EDITORIAL: PDP’s Posterity In The Southwest

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has just experienced what fortells a foreboding of its fate in the Southwest.

Recently, the Ekiti chapter of the party got an awful electoral defeat at the gubernatorial poll. It failed woefully to make a noteworthy impact, as a former ruling party in the Fountain of Knowledge state. The PDP came a distant third with 67,457 votes, compared to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and winner, Abiodun Oyenbaji, with 187,057 votes.

It was bizarre that Bisi Kolawole, the PDP’s candidate, was abandoned by his political family. Thus, he lost his deposit despite his indefatigable effort. It was not only a personal loss but also a collective defeat for the Southwest chapter and the national administration of the party, led by Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.

The Ekiti poll was perceived as a signpost to the coming presidential election comes 2023. Thus, it was felt that both the PDP and the APC wanted to make some points. While APC wanted to retain Ekiti and break the jinx of governance alternation in the state, Ekiti PDP wanted to exert its muscle to bounce back to reckoning.

The implication is that the ruling party has been given more power. It is now in at the edge to prepare better for 2023 general elections, unlike the PDP, which is still locked in a vague space.

The PDP went into the election as a divided fold. Reconciliation had proved elusive, following the stiff competition for the ticket by the gladiators. The two key actors were former Governors Ayodele Fayose and Segun Oni. Fayose won the primary for his camp, represented by Kolawole, a former state lawmaker, Environment Commissioner and one-time party chairman. It translated into a loss for Oni, who had wanted to return to the Government House, where he was sacked by the court in 2010.

Although the Fayose camp won the ticket, it nevertheless failed to win the mandate. An aggrieved Oni, who borrowed the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to contest the election, also lost his bid.

It was possible that Oni had split Kolawole’s votes during the exercise. If the PDP and SDP forces had teamed up, it would have mustered the strength to give Oyebanji a good fight.

The APC also had its dose of crisis. But, the victory of its National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as the party’s presidential candidate, doused tension. What appeared like factions were compelled to close ranks. The risk was minimised. APC, therefore, benefitted from immediate crisis resolution, unlike the opposition party.

The ruling party was not starved of resources and logistics. Despite his busy schedule, Asiwaju Tinubu found time to storm Ado-Ekiti for the APC rally along with 14 governors and other notable party leaders. He became the rallying point. A link was established between his presidential ambition and the importance of retaining Ekiti, which was a stepping stone to Osun 2022 and the baseline for preparing for 2023.

Having become a worthy successor to Governor Kayode Fayemi, the onus is now on Oyebanji to lead the party to victory in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

While APC was putting its house in order, PDP leaders were locked in a deep conflict. Its leaders were bogged down by the aftermath of the presidential primary, which has deepened the gulf between the Northern and Southern caucuses, and exacerbated deep-seated hostility among party leaders. The presidential convention was not only divisive; it was destabilising for the main opposition.

Fayose had exercised his constitutional right to reject former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (Waziri Adamawa) at the primary. He supported Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who, along with his colleagues – Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia – agitated for power shift or zoning, which the opposition party violated.

After the historic APC presidential primary, the standard bearer, Asiwaju Tinubu, waved the olive branch. He embarked on reconciliation, visiting other contenders, young and old. The visits became extensive media events that generated much publicity for the party and boosted its ratings.

But PDP’s approach was to adopt vendetta, as shown by its aloofness to the Ekiti chapter.

The Ekiti Governorship Election Campaign Council was either inactive or non-existent. The chapter became an orphan of sorts. Ayu and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) shunned Ado-Ekiti. There was no grand rally to mobilise, galvanise, encourage, motivate and lift up the spirit of the chapter.

Also, PDP governors stayed away. They avoided the Fountain of Knowledge like a pariah. The anticipated financial support, goodwill and solidarity were not forthcoming. Ekiti PDP members felt alienated, betrayed, rejected and unwanted.

Also, the Southwest zonal leadership of the party was too weak to fill the void. PDP only has one governor in the Southwest, who is, more or less, the zonal leader. But what can Engr Seyi Makinde do when the national leadership had sighted off?

Instead of focusing attention on Ekiti, PDP was carried away by the politics of nominating a running mate for Atiku.

During the week, the blame game assumed a different dimension and the crisis widened. A party elder from Edo State, Chief Tom Ikimi, laid the blame for losing Ekiti at the doorsteps of Fayose.

Also, it seemed Ikimi is annoyed that Oni was not picked as PDP candidate. The assumption is that he would have really given APC a big fight. It is debatable. The fact is that Oni con tested the primary. How can someone who failed at the primary be seen as a better candidate to deliver victory to the party? How logical?

Ikimi is a supporter of Atiku. He, therefore, has an axe to grind with Fayose for either vying for president or asking Ekiti delegates to vote for Wike. The Edo politician said he knew PDP was going nowhere in Ekiti and that he had discussed it with Ayu. It is not on record that the party’s chairman made any move to avert the disaster.

Ikimi also accused Fayose of ruining the party or running it aground in his state. He alleged that the former governor fielded a candidate who could not fly in 2018, Prof. Olusola Eleka, and ended rolling on the floor on election day, shedding crocodile tears. Mocking him, he said the drama never achieved anything.

Ikimi’s remark suggested that the aloofness of the PDP national leadership was a punitive measure. It was deliberate. Ekiti was sacrificed because, in his view, Fayose chose to exercise his right and could not differ to those who had laid claim to party ownership. Now, Ikimi is calling for sanction for what he described as indiscipline on the part of Fayose.

But the former governor has fired back. Fayose is not a man to run away from any battle. He said if the vituperations of Ikimi amounted to a fallout of his support for Wike, then, he should match his age with numbers and recall that he once won victory for the PDP in Ekiti in 2014 by defeating Fayemi. He also reminded Ikimi that he defeated Niyi Adebayo in 2003. Both, he said, were incumbent governors.

Fayose also berated Ikimi for lack of decorum and maturity, which age naturally bestows. He said Ikimi has not won any state election before, adding that the Edo politician only led the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) to electoral defeat in 1993.

The former governor said instead of concentrating on the past, PDP should focus on 2023 elections.

This is the crux of the matter. If Atiku has refused to campaign for Ekiti PDP, would the chapter be obliged to campaign for him as presidential candidate? Who will be more useful to Atiku in Ekiti: Fayose or Ikimi, the Edo man?

Having refused to campaign for Kolawole in Ekiti, would the PDP national leadership campaign for Ademola Adeleke, the party’s Osun State governorship candidate? Has the party pondered how its defeat in Ekiti has demoralised the Osun chapter?

More perilous times may await PDP in the Southwest. The grouse of the zone is the party’s position on rotation, which it rejected without justification. The argument that no Southern candidate can win the presidential election for PDP is infuriating to the three Southern zones. Giving the slot of running mate to Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa may not compensate for the deprivation, inequity and injustice.

In the Southwest, the resentment may be stronger. It still appears the PDP was smuggled into the region in the first instance. In 1999, it was an alien party in the region, which has been the stronghold of the progressives since the pre-independence era. Although the party fielded General Olusegun Obasanjo as its presidential candidate, it was rejected by the six states in the Southwest, Obasanjo’s home.

How the PDP managed to install a senator in Ekiti South was also baffling. The late Gbenga Aluko, son of a progressive politician, who was the lone PDP senator, even retraced his steps before he passed on.

But, the 2003 political earthquake that swept across poll-confident Southwest changed the pattern. After an inexplicable romance with the cunning General, the then ruling Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors boxed themselves into an avoidable corner. On the eve of the poll that drew the curtains on their tenures, an excited Obasanjo, who was confident of his party’s victory in the zone, mocked the governors. He asked them to pack and go.

Only Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, governor of Lagos, survived the onslaught. The late Adebayo Adefarati (Ondo), Bisi Akande (Osun), Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti), Segun Osoba (Ogun) and the late Lam Adesina (Oyo) were not lucky.

The battle to reclaim the region started in 2007. By 2011, the progressives were back in the saddle. When the achievement of the liberation war was not properly managed, Ekiti and later, Oyo, became PDP states.

But the greatest threat to the survival of PDP in the Southwest now is that the region is bidding for president. It is not likely to trade the opportunity for anything outside of presidential power.

For the region, the PDP appears like a visitor whose hour to go away is just a matter of time.

Signed By:
National Correspondent, Track News Nigeria

Mohammed Oluwatimileyin Taoheed is an investigative journalist and a professional editor currently studying Law at the Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto State.