PDP hangs on INEC, court for survival as crisis gets messier

…December 8 remains crucial for party

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had maintained an enviable position, as the ‘biggest Political Party in Africa’, prior to the 2015 Presidential election that eased former President Goodluck Jonathan out of office.

The party had planned to control the Nigerian political landscape for half a decade.

But the party is now in danger of facing extinction by December 8, when the tenure of the current NWC expires, if it fails to resolve the current crisis facing it.

Since 2015, when Jonathan lost to the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, the party has continued to battle to sustain its position as the main opposition party in Nigeria

Read also: PDP petitions court, demands reassignment of case over fair hearing concerns

In 2019, Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate, scored a total of 11,262,976, to place second behind Buhari, who garnered 15,191,847 votes.

The 2019 election saw PDP winning in 17 states and the FCT, Abuja, while Buhari’s All Progressive Congress (APC) won in 19 states.

In the 2023 general election, however, the party came 2nd again, this time, winning 12 states, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate, polling a total vote of 6,984,520, or 29.07%, of the total votes cast, behind the winner, President Bola Tinubu’s APC, with 8,794,726 or 36.61%.

The party’s current slide can be traced to the 2022 presidential primaries, where Nyesom Wike, then governor of Rivers State, alleged that he was rigged out of the exercise.

He claimed that the primary gave former Vice President Atiku Abubakar an undue advantage over him by allowing the last-minute withdrawal of Aminu Tambuwal.

Atiku Abubakar went ahead to clinch the party’s ticket, scoring 371 votes as against Wike’s 237 votes.

Bukola Saraki, former Senate President, got 70 votes, Udom Emmanuel, 38 and Governor Bala Mohammed, 20.

Others include Anyim Pius Anyim-14; Diana Oliver, the only female contestant,1; Sam Ohuabunwa, a foremost industrialist 1; while both Ayo Fayose and Dele Momodu scored zero votes.

Wike felt cheated, as Tambuwal’s withdrawal from the race at the last minute was believed to have given former Vice President Atiku Abubakar an advantage over others, as he openly asked his supporters to vote for Atiku Abubakar, at the venue.

He then demanded the resignation of Iyorcha Ayu, the then National Chairman.

Read also: PDP issues certificate of expulsion to Wike, Fayose, Anyanwu, others

Wike then floated a pressure group of aggrieved governors under the aegis of G-5 governors, including himself, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, who withdrew from supporting the candidature of Atiku Abubakar, but later struck a deal with President Bola Tinubu, which paved way for Tinubu’s election victory.

Following the crisis, the party continued to fall from one crisis to another.

Since then, Wike vowed to bring down the party, working from inside and recruiting willing cronies.

During many of his Television briefings, Wike has vowed to work for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

To strengthen his hold, the FCT Minister, allegedly backed by federal might, has succeeded in breaking the party’s leadership, taking and positioning Samuel Anyanwu, the National Secretary, to do the damage from within.

BusinessDaySunday checks revealed that the crisis dovetailed into the disagreement over the 2025 elective convention organised to elect a new National Working Committee (NWC), the organ that manages the day-to-day affairs of the party.

Wike and his group boycotted the convention; instead, they sought and obtained an Abuja High Court’s interim order stopping the convention.

The Umar Damagum group also obtained a similar order, at the High Court in Ibadan, permitting them to hold their elective convention that gave birth to the new NWC now headed by Kabiru Turaki, former minister of Special Duties, under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

At the Ibadan convention, the party took a firm decision to expel 11 top officials, considered as pro-Wike supporters, for anti-party activities.

Since the current crisis erupted, five governors, including Douye Diri of Bayelsa, Peter Mbah of Enugu, Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom, Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta and Agbo Kefas of Taraba states, have abandoned the party to join the ruling APC.

Read also: Rivers: Wike blames PDP divisions for mass defection to APC

From the 12 governors in 2023, the party now has only about eight, even as some political pundits believe that more may still defect to the ruling APC in days to come.

John Olisemeka, a chieftain of the party in Delta State, told BusinessDaySunday that only the founding fathers can save the party.

“Like I had informed you earlier, more governors will leave the party before the 2027 elections, as no one will want to stay with a divided party,

“Many people see being in opposition in Nigeria as a waste of time and resources. Even the governors are struggling to secure their tenure, and those who are not returning are afraid of what becomes of them after their tenure,” he said.

Olisemeka, who blamed the current situation in the opposition parties as the “handiwork of the ruling APC,” also blamed the parties for not having “strong ideological foundation.”

From the legal perspective, Okey Osuoha, the deputy Legal Adviser, while speaking with BusinessDaySunday, noted that the rush to hold the elective convention will do more harm to the party than good.

According to him, “The claims of suspension and counter-suspension will further weaken the party.

You are aware that the Abuja court had delivered judgment calling on the party to suspend the convention. Do you think that if the party violates that judgment and proceeds to hold the convention, the same court will not quash the outcome of such a convention?

“I want to assure Nigerians that all these issues will be taken care of. Let us exhaust all legal processes. The right thing to do is for the party’s leadership to use its internal mechanisms to resolve all the contentious issues and not to rush into doing the elective convention.”

On the 18th of November, both the Wike group and those loyal to Kabiru Turaki were up in arms, challenging one another in a battle of supremacy over who should be the legal occupants

Read also: Osun Reps ask INEC to discard PDP guber primary results, accuse Makinde of stirring political crisis

The party is currently awaiting the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, for the next line of action.

The decision, regarded as a “make or mare” decision, will determine the directions for the party, as according to Osuoha, “the current party executive/NWC’s tenure will end on the 8th of December, 2025, having been elected into office in 2021 to serve for 4 years.

“If they fail to resolve their differences, the party may face extinction. The only option may be to establish a caretaker committee.”

Meanwhile, the National headquarters of the party’s national secretariat and the Legacy house office have been sealed by security agents.

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