The leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State believes it has identified what went wrong in previous elections and is ready to bounce back in the Southwest state. ERNEST NWOKOLO reports.
The Ogun State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed strong optimism that it will bounce back in 2027. Its chairman, Sikirullai Ogundele, made the remark recently, emphasising its unwavering dedication to return to ideal democratic principles. Ogundele said the party has identified why it keeps losing elections since 2011 and has also fixed the problem. He disclosed that the party is wooing past governors and credible people who left the chapter for other political parties to return home, boasting that encouraging responses were already coming from that direction.
Ogundele based his optimism on the fact that the party had been able to identify what went wrong in the previous elections. He added that it is now prepared to right the wrongs of the past. His words: “Immediately after the losses, we went back to the drawing board to ascertain why we have been losing elections. We successfully identified some facts that have been leading to those losses and now we have swung into action to put everything in order. The major factors that have been keeping credible people away from the party have been that they perceived the Ogun PDP to be in the pocket of one person, and I’m not going to mention a name, and they believe the PDP was not independent enough to create an enabling environment for them to run their ambitions. Now we are getting so many of them convinced that this party is not in the pocket of anybody any longer.
“The national organs of the PDP are in the knowledge of this perception and they have put correction to it. The party must be seen to be independent of its activities which we have successfully achieved today. We are now working on the credible people who are willing to come and rejoin PDP, and most of them are joining, including the past governors. We are working on them and we are also working on their followers to join PDP.
“The PDP was winning in 2003. We polled about 800,000 votes to win in the 2003 general elections and Otunba Gbenga Daniel emerged as the governor. In 2007, we won with nearly the same figure but when we mismanaged the disagreements, rancours, skirmishes and rows in the party when it was badly managed, people broke out to join other political parties. Out of all the parties they joined – PPN, ADC, ADP, and Labour Party among others. People like Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and Dapo Abiodun left the PDP.
“So, in 2027, we are looking forward to having these people back on board the train of PDP. We have gotten them convinced that there will be a level playing ground for them to run their ambitions and it is not going to be one person that will nominate ‘who will this, who will that’s in Ogun PDP any longer. So, that is the position we are in now. I can confidently tell you that come 2023, we are winning and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is also campaigning for us through their empty noise of no significant impacts on the lives of Nigerians and the poor handling of the economy. People are convinced that they are not voting for the APC again.”
But, to achieve its ambition, the party would have to put its house in order this time around. Today, it is embroiled in so many unresolved crises, which may rob it of the virility to play the role of a robust and credible opposition party in the state. The genesis of the crisis could be traced to the struggle for the party’s soul among its chieftains with vested interests. Although the origin of what ails Ogun PDP dates back to the build-up to the 2011 governorship election, the current crisis afflicting the party may ascribed to the grievances arising from the May 25, 2022, party primary and the toxic environment created by the idea of financing the party by a single individual or group.
While the party was in power between 2003 and 2011, getting lifelines from members in elective and appointive positions at all levels to run its affairs and retain a modicum of party supremacy was not difficult at the time but the tide changed adversely after it lost power. With its loss of power both in the state and at the centre, the burden of oiling the machinery of the party fell on individuals with deep pockets and a heart of giving but it came with a price.
As a result, the Ogun PDP allegedly became an appendage of whosoever pays its bills, sorts out its multiple court cases, caters for members’ needs and keeps them from being poached by other political parties. Financiers like the late Senator Buruji Kashamu, while alive, allegedly used this opportunity to influence the chapter to his advantage. For instance, he influenced vital decisions of the party, such as who became members of the state executive and who ran for what office on the tickets of the party. It was on this premise that Adebutu lost out to the late senator in the tussle for the party’s 2019 governorship ticket.
With the demise of Kashamu in 2020, Adebutu renewed his ambition to govern the state and rejigged the party which had suffered so much haemorrhage on many fronts due to the exit of Kashamu. Many agree that Adebutu brought life back to Ogun PDP, and made valuable sacrifices across the 20 local government areas and three senatorial districts to reawaken members’ and supporters’ faith in the party once again. But his leadership of the party triggered another round of power tussle and division in the party, leading to the resurgence of three other separate camps – Segun Seriki/Bamgbose, Segun Showunmi and Jimi Lawal – all having ambitions to run for the 2023 governorship.
This set the stage for the wrangling that followed as they tried to outwit each other to clinch the governorship ticket. Three separate party primaries were held producing parallel candidates for the governorship seat, National Assembly and state house of Assembly seats even as allegations of violence and manipulation of delegates list particularly also trailed the primary that produced Adebutu as the party’s governorship candidate.
Sowunmi emerged as the factional governorship candidate of his camp, while the Seriki/Bamgbose camp equally had its separate candidates for the various elective offices. Jimi Lawal, who contested alongside Adebutu walked out halfway into the process, citing violence and manipulation of the process as reasons for his action. The party became more polarized.
However, on September 27, 2022, a Federal High court sitting in Abeokuta ruptured the hope of party members and supporters when it gave its verdict nullifying the May 25, 2022 primary and asked Adebutu to desist from parading himself as the party’s governorship candidate. It then ordered a fresh primary within 14 days to accommodate all sides. This followed the application of some aggrieved members, especially the Seriki Bamgbose camp, which approached the court for redress of the primary process, it alleged, shortchanged them.
The adverse judgment also had a vicarious effect on the party’s three senatorial candidates, nine House of Representatives candidates and 26 State House of Assembly candidates. In the ensuing confusion arising from the multiple court judgments over the May 25, 2022 primaries, Lawal’s camp conducted another primary purportedly in obedience to the court order but without authorisation by relevant organs of the party. The said primary purportedly produced Lawal as the party’s governorship candidate. This development brought the number of factional governorship candidates to four.
This led to the suspension of Lawal by the leadership of the state chapter. Also suspended were the quartet of the state financial Secretary, Bola Odunmosu, Ijebu North Local Government chairman of the PDP, Tope Ashiru, Kola Akinyemi and Bashiru Ajadi for aiding and abetting the illegal primary. that produced Lawal. The affected persons were suspended at the end of the State Working Committee (SWC) meeting of the PDP which was chaired by the Acting State Chairman, Chief Taiwo Akinlabi.
All hopes of bouncing back to power were dashed for the chapter when the Supreme Court sitting in Abuja on January 19 dismissed the appeal by the party’s governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, seeking to upturn last year’s re-election of Governor Dapo Abiodun.
It was a fiercely contested election and the PDP was hoping to return to power,
12 years after it was dislodged by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Governor Abiodun of the APC winner of the election, which had Adebutu and Olubiyi Otegbeye of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the closest challengers.
At the end of the election, Abiodun and Adebutu were separated by 13,915 votes. The APC flag bearer polled 276,298, the PDP’s Adebutu 262,383 votes. while Otegbeye of the ADC recorded 94,754 votes. But Adebutu, who was not pleased with the declared results, kicked against it. He claimed that he won the election and took exception to the cancellation of results in 54 polling units spread across Remo North, Sagamu, Ifo, Abeokuta South, Egbado South and Ado/Odo/Ota local governments, describing it as “disenfranchising of the electorate” in his strongholds by the INEC.
It was on the strength of the alleged injustice of results cancellation in 54 polling units and other issues that, Adebutu and PDP approached the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to challenge Abiodun’s election to reclaim what he described as the mandate freely given to him by the electorate. But the former federal lawmaker lost the battle at the Tribunal. Not satisfied, he proceeded to the Appeal Court in Ibadan to challenge the judgment of the Tribunal affirming the victory of the governor and lost again.
Still not satisfied, Adebutu headed for the Supreme Court. He had hopes that the outcome at the apex court would be favourable. His expectations received a further boost with the outcome of the governorship appeal at the Supreme Court concerning Kano State where the verdict at the apex court nullified the concurrent decisions of the two lower courts, which earlier sacked Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
But, such expectations did not come to pass. The implication is that the PDP has more work to do to displace the APC in the Southwest. For eight years when the party held sway in the state between 2003 and May 28, 2011, it was the political party to beat and its candidates at the time were the envies of other politicians but all that was lost when the progressives under the banner of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) sacked it and took over power in 2011 and has remained in power till date.
This was followed by a gradual exit of members of the party (PDP), as they joined the ruling party. Some of her notable political stars who could revive it to sanity, harmony and power have either passed away or said bye-bye to partisan politics.
