The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is at a crossroads. Its protracted internal crisis has torn the party into shreds. No one expected the once self-acclaimed largest party in Africa to lapse into the current conundrum. The PDP has been transmogrified: from the ruling party to the main opposition and now to a niggling political association with members fleeing from it in droves.
Can the leaders pocket their egos and embrace truce? The possibility is remote.
A lot of sacrifice is required. Concessions have to be given and taken. There would be a need for an adjustment to certain conditions that cannot change. Party leaders on both sides of the factions need to be less inflexible and condescending.
From its Olympian height, the PDP is now being avoided like a plague; a disaster waiting to happen. It is crippled by a barrage of crises, limping with one leg and licking a self-inflicted wound. Its pompous leaders are in disarray. Things have fallen apart and the centre can no longer hold within its fold.
A party that once boasted to rule for 60 years is not even sure of presenting a presidential candidate for the 2027 poll. The few founding fathers around it are bowing their heads in lamentation about the turn of event. They witnessed the growth of the party, and now, they are witnessing its decline. The edifice crumbles, not because the foundation is not firm but because pebbles have displaced the building blocks.
The judgment of the Appeal Court has deepened the party’s hostility. The two factions left the Abuja Appeal Court premises to sharpen their arrows for the continuation of the war of attrition. Their leaders have been in court for over a year, dissipating much energy on conflict instead of rebuilding the party and fortifying its structures ahead of future polls. Crisis resolution is nil, and a leadership that commands respect is absent.
While the Wike/Anyanwu group, basking in the euphoria of the verdict that favoured the National Caretaker Committee headed by Abdulrahman Mohammed, unfolded plans for a national convention on March 28, the Taminu Turaki side is undecided on the next line of action. In a breath, factional Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman Adolphus fell into an imaginary trance where he saw the venerable politician. Alex Ekwueme who charged him to fight on. But older Nigerians recall that the former vice president was a complete gentleman who could not hurt a fly when he was alive.
In another dimensión, the divided BOT is calling for peace.
Now, the Wike group also planning a presidential primary on May 23, leaving Turaki and the two governors – Seyi Makinde of Oyo and Senator Bala Mohammed of Bauchi – in the cold.
Yet, it is evident that neither faction can survive independently of the other, if the PDP is to bounce back.
Not many people remember the genesis of the imbroglio. Since the 2022 presidential primary in Abuja, cracks had appeared on the wall, which could not be mended due to the inability of the gladiators to embrace compromise and consensus.
The 2023 presidential primary and the aftermath led to friction between Northern and Southern PDP. The party broke into two and reconciliation became difficult. Having been alienated after the primary, the excluded camp found new friend and ally in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). A revenge was plotted in the form of collaboration with the ruling party. The other camp cried foul. But it was futile. During the 2023 presidential poll, the PDP suffered a reverse. The grievance became a liberty for anti-party activity.
Incidentally, the second faction also broke into two, with one half later defecting to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the other half locked in a leadership conflict with the first faction.
The battle shifted to the National Working Committee (NWC). A bitter war over the control of the party’s machinery ensued. Mutual trust and confidence collapsed completely.
As the supremacy battle intensified, the modalities for the national convention became the bone of contention. The Wike/Anyanwu camp complained about the neglect of the party’s constitution that provides for an internal democratic mechanism.
While it was agreed that a national convention was in order, the wise ones in the party, including former Senate President Bukola Saraki, warned against it for two reasons. The preparation was not inclusive. It also violated a court order. In fact, former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, who was denied a chairmanship form, obtained a court injunction stopping the preparations for the national congress. It was brushed aside by the Turaki group. The neglect smacked of lawlessness.
While the Wike/Anyanwu group also got a court judgment halting the preparations for the convention, the governors ignored the verdict and conducted the exercise in error at Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. The move sustained the prevailing atmosphere of acrimony.
In the course of the intra-party struggle, the Wike/Anyanwu camp deployed the law as a weapon. Their arguments are always logical as they keep referring to the party’s constitutions that were breached by the other side. In contrast, while the Makinde/Turaki forces also approached the court, they always lost. It, therefore, implies that the Wike/Anyanwu camp also got victory because of their sound arguments.
As the crisis lingered, the two factions developed contrasting ambitions. Wike’s group openly gravitated towards the ruling party and joined the mobilisation for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s second term bid. The Turaki faction, already weakened by lack of ideas, indulged in impunity and gross constitutional violations. Their tactics eventually ran into brick walls.
Tragedy befell the main opposition party as governors and lawmakers on the platform started jumping out of the sinking ship. Governors Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Douye Diri (Bayelsa), Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau), and Agbo Kefas (Taraba) defected along with their followers. The states ceased to be strongholds of the PDP.
After the judgment, Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal embraced the reality of a looming danger. He also called it quits with the party.
Earlier, Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke was in a fix. He had to reluctantly adopt Accord Party as his platform for the August poll after the APC rejected his pleas for defection. He left as a landlord of a big house to becoming a tenant in a borrowed room.
The complaint of the defectors is that they could not take the risk of waiting for doom to happen. APC provided the safe harbour.
The protracted crisis is far from being over. Yet, time is running out. The party is down, and it may likely get weaker as the country prepares for polls. In the National Assembly, its status is altered. The PDP has been displaced as the main opposition party by the ADC. Nobody raises eyebrow over defections from PDP. The justification for the action is the leadership crisis at the national level.
Now, there is a dilemma. If the case moves to the Supreme Court, it may not be resolved before the kick-off of party nominations, and PDP may run foul of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) regulations.
To observers, the way out is a truce. But the type of reconciliation that could restore peace appears to be late. When Saraki honestly suggested it, the gladiators turned the deaf ears. The combatants decided to maintain their hard-line positions, oblivious of the indisputable fact that sacrifice and compromise are elements of any peace deal.
Even the Court of Appeal, which is apparently fed up with the hullabaloo, gave leave to the warring leaders to explore alternative dispute resolution in settling the lingering family feud. The court observed that the division is not in the interest of the party. Definitely, it is not in the interest of loyal and committed party members at the grassroots who are enveloped in confusion and anxiety.
Although the two factions pretend to be ready for reconciliation as the last resort, there is no evidence of a visceral commitment. The Turaki group has not stated categorically that it will not appeal the judgment. The Wike group, which suspects the Turaki faction, is perpetually on the firing line. Without waiting for a dialogue, it unfolded plans for convention and a presidential primary. The Turaki camp has no input into the arrangement.
Reconciliation after protracted litigation is usually hectic. Besides, there is a conflict of interests and a hidden agenda. The Wike group has vowed to maintain its grip on the party’s machinery. Wike has also declared that there is no going back on supporting President Tinubu.
This has not gone down well with the Turaki faction. Nigerians look forward to the nature and outcome of the presidential convention that would be organised by the Wike-inspired National Caretaker Committee when the FCT minister has openly declared support for the President’s second term ambition. The presidential candidate who will be produced at the primary is most likely to become a spectator on poll day.
For now, the PDP faces a bleak future. Perilous days are around the corner for the party. But the current implosion and emasculation may not be the end of a party that has taproots across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
The PDP should embrace the reality of its current limitations. Its leaders should humble themselves, embrace dialogue and return to the drawing board. Since it may not make much impact during the 2027 presidential poll, the party should look beyond the next election, do a realistic self-assessment, forgive and forget about the sordid past, and rebrand.
Other parties, particularly the ruling APC, should also learn from the fate of a party that is about to fall from grace to grass.
BBC
