Wike wins as PDP eats the humble pie!

“Does it then mean that the PDP is out of the woods? Not really! Party leaders still have to contend with the problem of how to reintegrate Wike into the party or effectively manage the maverick politician, if I may call it that! How will the party cure him of what many party faithful see as his anti-party activities? Will he still remain in the Bola Ahmed Tinubu/APC administration or will he be expected to quit?”

After a prolonged internecine intra-party warfare, internal wranglings and repeated failed attempts, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party last Monday eventually successfully held its 102nd National Executive Committee meeting at Gusau, capital of Zamfara State where momentous decisions were taken by the party. That it was able to meet – and with the meeting well attended – was victory on its own. That it was able to take far-reaching decisions without the meeting scattering was another victory. The nature and significance of the decisions taken will surprise many, not in the least PDP leaders themselves. Few people would believe that the PDP leaders could look one another in the eye and tell the home truth. Credit for this must be attributed, wait for it, to Nyesom Wike, the former two-term governor of Rivers state on PDP’s platform but now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in an All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

Wike: Stabbed in the back by Tambuwal?

Why did I give the credit to Wike? Since May 2022 when the PDP presidential ticket was snatched from his hands as a result of the conspiracy of PDP politicians of Northern extraction, Wike has been the malevolent firewood in PDP’s fire that has not allowed the party’s kitchen any peace, order or direction. Wike was believed to be coasting home to victory at the PDP presidential primary of May 2022 before the 11th-hour decision of the then Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State to step down for former Vice-President and perennial Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, right at the PDP convention ground on convention night. That decision tilted the scale in favour of Atiku. Wike’s pain and frustration is better imagined than felt. Apart from the fact that he had run what everyone knew was the most expensive and most exerting campaign of all the PDP presidential aspirants, the angle from which his defeat came was unexpected. It was like Brutus’s unkindest cut thrust into the inner recesses of Julius Caesar’s heart.

In the 2018/19 presidential election cycle, Wike and the then Gov. Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state had left no stone unturned to ensure that Tambuwal won the PDP presidential ticket against Atiku. They even took the convention to Wike’s turf in Port-Harcourt but they still failed and Atiku won. Therefore, the least that anyone had expected in 2022/23 was that Tambuwal would file out in Wike’s corner, but ethnic and religious inclinations seemingly trumped that expectation. In politics, especially the Nigerian model, one good turn may not always deserve another.

Wike was wounded, but like a wounded lion, he laid in wait. If he cannot be president, maybe he can be the second-in-command. Having come a respectable second in the PDP presidential primaries in question, he expected he would be picked as Atiku’s running mate. Some reports said he was indeed initially offered the running mate slot by Atiku, until some forces intervened to scuttle it. A committee set up by the party to also search for a credible running mate was also said to have zeroed in on Wike but in the end, Wike was passed over for his Delta State counterpart, Ifeanyi Okowa. The allegations tied around Wike’s neck to hang him was that his administration demolished a mosque in his state – which was basically untrue – and also that he would be a too powerful VP for the liking of those who had already started seeing and positioning themselves as power being the throne in an Atiku presidency. After two losses in a row, an embittered Wike was gifted a costly mistake by the winning side: The Atiku side, having won the presidential ticket, also wanted to keep the chairmanship of the party!

Enter the  G5 PDP governors

Recall that the same PDP party hierarchy had been responsible for throwing its zoning formula out of the window. With Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani/Muslim/Northerner spending two unbroken terms of four years each, it was deemed equitable, just, and fair that the presidency be allowed to move to the South. The southern governors, blind to party affiliation, met and demanded the rotation of the presidency to the South. This zoning formula is also enshrined in PDP’s constitution. The same PDP constitution also stipulates the equitable spread of national offices in such a way that the Presidential flagbearer of the party and its national chairman at any point in time must rotate between the North and South. Dr. Iyiorcha Ayu was the PDP chairman at the time and he was accused of being complicit in throwing overboard the PDP zoning formula that allowed Atiku the opportunity to contest and snatch the flag from his Southern competitors. Wike and like-minds insisted that Ayu must step down for a chairman from the South to emerge but Ayu stalled, supported by the Atiku camp, which insisted that Ayu must remain in office until after the outcome of the presidential election.

Enter the self-styled “Integrity Group” of five PDP governors, otherwise called the G5, made up of Wike (Rivers state); Seyi Makinde (Oyo state), Samuel Ortom (Benue state); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia state); and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu state). The G5 voiced opposition to, one, the presidential flag of their party not being allowed to rotate to the South, and, two, both the presidential flagbearer and party chairman being cornered by the same North. What started as a joke or mere grievances that would soon petter out became, gradually, a wildfire in harmattan haze. To cut the long story short, in the February 2023 presidential election, the five PDP governors ditched their party’s presidential candidate and split their votes between the candidates of the APC and Labour Party. Three to four years after, peace has not returned to PDP, efforts after efforts to broker peace having floundered on the altar of personality clashes as well as the insistence of Wike that on rotational presidency he stands!

Atiku’s exit from PDP: Blessing in disguise?

With last Monday’s PDP NEC meeting seemingly resolving the rotational presidency issue, it appears peace may be returning to the once vibrant “largest party in Africa”. The credit for this must, however, go to unusual quarters – Atiku’s exit from the PDP. With Atiku gone, who is left to rival Wike in the PDP? What should the PDP still be fighting Wike over? And on whose behalf? The whole PDP crisis had revolved around Atiku’s ambition and now that he has carried his wahala elsewhere, the PDP leaders must have heaved a sigh of relief. Now, they have only Wike to contend with. They started on a good note in Gusau by acceding to virtually all of Wike’s demands. The 2027 presidential ticket of the party has been zoned to the South. The chairmanship has been retained in the North. The two most important party offices – the chairman and secretary – have been retained in the hands of presumed Wike loyalists. With Wike also having said he has no presidential ambition of his own in 2027, none of the PDP presidential aspirants should cast suspicious glances in his direction.                   

Does it then mean that the PDP is out of the woods? Not really! Party leaders still have to contend with the problem of how to reintegrate Wike into the party or effectively manage the maverick politician, if I may call it that! How will the party cure him of what many party faithful see as his anti-party activities? Will he still remain in the Bola Ahmed Tinubu/APC administration or will he be expected to quit? What if he refuses to quit, just like some Yoruba Afenifere leaders who refused to quit the Abacha government during the epic struggle for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by MKO Abiola but which was annulled by the military dictatorship of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida?  Will Wike be allowed to remain in PDP while continuing to support the re-election of President Tinubu? If an attempt is made to punish Wike for alleged anti-party activities, will peace endure in the party?

Whither Wike?

This leads us to the question of whether or not Wike has done anything wrong by supporting President Tinubu’s election as well as accepting to serve in his government. We have a precedent in Chief Bola Ige of the Alliance for Democracy agreeing to serve in the PDP government of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, first as the Power minister and later as the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation. Reports say the problem started when he decided to leave the government and return to strengthen his own party, AD, for the next election. He was assassinated shortly afterwards right in his own bedroom and till date, no clues have emerged as to who dunnit! Tell Wike to beware of the Ides of Bola Ige!

I listened to an interview of the PDP Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, by Seun Okinbaloye and his insight on the issue of anti-party activities was quite refreshing. During the last presidential election in the United States, many Republican leaders openly campaigned against their own party candidate, Donald Trump, while canvassing votes for and pledging support for Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate. Yet, there has been no deluge of anti-party allegations against those who broke rank and tradition, despite that many of them did so in the open.

Another point raised by Moro, which I find germane, is this: Why is the cry for punishment directed only at Wike? Why not also at his other four “accomplices”, if you pardon my effrontery? Wike might have led the G5, but he was not alone in it; he might also have been the most outspoken or intransigent of the five but none of the other four has renounced the principles that they fought for, that is, respect for the rotation of offices as enshrined in the PDP constitution. Indeed, any of them angling to contest for the PDP presidential flag in 2026/27 will be a beneficiary of that struggle. Therefore, should Wike alone be punished while the others go scot free? And like Moro said – and I expect him to know because of his vantage position – there were many other PDP leaders who also in their own ways kicked against the PDP choice of presidential candidate in 2023. Will you also be punished? Many of such are even in PDP NEC as well as the Board of Trustees as we speak!

Okowa, who was Atiku’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, regretted his action as he defected to the APC, saying that the singular action of the PDP gifting its presidential ticket to a Northerner cost the party the election. Southern voters, he said, were resolute in their determination to reject a Northerner-to-Northerner handing over of presidential power in 2023. Moro added that, for PDP, this is a time to rebuild and a time for reconciliation. I agree with him. PDP is not strong enough at the moment to wield any big stick. If it does, it will only be driving more of its members into APC’s waiting embrace!

Is there a vacancy in the Presidential villa in 2027?

As I draw the curtains, may I ask of what value is the zoning of the PDP presidential ticket to the South in 2027, seeing that, from all indications, it does appear that it is unlikely the party would have regrouped and re-energised sufficiently enough to give a vibrant challenge to APC in the 2027 presidential election? Once more, a politically articulate North may have handed their Southern counterparts nothing but pyrrhic victory.

PRINTER’S DEVIL: The ubiquitous PRINTER’S DEVIL, as we call it in this profession, reared its ugly head on this page last week. What was published under my name and logo titled “Babangida as a blessing and a lesson” was not authored by me! What I sent in for publication was titled “Ooni, Alaafin feud is needless controversy.” The necessary correction has been made online and you can access it at https://tribuneonlineng.com/ooni-alaafin-feud-is-needless-controversy/. The error is regretted!        

READ ALSO: Wike vindicated over PDP zoning Presidency to South, Chairman to North — Olayinka