By Chidiebere Onyemaizu

Once a behemoth in the South East, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from all ramifications is now gasping for breath in the region. No thanks to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC’s concerted drive to take over the region before the next general elections.

Dismayed by the humiliation and total rejection it suffered in the geo-political zone in the 2023 elections, Daily Sun gathered that the national leadership of the APC, with the blessing of the presidency, has put up a number of strategies in motion to ensure that before 2027 or by the end of the 2027 general election, the party will be in total control of the region.

According to a party source, one of the strategies adopted by the APC to dominate the region was to make pre-2027 irresistible political offers and promises to prominent PDP and Labour party leaders and elected political office holders in the South East, including offer of APC’s tickets for various elective offices, effortless election and re-election victories and juicy federal  political appointments.

South East leaders are also allegedly being blackmailed with possible neglect by the Federal Government should the APC fail to gain prominence in the region after the 2027 general elections.

Labour party elected office holders are equally being pressured to jump ship- and the pressure is already yielding results- as they are considered by the APC as offshoots of the PDP given that many of them were originally PDP members who were denied the party’s tickets and then had to defect to the LP where they contested  and won their elections, majorly on the crest of the popularity of the party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi who himself left the PDP for the LP before the presidential election.

The APC is reportedly seriously persuading the PDP’s only governor in the South East, Peter Mbah to join the ruling party, with the party’s drive to pocket the region, “so that his re-election will be signed and sealed even before 2027.”

Governor Mbah who owns multi billionaire Oil and Gas firm at Lekki Free Trade zone, Lagos, Pinnacle Oil and Gas, impeccable sources told Daily Sun, may defect to the APC. “It will be miracle if Governor Mbah completes 2024 as PDP Governor. His heart, soul and one leg are already in the APC and it won’t be long before he closes PDP’s chapter in Enugu”, one of the sources told Daily Sun.

In the case of Anambra State Governor and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA’s only governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, APC, Daily Sun has been informed, that his faction of APGA, having lost out in the leadership tussle in the party, would soon yield to the intense pressure on him to jump ship. Said an APC source: “Governor Soludo has lost out in APGA and the new leadership of the party led by Chief Edozie Njoku is not in the mood to tolerate him, so I can bet you that the governor is headed for the APC to actualise his second term ambition.”

“As for LP’s Governor Alex Oti of Abia State, we don’t expect him to join us but I can assure that we will overwhelm him and his party in the next election and take over Abia, especially as a former PDP governor of the state is on the cusp of joining the APC. Just watch out”, the source further told Daily Sun.

Speaking penultimate week in Abakiliki, the Ebonyi State capital while welcoming former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim and other PDP defectors in the state to APC, the APC national Chairman and the immediate past Kano state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje boasted that the  party was working assiduously to capture Abia, Enugu and Anambra. “For us to take over Enugu, Anambra and Abia states, we must unite and uphold internal democracy and understand the constitution of our party”, he said, suggesting that the panacea for the end of the marginalisation of the South East in the Nigeria project lies with the APC take over of the region.

The APC National Chairman opined that the de-marginalisation initiative of the South East would enable the people of the region to benefit “maximally from the present administration and gain access to the mainstream of national politics.”

He maintained that all hands must be on deck for the “vicious circle of marginalisation to be broken against all odds.”

Senator Anyim was last week presented to President Bola Tinubu in Aso Rock by the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma who is the APC leader in the South East and has been embarking on intensive membership drive in the region, in line with the APC’s push to have the region completely in its kitty. However, some political analysts are giving the governor’s efforts at swelling the ranks of his party with PDP and LP defectors a different interpretation. They posit that Governor Uzodimma is only furthering his political nest with the aim of posturing as the undisputed APC leader in the South East which he allegedly hopes will ultimately place him in a vantage position for a higher political position such as a running mate to an APC Northern presidential candidate after Tinubu’s tenure.

However, South East APC chieftains do not share the above sentiment. According to them, Governor Uzodimma’s sterling qualities naturally confer on him the leadership of the party in the region. They insist that he has been proving his mettle given the growing support APC now enjoys among the Igbo.

In the words of Senator Oduah who predicted the APC would soon take over the South East, “I joined the APC because of the appointment of Governor Uzodimma as the Coordinator of the Party in the South East and his ability to bring federal presence and development to the South East.

“Governor Uzodimma has made the South East to embrace the APC. Many more leaders in the South East are joining the APC because of him.”

In the same vein, some APC stakeholders in the region, a few months ago, in a solidarity letter to him, applauded the Imo State Governor’s leadership style, especially his efforts at growing APC in the five states of the South East.

In the solidarity message signed by the national vice chairman (South East), Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu and Anambra State APC  chairman, Chief Basil Ejidike on behalf of the five South East State chairmen, they noted that Uzodimma was appointed to lead the party’s charge in the region as a result of “his acceptability and popularity which cut across the various segments of the population in the region”.

The party stakeholders also maintained that he was selected due to his deep understanding of the social and political nuances of the region and exceptional capacity for party mobilisation.

“We commend the national leadership of our great party for appointing Governor Hope Uzodimma to lead our party’s charge in the South East. It is clear that this is in recognition of Governor Uzodimma’s relentless roles in mobilizing support and building the APC which was hitherto unknown in the region to now become a major and leading political party in the region”, they said.

Beside, Senator Anyim, Senator Ezenwa Francis Onyewuchi representing Imo East Senatorial district on the platform of the LP left the party for the APC last week, citing leadership crisis in his former party.

Senator Onyewuchi was a PDP Senator until he was defeated in the party’s Senatorial primary election prompting him to seek refuge in the LP and later benefited from the Peter Obi effect in the 2023 elections as he won his re-election back to the Senate effortlessly on LP’s platform.

While Daily Sun learnt that Senator Onyewuchi has been promised the governorship ticket of the APC for the next Imo governorship election as a reward for dumping the LP, the carrot that was dangled before Anyim is not yet clear.

Other prominent South East PDP and LP partisans that have jumped since last year’s general election include former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, and former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Ambassador Fidelia Njeze, former Senator represent Anambra Central in the Senate, Senator Uche Ekwunife,  former Aviation Minister, Senator Stella Oduah who represented Anambra North in the Senate, six LP House of Assembly members in Enugu: Ejike Eze, (Igbo-Eze North 1);  Johnson Ugwu (Enugu North) Princess Ugwu (Enugu South Rural), Pius Ezeugwu (Nsukka West), Amuka Williams (Igbo-Etiti East) and Osita Eze, (Oji River).

Also defected to the APC are seven former members of PDP’s State Working Committee in Imo State, led by its Deputy Chairman, Martin Ejiogu. Other members of the  Working Committee include Collins Opuruozor, publicity secretary, Ray Emeana, secretary, Greg Nwadike, youth leader, Maria Mbakwe, women leader, Josiah Eze, treasurer, and Chibuisi Obido, vice chairperson of Orlu zone.

Also in Imo, a number of PDP 9th National Assembly members, including Rt. Hon Bede Eke (Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency), Rt. Hon Henry Nwawuba (Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru Federal Constituency) and Rt. Hon Ikenna Elezianya (Owerri Federal Constituency), all PDP chieftains and federal lawmakers from the Owerri zone have turned coat and joined the APC shortly after the 2023 general elections.

Others include, Hon. Jerry Alagbaso (Oru East/ Orsu/ Orlu Federal Constituency) Hon. Bruno Ukoha from Ezinihitte/Ahiazu Federal Constituency, PDP Apex Leader in Ngor Okpala, Hon. Emma Nwogu and Pastor Frank Onwumere from Okigwe zone.

In Ebonyi State, before Senator Anyim’s formal defection, the PDP had earlier suffered massive hemorrhage in the state following the poaching of many of its prominent members by the APC among whom are a former member representing Abakaliki/Izzi Federal Constituency and former governorship aspirant in the 2023 general elections, Hon. Sylvester Ogbaga; former Senator and ex-member, National Working Committee of the PDP, Sylvanus Nguji Ngele, and other executive members of the party.

In Abia State which is controlled by the LP, the gravitation of defections tilt not towards the ruling party in the state but to the APC as can be gleaned from the recent defection of prominent PDP members in the state, namely former PDP presidential aspirant and ex Deputy speaker, Chief Cosmas Ndukwe and the entire executives of his ward in Bende council area, the immediate past Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Chief Chinedum Orji, former chief Whip of the state Assembly, Dr. Ikechukwu Nwabeke; council chairmen of Isuikwuato and Isiala Ngwa South, Chief Chima Agbeze, and Dr. Chris Nwagboso, respectively. Others are former Assembly members for Umunneochi and Obingwa West state constituencies, Prince Ikedi Ezekwesiri and Chief Uche Nwankpa, ex council chairmen of Ohafia and Isiala Ngwa South, Dr. Okoroafor Ukiwe and Chief Iyke Anyatonwu.

Former aides and loyalists of the immediate past governor of the state, Okezie Ikpeazu, have also caught the APC bug, triggering speculations that the former governor is also on his way to the party.

His former appointees who have so far dumped the PDP for APC include his former Chief of Staff, Anthony Agbazue; his former Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Eze Chikamnayo, from Umunneochi; a former commissioner representing Abia State in the Niger Delta development Commission, Chief Chimezie Okoronkwo; former Commissioner for Public Utilities, Chief Eze Nwanganga; former commissioner in Abia State Oil Producing Area Development Commission, Chief Uzo Ihuka; former Commissioner for Environment, Chief Sam Nwogu, and a former chairman of ASOPADEC.

Now a fading fancy for Southeast politicians, what was the region’s unwavering romance with the PDP began shortly after it was registered as a political party in 1998 during the former Head of State, General Abdulsalsm Abubakar’s short transition to civil rule programme.

Second republic Vice President, late Dr Alex Ekwueme was the leader of the political forces that formed the party and probably in solidarity with him as one of its illustrious sons or due to his wide acceptability across the region, the South East geo-political zone was to fanatically embrace the new party.

Dr Ekwueme who aspired for the presidency on the platform of the party in 1999 and 2023 was indeed a leading light in the party. In fact, some say he was the founder and wielded enormous influence, so, the region naturally queued behind him. Even when he lost the PDP presidential tickets in 1999 and 2003, Dr. Ekwueme remained in the party and the Soutth East also remained impregnable to other parties but the scenario gradually began to change following the defeat of president Jonathan in 2015. Political analysts say this was because despondency and disillusionment set in the region because the people regarded President Jonathan as an approximation of a Nigerian President of a South East extraction.

Meanwhile, party stalwarts are of the view that long before the APC began its blitz to take over the South East, the PDP had already gradually started losing its attraction to the region over unrequited and unrewarded loyalty.

According to Sebastian Onuh, a former PDP House of Assembly aspirant in Imo, “APC’s incursion into the South East was not the reason the PDP collapsed in the South East; its collapse was a gradual thing. Party leaders and supporters in the South East realised that since 1998 when the party was formed, they had remained loyal to the party as seen in the victories it recorded in various elections there, yet such victories were taken for granted, unrewarded”

Onuh added: “In 2019, we still held out hope and voted massively for the party because there was a flicker of hope for reward in the form of our son, Peter Obi who was a vice Presidential running mate to Atiku Abubakar,  the party’s presidential candidate but in the run up to the 2023 presidential election, the party literally behaved as if we, the South East didn’t matter. What was the wisdom in throwing the PDP presidential ticket open when the North, the South West and South South had in the past benefited from the zoning formula enshrined in the party’s constitution?

“It was like telling the South East, you dont matter, you dont belong, you are not qualified, you are not needed, you are simply a beast of burden. And on top of that, Obi was shabbily treated and schemed out of the party. So, the South East had a rude awakening and for the first time in 25 years, the region totally turned its back on the PDP and you saw the outcome.

“Truth is, if the South East had voted the PDP last year, Atiku would have won the presidential election.”

Meanwhile, Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, BoT and former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara while speaking to newsmen recently said that the challenges facing it notwithstanding, the party will survive.

Likening the party to a Beatle, the BoT Chairman emphatically declared that no amount of factionalisation or crises could kill the PDP: Said Wabara: “First of all, the PDP is just like a Beatle. A beatle they generally say never dies. There is nothing that can kill PDP, no matter the factions, PDP cannot die.”