The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the behemoth that once held sway as the ruling party in Nigeria, is marching inexorably towards extinction. Since it lost power by default in 2015, its fortune has continually tumbled towards the abyss. Even though the party came into being as a national political platform, its decline was initiated and hammered into shape by regional zealots whose allegiance rested roundly and squarely with their ethnic origins.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition to remain in power beyond 2015 set the ball rolling for the regional bigots in PDP. Northern hawks within the party led by its then national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, sold the party for a mess of pottage. They abandoned the ship of the party in preference for that of the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC). President Jonathan was too idealistic to see the rough side of power game. He could not read the handwriting on the wall until the last hour. Reality, for him, became a late dawn.
That was the beginning of the beginning. Since then, the combined forces of misrule and mismanagement have only worsened the state of the PDP, leaving it a shadow of its once vibrant self. Nearly a decade down the line, the party has withered. It has gone degenerate.
The PDP, regardless of the misfortune that befall it in 2015, still had a good chance to redeem itself. And it made fervent efforts then to stay afloat. But there was an inherent drawback. Those who played the ethnic card that saw Jonathan out of power were still lurking in the shadows. They were not persuaded as yet to embrace national politics. But having succeeded in taking power to their region, they momentarily aligned with the goal and vision of the then leadership of the party which, intentionally, announced as early as mid-2015 that the party’s presidential ticket for the 2019 election had been ceded to the north. It was a strategic move to have the party field a strong northern candidate who would do battle with the newly elected Muhammadu Buhari in the next election. It was that deft political move by PDP that gave Atiku Abubakar the ticket with which to challenge President Buhari in the 2019 presidential election. When the election took place, Buhari retained his seat owing largely to factors of incumbency, but the PDP, All the same, put up an impressive fight.
However, as if it was doomed to stay on the path of fatal errors, the PDP, again inflicted a red eye on itself. Rather than recognize that it was time to cede its presidential ticket to the south since presidential power was billed to return to the region, having been held by the north for two consecutive tenures, northern elements in the party insisted on retaining power in their region. Thus, instead of being strategic, northern hawks in the party seized the stage. That saw Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki, Bala Mohammed and Aminu Tambuwal, among other northerners, filing out to grab the party’s presidential ticket. The south which had a legitimate claim to the ticket could not find its voice. It was run over by the boisterous north.
After all the push and shove, the north had its way. It grabbed the party’s ticket for the 2023 presidential election. But that was as far as it could go. Atiku, the holder of the presidential ticket, did not play the right politics. He failed to get the power brokers from his region to accept and endorse him for the presidency. While he was relying on popularity contest, the holder of the ticket of the ruling APC, Bola Tinubu, went underground. He got the northern forces that mattered to his side. While Atiku was billowing in the wind, Tinubu cut a deal with Atiku’s northern region to become the preferred candidate of northern power brokers. Atiku’s shallow politics, marked by over-confidence, caused him victory in the 2023 presidential election. By victory here, we are not talking about the number of popular votes that a candidate won or would have won in that election. Victory was determined by the depth of network that a candidate is able to build across divides. If popular votes were to be the sole determinant of victory in that election, Peter Obi of the Labour Party would have been declared elected. By insisting on holding PDP presidential ticket in 2023, northern elements within the party frittered away the last chance the party had to return to political reckoning in Nigeria.
It must be underlined that Atiku’s failure in the 2023 presidential election bred a monster in Nyesom Wike. He was the governor of Rivers State at the time of that election. He vied for PDP’s presidential ticket but lost to Atiku. Having lost, Wike lobbied to be made Atiku’s running mate. But Atiku and his close allies were not prepared to dine with Wike. They did not consider him a good candidate for the vice presidential slot. They felt that he was too ambitious to be kept close to power. And so, they shoved him aside. Wike licked his wounds but vowed revenge. That was how he jumped ship to join Tinubu’s presidential campaign train. Wike was rewarded with a juicy office when Tinubu was delivered by those he struck a deal with. Since then, Wike has stopped at nothing in his resolve to decimate PDP.
But if you thought that the leadership of the party would move against Wike, you got it all wrong. The party does not appear to have any leadership. It is run on ad hoc basis since the 2023 presidential election was won and lost. The party has not had any proper leadership that can steer it out of murky waters. The Acting National chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, has since been discovered to be a stooge. He is there at the instance of those who do not wish the party to survive.
In the absence of a national chairman who has the grit to bring the party back to life, governors elected under the platform of the party have since moved in. Their mission, as we knew it earlier, was to reposition the party and make it a strong and viable opposition that can reclaim the presidency. To achieve this, the governors felt that it was imperative to dethrone Damagun so that the party would no longer be manipulated by external forces. But that was as far as the governors, led by Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, could go. They barked but were unable to bite. Soon after, the fire in them turned cold. Damagun has remained in office in spite of the initial misgivings of PDP governors. A certain power game which is hardly known to the public must have taken place. It is an elite conspiracy. This conspiracy to retain Damagun is aimed at keeping the party perpetually lame and incapable of a rebirth. Now, the party’s march to extinction appears irreversible.
QUOTE:
“By insisting on holding PDP presidential ticket in 2023, northern elements within the party frittered away the last chance the party had to return to political reckoning in Nigeria. “
