In another four days, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be in opposition at the federal level and in many states. The party is broken by internal crisis. Many are wondering if it is ready to play credible opposition, writes SUNDAY OGUNTOLA.
All through last week, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was enmeshed in one trouble after another. In one day, its National Chairman Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu and Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman Tony Anenih resigned. The ripple effects of the resignation are expected to be felt this week, as the party prepares for its new role – the opposition.
For PDP, things have really fallen apart. Sixteen years after ruling the country, it suddenly lost its grip and got dislodged from power. The momumental losses it suffered at the presidential/National Assembly elections on March 28 and the governorship/Houses of Assembly elections on April 11 have left the PDP on the brink. The unfolding developments have shown that the party may not get its bearing in a short while.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Gen. Muhammadu Buhari polled 15,424,921 votes to defeat incumbent and PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan, who got 12,853,162.
Expectedly, the presidential defeat orchestrated a major shift in the nation’s political arena. Many states, which the PDP would, easily, have won, started looking the APC’s way. Several alignments and reengineering took place in many states. By the time the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections were held on April 11, the PDP had suffered a devastating reversal of fortunes.
The presidential loss was defining but the loss of many states hitherto considered PDP strongholds was very debilitating. The party’s governorship candidates lost in Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Imo, Borno, Kano, Bauchi, Jigawa Adamawa, Yobe, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kwara, Niger and Zamfara.
Of the 28 contested governorship seats, the APC won 20, leaving only eight for the PDP, which prided itself as the largest political party in Africa. It was a massive tsunami that left the ruling party tumbling from its Olympia height. On May 29, when the governors-elect are sworn in, the APC will have 22 governors, leaving 14 states for the PDP.
In the National Assembly, the PDP’s tales of woes could not be stopped. Voters rejected many of the candidates fielded by the party, ostensibly in protest of the imposition of many of them. The protest votes launched the APC to the status of majority party in the Eighth Senate with 64 senators-elect. The PDP could only produce 45 and the Labour Party (LP) settled for one. The development eventually sealed the fate of the PDP in presiding over the next Senate.
The APC, with a clear majority, looks set to produce the next Senate President and other principal officers of the Upper Chamber. That, again, is a big setback for the PDP, which has produced successive Senate President since 1999.
In the House of Representatives, the APC also emerged the clear leader, winning 214 federal seats. The PDP settled for only 125. The difference of 89 seats is already huge enough. But the APC might make more hauls when elections are held in the 11 federal constituencies of Jigawa State, where the waiting in the wings to occupy the governorship seat.
If the APC wins the seats as being projected, it will have 100 representatives more than the PDP. Going by how politics has already played out, the 10 representatives elected on the platforms of the LP, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Accord, might up end defecting to the APC. This will further entrench the party’s commanding influence in the Green Chamber.
With 81 lawmakers elected on its platform, the APC swept to victory with the highest membership haul from the Northwest. The PDP could not produce any House of Representatives member from the zone. The Southwest delivered 47 seats for the APC as against PDP’s 20.
In the Northcentral, the party got 41 seats and left eight for the PDP. In the Northeast, the APC secured 40 seats to PDP’s seven. The PDP’s strongest zone is the Southsouth, where it produced 52 members as against APC’s three. The three seats came from Edo State.
In 2011, the PDP had 208 lawmakers in the lower chamber of the National Assembly. The defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) produced 70 and the then Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) had 40. The implication is that the APC has a better chance of producing the next Speaker and principal officers of the House of Representatives.
Since it suffered the unprecedented electoral misfortune, the PDP has been hit by a gale of defections. Its former stalwarts and chieftains have been leaving in droves with their supporters. Even die-hard PDP faithful are beginning to review their membership. Many are upbeat that the party might never survive the next four years.
Their skepticism is not misplaced. Since the PDP lost its ruling status, it has been confronted by serious in-fighting, intrigue and wrangling. Some of its governors have been vociferous in their condemnation of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC). The NWC members, they contended, did not do enough to lead the party to victory and therefore should quit.
The party officials, on their part, have countered such claims, insisting the governors, instead, should be held responsible for the party’s dismal performance. Many of them, the NWC members argued, imposed candidates and made it impossible for voters to support them.
The cat-and-mouse game degenerated to Mu’azu’s resignation as the national chair. Mu’azu, fondly call ‘The Game Changer’, had resisted pressures from many PDP governors to resign for leading the party to defeat. Such move, the former chairman argued, will further polarise the party and leave it dead and buried. His resignation was followed by that of the BoT chair, Chief Anenih, who his admirers often call ‘Mr. Fix it’.
Though Anenih said his resignation was to pave the way for President Jonathan new role as BoT chairman after leaving office on Friday, some of the governors who are aversed to the President’s leadership style have vowed to quit and form a new political party.
The development, political observers say, will further aggravate the crisis in the party, especially when it was discovered that the duo of Mu’azu and Anenih were forced out of office.
Unsatisfied with Mu’azu’s exit, some PDP governors have renewed their insistence that other members of the NWC and the NEC should follow suit.
If anything, it (Mu’azu and Anenih’s resignation) leaves a bitter taste in the throat of their supporters and sympathisers, confirming the party’s penchant for changing its top helmsmen at the flimsyest excuse.
Will PDP be able to play opposition politics?
The blame-game and name-calling among chieftains has left the party in disarray, making many to wonder if it will ever survive and be able to play opposition politics. The thinking is that this is a most unfamiliar terrain for a party that is used to being in power and spoilt by the perks of office. To suddenly find itself on the other side of the divide could be a burden too heavy to bear.
National Secretary of the LP Kayode Ajulo believes the PDP lacks the wherewithal to assume the role of a viable opposition party.
Ajulo said: “I must say this with all sense of responsibility that the PDP cannot function well as an opposition party because it lacks the capacity to play such a role in Nigeria.
“I must say that the characters in the PDP prefer packaged food than going to the kitchen to cook. They like already-made things. So, you can’t expect such people to be in opposition.”
He said the gale of defections is a clear signal that PDP members cannot be a good opposition. Ajulo explained that those who will play opposition politics must be sacrificial and prepared to put their lives on the lines.
Senator Chris Ngige (Anambra Central) knows what it takes to be in opposition. According to him, it is never an enviable role to play in any democratic dispensation. Ngige has tasted both sides. He was Anambra State governor under the PDP and a senator under the APC.
He said: “I must thank all those who remained steadfast in APC because playing opposition can be frustrating and tempting.
‘’Though I was receiving overtures from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, I rejected them because the principles on which we formed that party have been jettisoned and bastardised.
“At the amalgamation of some political parties to form the APC, I decided to run for governor but many notable politicians told me that though I am a good candidate, it was better for me not to run because I would never be allowed to win as the forces against me were numerous.
“However, I insisted on running because God had told me that the APC will form the next Federal Government. Though I did not win the governorship, I was consistently telling our people that the APC was the best bet for Igbo in Nigerian politics.”
Ngige believes that most PDP members in the Southeast will soon switch over to the APC.
“I know many of these Igbo contractors cannot play opposition politics and their next move may be to move into the APC,” he said.
Playing opposition politics requires men of strong political will to put their lives on the line. Most PDP chieftains, unfortunately, were attracted by the patronage they were getting from the party in the past 16 years. Without such undeserving perks and inducements, it is hard to see many of them sticking out their necks for the party.
Such strong men must also be willing to stake their resources to oil party structures across the states without seeking immediate rewards. “That is difficult to imagine among the current crop of leaders parading themselves as PDP chieftains,” Charles Okon, a political analyst said.
Okon went on: “How many of them will be willing to invest their resources and not expect returns immediately? How many of them will fund the party with their dwindling fortunes and refuse to be bought over by the ruling party? How many will look away from whatever the ruling party have to offer and maintain that the PDP is the only way to go?
“If we look well, we might not find up to 10 of them in the country. Why? It is because they are used to spending government money to fund the party and its programmes. Without the attraction of government funds, many of them will stay away or switch camps.”
But to Ahmed Gulak, a former political adviser to the President, the party will cope well with its new-found opposition status.
He said: “I can assure you that we are ready. Some of us will never decamp. No matter what, we will stay back and build the party. We will put the ruling party on its toes and ensure that we spotlight all their (APC) mistakes and failures to the nation. It will be tough, but we will do it. We have to, because we have no choice really. There is nowhere else to go but to build the party.”
Senate President David Mark is also confident the party will do well as an opposition.
Mark said: “We are going back to the drawing board to do a critical review and fashion out a blue print that would get us out of the woods for good.
“The role of opposition is strange to us, but it is not a death sentence. We should be ready for the challenges. We are prepared to play a credible opposition. I believe the nation, and indeed Nigerians will be the best for it.”
What future awaits PDP?
The future appears very bleak for the PDP. Hemmed in by heavy defeats, growing defections and internal bickering, it is clear that a turbulence future awaits the party. Yet, it is in the interest of the fledging democracy for a big party like the PDP to survive and offer credible opposition to put the ruling party on its toes.
Experts say the party might cave in under heavy yokes and goes into oblivion. They said the PDP must survive before its can stand the chance of bouncing back. For the distressed party, survival will not come easy. But, therein lies the hope of the PDP, the experts contend.
Many believe the party needs to consider mergers with smaller parties to regain its intimidating aura. Some governors, who were toying with the idea of pursuing their political future in a new party may have had a rethink, following the resignation of Mu’azu and Anenih. The new thinking is to consider smaller political groups, associations and parties to strengthen the party.
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh said the option was very much on the table.
In a statement, Metuh said: “We have a name, tradition and values. Sixteen fruitful years as the guardian of Nigeria’s democracy cannot be nullified by the reason of temporary setback. We shall rise beyond all and regain our rhythm.”
To also survive, the party needs to embrace reconciliation and embark on internal restructuring.
Gulak said: “We must purge ourselves and know those who are genuinely for us. The era of assuming those who mill around are PDP members is over. They must be proven and tested over time before we become convinced.”
For the PDP to purge itself, it must rein in its members who, despite warnings from the party’s hierachy to shield their sword, continue in the blame-trading game over who and what caused its defeat at the polls.
Though the future appears uncertain, the PDP must learn how to play opposition politics. How well the party succeeds in doing this will go a long way in determining its survival.
