PDP battles for survival in South West, South East

By OlusesanLaoye

As the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is gearing towards its presidential primary to pick who will represent it in the 2023 contest, all is still not well in two Southern zones and many states in Nigeria. The states which are still engulfed in crisis, in both the South East and the South West, are Oyo, Abia, Imo, Anambra and Ekiti States.

Although there were other states with crises, these are the states in the two regions where their crises could not be patched up and which also poses greater danger for the party in virtually all the elections coming up in 2023. The party also has witnessed a floodgate of defections of its prominent members, who lost out on the struggle for power in the states. Some of these people include Mr. Peter Obi, Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, and former two time Senate deputy president, Ike Ekweremadu.

All these are expected to impact on the most crucial to the party, the centre, where the party is desperate to produce the next president of Nigeria.

The recent primaries across political parties in Nigeria exposed the PDP as a party deep in crises, which could even have effect on the coming presidential primary, as some of the affected states, especially in the East, would be affected and and could be without delegates.
In Anambra, for instance, the crisis in the state has gone so deep to have led to the exit of the former governor of the state, Peter Obi from the party. Obi came up against Chief Chris Uba, whose protege, Chris Ngige, he defeated to be governor in 2006.

The exit of Peter Obi took Nigerians aback and many people could still not phantom what could have led to such a prominent person in the PDP to dumped it.

Obi, a former vice presidential candidate in 2019, of the party, was the running mate of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku. Before his exit he was one of the hot contenders in the southern part of Nigeria, especially the South east, gunning for the presidency.

The crisis in Anambra was so deep, to the extent that the primaries to the state and the National Assembly had to be shifted many times, until when partial settlement was reached, for the party to hold the 3 man ad-hoc delegate congress in a tight security.
The first attempt was marred by protests as the Electoral Congress committee led by Ahmed Jubril was accused of not producing the original list of delegates.

The party had been rocked with leadership crisis with the Chief Chris Uba suspending the Acting Chairman of the party, Mr. Oke Asolo, claiming that he, Asolo had no ground to be the chairman, since he was suspended in his Ward (13), PDP Onitsha North Local Government of the state.

The crisis in Abia is even deeper as no one is sure of how it would be resolved. As at the weekend, the 10 governorship aspirants are still adamant on the imposition of candidates and their protests went as far as to the National Secretariat of the party, in Abuja.

Political observers believed that the Abia PDP crisis which has been on for a long time and still waxing stronger, it may jeopardize the coming general elections, but the exit of Enyinnaya Abaribe, considered to be at centre of it may have resolved the problem for the party but the election is still on the balance. It was argued that he is a resolute person, who would fight to the last to ensure that he gets what he wants.

One of the grounds which Abaribe is quarrelling about was what he described as the obvious manipulation by a segment of the State Executive Committee of the party, to subvert the democratic process, “which is geared towards achieving a predetermined goal of imposition at all levels.”

Abaribe who led the protest in a speech signed by all the aspirants, said: “We are, therefore, here in our party’s national headquarters to alert the party and the Nigerian public of this ugly development, which, if not stopped, could spell doom for the party ahead of the 2023 general elections, not only in Abia but in the South East as a whole.”

Abaribe said there was not and has never been any ward congress to elect the three-man ad-hoc delegates in Abia. He further alleged that the chairman of PDP in Abia usurped the powers of PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) as he singlehandedly wrote a letter to inform the Independent Nation Electoral Committee (INEC) about the congress.

“It is absurd that what is being bandied as a list emanated from an imaginary congress, conducted vide a letter of notice to the Abia State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), signed by the state chairman of the PDP, Mr. Allwell Okere. The implication is that the functions of NEC and NWC were performed by a state chairman of the party and not the national chairman and secretary of PDP.”

In Imo State, the infighting between former governor Emeka Ihedioha and the National Secretary of the PDP Samuel Anyanwu has continued to heightened the tension in the state. This led to the suspension of the primaries indefinitely.

The in-fighting between governor Ihedioha and Anyanwu is seriously affecting the party and it has led to divisions into various groups, still affecting the inability of the party to conduct an election that would produce the 3-man-ad-hoc delegates list for all the primaries including that of the presidency.

Also, the youths in the party are restive and unhappy about the situation and are going hard on the leadership at the state level. They are venting their anger on the leaders. They protested at the State Secretariat to condemned the inability of the party to produce delegates. They also argued that as youths they don’t have any other political party to go, and are already building their political futures in PDP.

The spokes person of the Youth who is also their leader, Emeka Nwokeke pointed out that the party is heading towards total disintegration, which the Youths in the party would not allow.

What has made the Imo case worst is that one of the aspirants for the House of Representatives, Ikenga Ugochinyere for the Ideato North and Ideato South Federal constituency, secured a court order restraining INEC and PDP from recognizing any delegate list not authenticated by party NEC.

In Oyo state, Governor SeyiMakinde is still having an upper hand despite the opposition and attack by some aggrieved members of the party since the last two years of being in government. The crisis in PDP started with the attack on the governor by some notable and top notchers of the party led by Adebisi Olopoenia.

The crisis dragged on for long time and which could not be resolved by the party leaders at the National level. At a time Senator Bukola Saraki waded in but there was no end to the battle between the group and Makinde.

Eventually, Olopoenia and his group left the party. Despite that, the internal crisis continues until recently when the only PDP Senator in the State, Kola Balogun, the immediate younger brother to the present Olubadan of Ibadan land, Oba Leķan Balogun left the party, accusing Makinde of playing God.

Balogun had accused Makinde of imposing candidates under the guise of consensus which he claimed was undemocratic. It is not Balogun alone that kicked against the consensus idea of Makinde which is still causing ripples in the party. Forum of PDP aspirants in Oyo central too, kicked against it.

Comrade Wale Ajani and Hon. Wale Adegoke of the Forum, rejected the former Chief of Staff to Makinde Chief Bisi Ilaka as the consensus candiate for the Oyo Central Senatorial Election, arguing that consensus amounts to indirect imposition.

Reacting to the situation in Oyo State PDP, Oyo Kajola Group led by Adebayo Ayandele chided Senator Kola Bogun for leaving PDP, saying that he was an ingrate who rose through the party but left when he could not secure a second term ticket, for the Senate.

“We were disappointed with Balogun’s action”, Ayandele argued.

In Anambra the leader of the five man committee Elder Efere Augustine was optimistic that things would bounce back to normal and the party would be able to forge ahead. He said the crisis should not lead to what would affect the state in the coming general elections.

Also the former chairman of the party in the state, Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu lamented that the crisis could have a great effect on the state chapter of the party, which he said could as well affect the party in other elections coming up in 2023.