Two weeks after the presidential election, members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are still bemoaning their fate, especially how the ruling party became the opposition through the ballot. In this piece, YUSUF ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation, takes a look at how things went wrong with the PDP and the kind of opposition it might offer.
AFTER boasting of ruling the nation for 60 years, the ruling PDP suddenly lost the people’s will and found itself in the opposition. It was a fall least expected, but inevitable in view of the troubles the party had undergone in the last 16 years. The PDP bestrode the nation with impunity and it took resilience and vigilance of voters to end its democratic tyranny. The questions on the lips of many are: How did the PDP get into this mess? What kind of opposition will the party make? Will it bounce back?
How PDP got into this cul-de-sac
The PDP was an amalgamation of groups. Initiated by G9, comprising Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Solomon Lar, Senator Francis Ellah, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Bola Ige, Dr. Iyorcha Ayu, Prof. Jerry Gana, Alhaji Sule Lamido and Mallam Adamu Ciroma, it metamorphosed to G18 and G34. Founded on August 31, 1998 , the PDP has had 11 national chairmen in the last 17 years, including ex-Vice President Alex Ekwueme who was in office for three months before quitting to contest for the presidential ticket with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. Other past chairmen were the late Chief Solomon Lar; Sen. Barnabas Gemade; Chief Audu Ogbeh; Sen. Ahmadu Ali; Prince Vincent Ogbulafor; Okwesilieze Nwodo; Bello Haliru Mohammed; Abubakar Kawu Baraje; Bamanga Tukur; and Adamu Muazu. But the build-up to the fall of the PDP started during its National Convention in 1999 when it began to change its leadership like clothes. At the said convention, Chief Gemade, who was backed by the presidency, defeated Chief Sunday Awoniyi to become the first elected national chairman of the party. It was the first direct interference of the government in the internal affairs of the PDP and most foundation members were disappointed that the then Obasanjo administration was about to hijack the party structure.
By 2001, what manifested as a smaller crisis assumed a larger dimension when Aso Rock boy, Gemade, ignored Obasanjo’s advice not to seek a second term in office. Following intense pressure and intimidation from the presidency, Gemade caved in and stepped down for the new anointed candidate, Chief Ogbeh, who was crowned as a consensus National Chairman of the PDP.
By December 6, 2004, the honeymoon between Obasanjo and Ogbeh was over, following a letter by the latter to the President in which he said the nation was drifting. At gunpoint, after a bowl of pounded yam and palm wine, Ogbeh was asked to resign in January 2005, culminating in the emergence of Sen. Ali, otherwise branded as “Garrison Commander”, as a result of his commando-style control of the party.
The exit of Ogbeh led to the loss of the soul of the PDP because it led to many crises, including a face-off between ex-President Obasanjo and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar. When the PDP was too hot for Atiku, he sought succour in the defunct Action Congress (AC) where he contested for the 2007 presidency with the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Some successors of Ogbeh like Prince Ogbulafor, Dr. Nwodo and Tukur went through turbulent tenures. The lucky ones were Mohammed, Baraje and Muazu. For seven years, conventions and meetings of National Executive Committees of the PDP created political quakes in the country. To underscore its instability, the party produced six National Chairmen between 2007 and 2014.
The revolt of G-7 Governors (later G-5) and the formation of New PDP in 2013 dealt a devastative blow on the PDP. There were futile attempts to win back Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso, Murtala Nyako, Aliyu Wammako, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and Rotimi Amaechi. The same governors later defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) which will govern the nation for the next four years.
What went wrong with party?
Between 2007 and 2011, different tendencies had emerged in the party. The battle to rescue the party from some hawks provoked the formation of new caucuses like the Obasanjo Camp; G-21; National Assembly /Integrity Group; the Governors’ Forum; Kingibe/ Tony Anenih Group and G84. There was also the G-37 that was out to preserve the status quo. In a January 9, 2013 letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, G-84 ( consisting of eight deputy members of the National Working Committee (NWC), 24 ex-officio, 37 state chairmen of the PDP and some former leaders of the party) highlighted the problems with the party as follows:
•wrongful and consistent misinterpretation of the PDP constitution
•arbitrary expulsion and suspension of leaders/ members
•overbearing attitude of PDP governors
•management of the party as a cult
•exclusion of elected party officers by the NWC
•imposition of candidates
•lack of internal democracy
•lack of discipline
•frivolous court injunctions and disrespect for court orders.
A party elder, Chief Edwin Clark, regarded the imposition of candidates by the Peoples Democratic Party as a major problem of the party. He said: “The problem of imposition is not limited to Gombe. The problem the PDP has today across the country was caused by the imposition of candidates who are not qualified.
“A situation whereby a governor of a state would try to nominate everybody to become part of him is not democracy.”
On his part, a former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, traced the party’s crisis to lack of internal democracy. He said: “First and foremost, what I want to tell you is that the problem with the PDP is like the problem being encountered by other political parties. It is not the problem that only the PDP is suffering from; it is the problem all the political parties are suffering from.
“The absence of internal party democracy, and, I think, internal party democracy is the foundation of democracy itself because if somebody emerges as a candidate of a political party fraudulently, he will not see anything wrong in winning election fraudulently because he is a product of fraud. That is where we should start. Some people over the years have now amassed so much power to themselves. They have amassed so much power; they have amassed so much wealth; and they are now calling the shots. People will go and spend the whole day queuing behind people, choosing their candidates to represent them in various elective offices.
“Somebody will just sit in his office and with a stroke of his pen strike their names out and forward different names to the INEC. They say people should elect their executive members at the ward level, local government level and state level, but some powerful people will just sit and select those they want to occupy those offices and they recognize those people and they don’t recognize the ones that emerged through the popular choice of the people. To compound the woes of the PDP, President Olusegun Obasanjo left the party a few weeks to the presidential election, leaving an image deficit for the party upon which he was elected into office in 1999.”
Unending reconciliation
Worried by increasing internal crises, the PDP in 2006 raised an 11-member Reconciliation Committee headed by the Second Republic Vice President, Alex Ekwueme. Other members were Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Jerry Gana, Fidelis Tapgun, Bode George, Abubakar Mogaji, Shuaib Oyedokun and Ime Udum. Although a 17-man review panel was later set up by Ogbulafor’s administration, at the prompting of the late President Yar’Adua, the recommendations of the panel had not been fully implemented till date.
While still keeping the report in the cooler, Nwodo came up with new reforms, including e-registration of members, which were not allowed to take off. By 2012, the Bamanga Tukur leadership floated another national reconciliation scheme, leading to the touring of six geopolitical zones. He was passionate about 3Rs agenda of reconciliation, rebuilding and reforming the party.
Disturbed by the failure of his NWC team, Tukur also toyed with the idea of a 30-member reconciliation committee led by the governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, and former governor of Borno State, Asheik Jarma, as deputy. The Dickson panel was mandated to “resolve problems in non-PDP controlled states in the South West, including Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti. The work of the panel was extended to Anambra, Imo and Edo states. Tukur also sent an eight-man Graham Douglas panel to Kano State and Shuaib Oyedokun’s reconciliation team to Benue State.
Members were suspicious of Tukur’s initiative and most of the sessions of the committee were boycotted by governors and other leaders of the PDP.
Still undaunted, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, Chief Tony Anenih, came up with a fresh reconciliation agenda to reach out to aggrieved leaders of the party. Anenih’s group, which met with ex-President Obasanjo, took its reconciliation campaign to Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto, Rivers and Benue states.
Season of defections from PDP to APC
Since the cookies crumbled for the PDP on March 28 with the defeat of President Jonathan by the candidate of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the centre does not hold again for the party. It has been a gale of defections by PDP stalwarts to the APC. The list of defectors from the PDP to the APC is legion, including ex-Governor Saminu Turaki; Bello Kaoje; Maj-Gen. S.B.S. Biliyock; the Deputy Governor of Niger State, Musa Ibeto; Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Alli Olanusi; the Deputy Governor of Jigawa State, Ahmed Mahmoud; Sen. Jonathan Zwingina; Sen. Gbemisola Saraki; Sen. Muhammad Dudu ; ex-Governor Oserheimen Osunbor; a former governorship candidate of the PDP in Edo State, Gen. Charles Arhiavbere; a former National Legal Adviser of the PDP, Chief Olusola Oke; Maj-Gen. Lawrence Onoja; Alh. Bello Dansokoto; Alh. Ibrahim Zamfara; ex-Rep (Hon) Folake Olunloyo-Osinowo; and Chief (Mrs) Ayoka Lawani, among others.
Although the reasons for the mass defections vary from an individual to another, they expose the suppressed anger of the affected leaders over the years. To Oke, he could not afford to ignore the wind of change in the country. He said: “I resisted the wind of change that was blowing until it was almost trying to blow me out. Now, I have surrendered. I can resist no more and I have come.”
On her part, Sen. Saraki said: “After wide consultations, we found in the APC a platform that mirrors the ideals of our political family both in content and context, especially under the leadership of Gen. Buhari. We are assured in the promise of APC for a new Nigeria.”
Also speaking, Folake Olunloyo-Osinowo said: “ God has deserted the PDP, and Nigerians have rejected it. That was why we left the party. The APC remains the only party that can take Nigeria to her land of destiny.”
Any ray of hope for party?
Notwithstanding the humiliation of their party, some PDP leaders are still hopeful that the party will bounce back. In a tweet, Mu’azu said: “We are humbled by the March 28 decision of many Nigerians and promise never again to let you down. We will reform our party.
“We have learnt some very useful lessons with the March 28 elections and we want to assure Nigerians you will see a new PDP.”
The President of the Senate, Chief David Mark, also said: “I have no reason to jump ship. I will not leave the PDP. I will be the last man standing for the PDP. The party gave me the platform to be where I am today. I will stay in the PDP to contribute my quota to the rebuilding and restructuring of the party.
This is a democracy. Winners emerge and the losers go back to the drawing board to rejuvenate.”
Irrespective of the comforting words of PDP leaders, the reality is that success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. The moment of loneliness of the PDP has come. It will take much hard work to regain its lost glory because most founding fathers have forsaken the party. Nigerians await the PDP resuscitation pill.
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