PDP’s survival is in jeopardy after 2023 election

Months after the just-completed national elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP, which was once considered the largest political party in Africa, is still in disarray.

The party’s standing was already precarious before the 2023 elections, and losing the presidential contest seems to have put the icing on the cake.

The PDP was in control of both chambers of the National Assembly and the nation’s presidential office upon the restoration of democracy in 1999. This was the situation up until 2015, when a party merger led to a surprise victory by the All Progressives Congress, or APC.

This is in addition to the fact that it ruled over more than two-thirds of the States in the federation. Some party members even boasted that the party will rule over national politics for many years. But it never materialized.

According to DAILY POST, after the PDP decided to run former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election despite resistance from certain well-known leaders, particularly from the Northern region of the country, the tide started to turn against the party.

On the grounds that authority should return to the area after the passing of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who passed away barely two years into his term, certain lawmakers, mostly of northern extraction, opposed Jonathan’s second term as president.

Thanks to the enormous support he received from the majority of Nigerians, Jonathan, the country’s vice president at the time, successfully served Yar’Adua’s four-year term and was re-elected for another four years in 2011. Additionally, he was rumored to have broken his earlier vow to run for just one term.

Muhammadu Buhari of the then-newly founded APC defeated Jonathan, who campaigned on the PDP platform, in 2015.

In 2019, the PDP attempted once more with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, but the APC still prevailed.

However, with 2023 in the distance, hopes for a PDP resurgence were strong, especially since many Nigerians believed Buhari, who was elected president in 2015 and 2019 amid elevated expectations as a messianic figure, did not perform effectively.

The rest is now history because Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the presidential election and the party placed second. Right now, a lawsuit against his victory is being heard by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

PDP does away with zoning

Some felt that the PDP handled the contentious topic of zoning poorly from the start.

Following the PDP’s decision to open up its 2023 presidential ticket to all regions of the nation, the discussion regarding the zoning principle was put to rest in May 2022, nine months before the presidential election.

Following the conclusion of the party’s National Executive Council, or NEC, meeting, Debo Ologunagba, the party’s national publicity secretary, revealed the party’s position.

According to him, the decision to open the ticket was made in accordance with the party’s zoning committee’s advice.

“After careful consideration, the NEC agreed with the PDP National Zoning Committee’s recommendation to hold the presidential election indefinitely. Where possible, the party should also strive for a consensus candidate, according to Ologunagba.

The Southern Governors’ Forum’s stance and the PDP’s decision were completely at odds with one another.

This is thought to be one of the main factors that contributed to the party’s continued decline.

Obidients, Peter Obi, and the Labour Party

Prior to Peter Obi becoming the flagbearer of the Labour Party, LP, on May 30, 2022, a few days after quitting the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, little was known or heard about the group.

In the 2019 election, Obi served as Atiku Abubakar’s running partner.

According to DAILY POST, the former governor of Anambra State saw a rise in popularity following his alliance with the LP, with a segment of the young (often referred to as the “Obidients”) adopting his desire as a personal project.

Obi is well recognized for his rhetoric relating consumption to production. Many people were drawn to him by his advocacy and pledge to combat corruption and instability, generate jobs, a business-friendly climate, and enhance infrastructure, education, healthcare, and the economy.

When Atiku spoke following the announcement of Bola Tinubu of the APC as the victor, he acknowledged Obi’s detrimental impact on the PDP’s fortunes.

He claimed that in the presidential election, the PDP suffered a huge loss of support to Obi.

It is a reality that he won our votes in the southeast and south-south, but Atiku insisted that this did not automatically make him president.

G-5 occurrence

Former governors Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Nyesom Wike (Rivers), and Governor Seyi Makinde (Oyo) make up the G-5.

The governors asked that Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s chairman, resign after Atiku Abubakar won the party’s presidential primary poll. They said it was unfair and unjust for the National Chairman and the Presidential candidate to originate from the same area.

Atiku Abubakar, the party’s nominee for president, and a few other party officials refused to give in to the demand, saying that, if anything, it would take place after the election.

After the primary, there was speculation that Atiku would choose Wike as his running mate, but in a surprising turn of events, he chose Okowa, who some party stalwarts thought was less influential than Wike.

The G-5 phenomenon undoubtedly exacerbated the PDP issue, and they continue to be a significant factor today.

Even more recent events demonstrate how the crisis has persisted. The selection of the Minority Leaders of the National Assembly was a sobering reminder that the PDP has yet to experience the long-desired peace.

Aminu Tambuwal, a former governor of Sokoto and a supporter of Atiku who was thought to be favored by the party, was unsuccessful in his ambition to become the Senate Minority Leader. Instead, Senator Mwadkwon Davou of Plateau State won the election.

Tambuwal’s ascension was reportedly met with quick opposition from Wike’s camp.

The PDP currently faces an existential threat greater than ever, with Wike and a number of other members seemingly ready to abandon the platform.

Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, the PDP’s previous national chairman, was contacted by DAILY POST to offer his opinion on the current status of the party.

In a rare interview, Nwodo acknowledged that everyone was anxious and was doing their hardest to see what they could do.

Even if the party would prefer not to make public what they are doing at the moment, the former governor of the former Enugu State also said that there is an ongoing internal reconciliation.

“We are making every effort to focus on what is happening in the court and avoid getting in trouble with the law until they have finished their work. They are almost finished; our next conversation will be shortly.

“We are now undertaking more internal reconciliation than we are disclosing to the public.

Everyone is concerned, and we’re all working hard to figure out what we can do, added Nwodo.

Paul Ibe, a media advisor to Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, told Daily Post that he thought his principal will win the 2023 election despite divisions within the PDP.

Ibe asserted that the proof presented before the ongoing election petition court amply demonstrated that Atiku’s election was fraudulent.

He acknowledged that the PDP had formed a committee for reconciliation and that Atiku had participated in it.

Ibe claims that the PDP is also taking a close look at what transpired and how it handled its business during the election and is adamant that those in the PDP who willfully and intentionally destroyed the party will face consequences.

He declared, “It is apparent that there were many manipulations; results that were meant to be for the PDP were modified and conceded to the APC. This is supported by the evidence we presented before the election petition court.

“Based on the court documents that were submitted, I can state that with certainty. So, in terms of spread, we did great. Despite the difficulties we as the party faced, the party did well.

“I still maintain that there was a purposeful plot to make sure that our votes were credited to the ruling party; that is exactly what happened, even in the places where we did not perform as well as we had anticipated.

“It is quite challenging to assess our performance if we use Professor Mahmood Yakubu’s criteria, as I previously stated. The magnitude of the election’s fraud and manipulation will be made public by the election petition tribunal. It was evident.

“Remember that the APC did not win Rivers State, despite Mahmood’s earlier admission to them that they had. This was exposed even before the election tribunal began.

“So the election fraud that occurred on February 25 was unprecedented, and you can see from the reports of numerous organizations, like the EU, that they made it quite obvious that the election did not meet the barest requirements for a free, fair, and credible election.

It is very challenging to evaluate that election because their plan was to ensure that they pulled the vote away from us, from areas where we were expected to have strength, and to boost numbers in areas where they had none. The EU stated in their report that this was their strategy.

“According to the story I heard, the PDP Minority Leaders had already put forth a legislative agenda.

“You can easily see where we are; it has been 40 days, and you should see the chaos; the policy they have proposed lacks vigor. They proposed the policy for ending gasoline subsidies without considering palliatives to lessen the impact.

“Once more, there are rising food costs, growing inflation, and proposals to raise the cost of electricity. And without energy security, no nation ever succeeds in developing; there needs to be a strategy in place to guarantee that small and medium-sized businesses may prosper.

“The PDP will soon be in a stronger position to ensure that all of the unfavorable economic and political policies we currently observe will be reversed. Therefore, Nigerians should just be patient.

“Yes, however it may have turned out, I can only guarantee that the party’s minority leadership will unite. I can guarantee that. And they’ll line up. They’ve already said something. There is no need to be concerned because even the chairman of the APC expressed concerns about how things turned out. Not just the PDP found it odd.

“The party has established a committee for reconciliation. He (Atiku) has received a thorough explanation of it and their encounter. Remember that he was a co-founder of the party and a significant stakeholder; he is engaged in the process. There is a mechanism in place, so it will soon be possible to settle all of the thorny problems.

“The party is also taking a look back at what transpired and how it handled the election and its business. I believe it would be a chance for reflection, and they would be more likely to recognize anything that needed to be done but wasn’t.

The review procedure is still under progress, therefore it will soon be time for them to release their results. There were blunders, which is to be expected because individuals are fallible by nature. Additionally, there is a risk that individuals who knowingly and purposefully ruined the celebration would face consequences.