deputy speaker. But, the plot was dead on arrival owing to the failure of the party to galvanise its members and other opposition parties for the national assembly’s leadership contest.
Also, there are indications that the minority leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives are likely to emerge without major or any inputs from the PDP. Although the lawmakers are expected to decide who leads their caucuses, the party is expected to give a guide, especially by way of coming up with a zoning formula to serve a compass to the lawmakers.
However, that may not happen because already, some opposition members of the House of Representatives have met and agreed on a zoning formula without recourse to the party. The members had allegedly settled for Kingsley Chinda, an ally of the former Rivers State Governor, Wike.
Also, there are allegations of plots to install a minority leadership in the Senate without the input of the PDP.
PDP’s dilemma
Daily Sun reliably gathered that the party is in a dilemma on how to find a closure to the events that led to its loss in the 2023 presidential poll, especially the role played by some of its leaders in the election.
A source told the Daily Sun that there is no consensus among the party leaders on how best to address the issue of members who worked against the party in the last general elections. It was gathered that while some stakeholders want a total reconciliation in the party, others want the PDP to wield the big stick against errant members.
Nevertheless, the PDP leadership is making frantic efforts to mend the cracks in its fold and prepare for the challenges ahead. Last week, the National Working Committee convened a meeting of select leaders of the party to brainstorm over the state of the party.
The party’s National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, said the meeting was to enable the party leaders to do a postmortem of the last election and chart a course forward, as well as to jump-start a reconciliation process.
Bature said: “We are here today and everyone knows what happened in 2023. We contributed both individually and collectively. If you rise to speak, I beg you to spell out your own role in the 2023 elections, either positively or negatively, before you jump to accuse someone else either negatively or positively. Everybody had a role to play.
“When you rise to speak, please, tell us the role you played. You can accuse anybody here for playing pro or anti party activities. The aim is when we are through; we will have an idea of what to do with the party, before we move to other organs, like the national caucus, and the NEC for the way forward for the party.”
Ironically, Atiku, Okowa, former Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, as well as Wike and other members of the G-5, were absent from the meeting, which was expected to kick-start the peace process.
However, a pressure group within the party, PDP Young Integrity Group, said the way to achieve a lasting peace in the party was to ensure inclusion in the management of the party. According to the group, it is not fair to have the acting chairman of the PDP, the presidential candidate and chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum all come from the North.
The group, in a statement jointly signed by its national leader, Johnson Adamu, spokesperson and two others, said: “Critical among factors that are standing on the way of entrenching genuine reconciliation among party leaders and the party is the lack of political inclusiveness that gave rise to the call for the campaign of equity, Justice and fairness.
“The present composition of the PDP national leadership structure is not only flawed but also betrays the actual pillar in the party’s constitution that bothers on power rotation. For instance, the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, wike, the PDP presidential candidate, and the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Senator Bala Mohammed, among others are all from the North. We wish to use this avenue to appeal to the patriotic leaders in our party to sacrifice convenience for the PDP to live.”
