Another imminent implosion in PDP?

KUNLE ODEREMI writes on the festering crisis that has engulfed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), less than a year after the main opposition party survived a near catastrophe.

Approximately, nine months after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was pulled out of the brink, the party may have found itself in another quagmire. The crisis of confidence among the key stakeholders in the party is coming three months to the commencement of campaign by political parties for the 2023 presidential election. At the centre of the smouldering feud are said to include the national chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, governors elected on PDP platform and some elders of the party. Central to the dispute is said to be the leadership style of Ayu, which is being subtly challenged and resisted by members of other power blocs within the party. What stakeholders described as the circumstances that led to the defeat suffered by PDP in the June 18, 2022 governorship election is believed to have aggravated the crisis with fear of an imminent implosion in the PDP. The party came a distant third in the election won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) thus compounding the feud created by the confusion that surrounded the choice of a running mate to the candidate of the party for the presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The crisis of confidence has split the governors and pitched other main stakeholders in the party against the national chairman barely six months after it elected a new substantive national executive after emerged to run the affairs of  PDP and shepherd it into the general election.

In October 2021, the PDP survived a debilitating crunch resulting from its second defeat in two successive general elections. The protracted crisis consumed different sets of national officers. While some chieftains of the party that held power for 16 unbroken years left PDP, others remained behind to salvage it, just as another set of PDP leaders temporarily relocated abroad or stayed at home remaining passive.

The concerted efforts of a few concerned elders and leaders of thought in the party raised the party from going down completely. Their efforts led to the election of the present substantive national executive with a former president of the Senate, Dr Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman. Thanks to the brinkmanship of other ‘committed’ party stalwarts, among them, the governors elected on its platform. Outgoing governors of Benue and Rivers States: Samuel Ortom and Nyesom Wike played leading roles along with another ex-president of the Senate, David Mark. However, there are signs that things are beginning to fall apart in the party with Ayu at the centre of the furore. The initial clamour was that he should step aside based on the principle of zoning, since Atiku who emerged as the standard-bearer of the party, hails from the north where Ayu is from. The current outcry and opposition to Ayu is over his leadership style, with attendant suspicion and trust deficit between him and majority of PDP governors.

The height of the loss of confidence was said to be the controversial process that produced Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, as the running mate of the Atiku, with claim that he tends to base his judgment on critical issues on friendship instead of due process. For instance, some party chieftains claimed that Ayu leveraged on his fraternity with Okowa to make the Delta governor the preferred choice over Wike against the recommendation arrived at through due process by an ad hoc committee set up to address the issue. Consequently, some power brokers in the PDP have resolved to either remain aloof on matters relating to the running of the party or play along with Ayu until sanity prevails at Wadata House, the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.

The lukewarm attitude by majority of the leaders across board was extended to the participation of the PDP in the June 18 election in which the party suffered its worst defeat. The chairman was fingered for inability to mobilize necessary support to conduct a grand rally for PDP candidate for the election, Bisi Kolawole. Neither was the party able to set up a national campaign Council to coordinate and supervise activities that could guarantee proper placement of PDP before and during the election. The effort in that regard just few days to the election could not take off as almost all the 81 members stayed aloof, including governors in the team who were supposed to mobilise logistics and other forms of resources needed to prosecute the election meaningfully. Only one of the governors was said to have provided a sum of N200 million to assist party at the threshold of the election that was crucial to PDP’s wish to be in good stead in the South-West ahead of the 2023 general election. A lot of party members were aggrieved that the traditional presentation of flag of PDP to its candidate for the Ekiti election in Ado-Ekiti was not carried out, apparently leaving Kolawole literally in the cold. The chairman of the campaign council, and governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde travelled out of the country shortly after it was set up by PDP national secretariat. Therefore, a few hours after Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the result of the poll, the PDP candidate sent a letter of congratulations to his APC counterpart, Biodun Oyebanji as winner.

A related issue bordering on the leadership style of Ayu are grievances that arose from the process that threw up Kolawole, the anointed contestant by a former governor of Ekiti, Mr Ayodele Fayose. Other party leaders had advocated a level-playing field for all the aspirants, including another former governor of the state, Chief Segun Oni. Dissatisfied with the manner the exercise was carried out, the latter defected to the SDP and secured its ticket. Ayu was said to have punctured the argument of those who insisted that Oni had a large following to fly the flag of PDP that the former governor was more of an ‘Abuja politician’ than a home-grown breed.

It will be recalled that a former president of the Senate, David Mark; governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom and his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike (Rivers) spearheaded the choice of Ayu for the post of national chairman. But, sources in the party said they cannot be said to be on the same page with him over sundry issues lately. For example, he and Governor Ortom reportedly had a disagreement over the choice of a PDP candidate for a House of Representatives constituency in Benue. The governor reportedly expressed helplessness when one of his colleagues from the southern part of the country conveyed his grievances against Ayu.

Meanwhile, some concerned party leaders are seriously disturbed by the current turn of events in the party when it should be preoccupied with presenting a united front for the 2023 elections. They are worried that the crisis could herald another season of defections from the former ruling party to other parties with relative presence and acceptability across the country. A former Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Godsway Orubebe has renounced his membership of the party, citing the breach of the provision on zoning enshrined in the PDP Constitution by the present leadership. Miffed by the poor performance of PDP in the Ekiti poll, a former deputy national publicity of the PDP, Prince Diran Odeyemi, gave an insight into the defeat. He claimed that the governors refused to campaign for the party’s candidate for the election. He said Ayu and PDP governors, including Atiku’s absence in Ekiti before the election to campaign for Kolawole before the poll created negative perception and contributed significantly to the party’s poor outing. He added:  “Atiku, Ayu and PDP governors left the people of Ekiti, majority of whom support PDP, in the cold. They looked up to these personalities but they never showed up before or during the poll. The National Campaign Council constituted by Ayu was put in place just four days before the poll and no member of the committee showed up in the state whereas APC presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu the entire NWC of APC and some governors were in Ekiti campaigning for Biodun Oyebanji. Nothing of such happened under Ayu-led PDP national working committee, this is sad. Now that the chances of PDP retaining Ekiti has been thrown out by the Ayu-led national leadership of the PDP, we need to remind Atiku, Ayu, and other leaders of PDP that the fate of our party in 2023 election now rest on the outcome of Osun poll, they must do all want they can to ensure victory to our candidate, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke.”

Other concerned party members said the current crisis posed danger to the chances of the PDP in the general election, especially the presidential poll. According to a source in the party, “It appears the centre can no longer hold; things are failling apart. Die hard Atiku supporters are becoming skeptical. It will be a tough climb for Atiku. Lagos, Rivers, Kano out; he will struggle in rest of the South-West, Edo, Cross River, hard time in Benue and Plateau states and in the North-West, Borno and Yobe will be hard. Things are falling apart. Ortom and Wike installed Ayu but his loyalty is to Atiku.”