The case of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the current Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, evokes deep thought. The PDP had been appreciably damaged by its loss in the 2015 presidential election. Like fair weather friends, many stalwarts of the party who had benefited immensely from the party abandoned it. In fact, in a most unkind manner, one of the foremost beneficiaries of the PDP made a public show of destroying his party membership card. Some others who were not so negatively dramatic displayed betraying indifference. At the peak of the party’s tribulation, some suggested that it should change its name to renew its public appeal.
But there were people who did not give up on the PDP. Foremost among these loyalists of the party was Nyesom Wike, especially during his tenure as the Governor of Rivers State. He provided requisite funding and associated support and breathed life back into the PDP. Then those who wouldn’t touch the party with a long pole or kept what they imagined was a safe distance from the party started to fly back to it like moth towards light. And they returned with renewed predation and the attempt to sideline those who had stayed loyal to the party in its most trying times.
Nyesom Wike was one of the most prominent of the PDP stalwarts who suffered the conspiracy. Based on the belief that with the All Progressives Congress (APC) President Muhammadu Buhari, who is a northerner, about to end his 8-year tenure in 2015, it was expected that a southerner would be presented by the party. So, Wike showed interest in contesting the presidential primaries of the PDP towards the 2023 general elections. The popular belief at the time was that he was well-paced to emerge as the party’s candidate for the election. But that did not come to be. It was reported that last minute ethno-regional and political manoeuvres and manipulation accounted for his loss.
There were also proposals that Wike be nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who won the PDP primary. This too did not materialise. And the question of undermining the zoning formula which was believed should have favoured the South arose. In line with this belief, Wike declared that he would only support a southerner for the presidency in 2023. Incidentally, the most prospective southerner at the time was Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC. So, Wike supported him in the presidential election, while simultaneously working for the victory of the PDP at the State House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and Governorship elections in Rivers State.
Wike’s support for President Tinubu during the elections and his subsequent appointment by the President as the Minister of the FCT has made him prone to accusations of anti-party activities by some members of the PDP and certain members of the national elite, especially some sections of the Nigerian media. But Wike has robustly defended himself against this accusation. In fact, when Seun Okinbaloye, in a 30 August, 2023 Channels TV interview, asked him, “Governor Wike, you are a PDP member in an APC government. Is that right?”, Wike replied: “Governance is not about party. Party is a vehicle that conveys you. … I’m a PDP member … unrepentable.”
Wike also cited a precedent: “Remember Obasanjo and Atiku, President and Vice President in this country in 1999, … took late Bola Ige, who was an AD [Alliance for Democracy] member not just to become a Minister of Power, but [also] Attorney-General, No. 1 Minister of the country, … because Obasanjo and Atiku believed that he could contribute in these areas. … I never hid my intention. As a PDP member, I came out and [said] I’m going to support equity, fairness and justice. Did I not say so? Did we not say that you cannot as a party, if you mean well for this country, continue with the line you are going, [which] means that we [Southerners] don’t have a place in the party? … So, what is new now about anybody talking about I’m serving APC [while] in PDP.”
Wike explained further: “I was in PDP; I supported Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yes, did I hide it? … I’m not here to work for a party. I’m here to support the President who has confidence in me to help him to deliver the renewed hope, and I owe nobody any apologies at all, at all. I was in PDP, I worked for Ahmed Tinubu to be President of Nigeria. In fact, … if people have forgotten history, in the South-east and South-south, there’s no … state the President won, except Rivers State. … We came out to say it earlier that we were going to support a southerner to be president.”
With respect to getting the approval of the leadership of the PDP before taking up the President’s offer of a ministerial position to him in an APC-controlled government, Wike said: “I respect the party. I wrote to the National Chairman and his people that this is the offer made to me by the President. Did they say they told me not to accept? I wrote a letter to the Zonal Chairman of my party. … They said, ‘Accept it. It’s a call for duty.’ I wrote to the State Chairman of my party. He said, ‘Accept it.’ I wrote to my Governor. He said, ‘Accept it.’”
Wike also disclosed: “This government wrote to all the governors of PDP and APC to nominate people for appointments … and … PDP governors nominated people for appointment. … I challenge anybody, anybody, anybody who is the governor of PDP that said he never wrote any letter to this government for so-so people to be appointed under this government. Has anybody come to challenge me?” To underscore the veracity of his claim, he dared any governor who could do so to counter the claim. It is uncertain whether any PDP governor has taken up this challenge.
Those who have been castigating the PDP for indulgence in relation to the party’s seeming inability to discipline or expel Wike from the PDP for accepting a position in an APC government and declaring his intention to support President Tinubu’s second term election in 2027, while still being a member of the PDP, thus appear to be oblivious of the real state of affairs of the party. In fact, to Okinbaloye’s question, “Are you afraid that your party might move against you and expel you?”, Wike replied: “No. Who’s the party?” To this question, Okinbaloye replied: “The PDP.” And Wike asked: “Who are the PDP people?” Okinbaloye responded: “The Executives of the party, the NEC [National Executive Committee] of the party.”
Then Wike remarked: “How can anybody talk about expelling me, [in] a state that brought a state governor, a state that brought three Senators, a state that produced 32 House of Assembly members, a state that produced 11 out of 13 House of Reps members.” He also asked: “Who are these people coming to say they would discipline me? Discipline who? Discipline who?” He further boasted: “I have not seen that person, with all due respect, who would do it. … Nobody would do it. … I should be the one calling for the discipline of these people who violated the party constitution … in the way that the party said there must be rotation.”
Meanwhile, some prominent members of the PDP declared that they were committed to stopping President Tinubu from getting a second term in office, but, in a defeatist way, said that the PDP could not achieve that goal alone. So, they decided to defect from the PDP and form a new party or move to an existing one. These PDP members have been working in collaboration with some disaffected members of the APC and some members of the Labour Party (LP). Recently, the coalition against President Tinubu decided to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The defection of the PDP members of the coalition has further created a challenge to Wike and his allies to see that the PDP does not die.
In fact, one of the erstwhile vocal promoters of the PDP who is enamoured of the coalition, Dele Momodu, said: “There is only one major stakeholder in PDP and that is Nyesom Wike.” Momodu said that Wike had insulted and alienated key figures in the party. Momodu also declared: “Without any doubt, people are leaving the carcass of PDP to Wike and his cronies.” Wike also said about members of the coalition: “The buccaneers and vampires – We have sent them parking.”
In the PDP, there have been those who have manifested the inconstant, nectar-seeking butterfly syndrome and who, like rolling stones, have gathered no moss. Then there have been migratory political birds who usually have not been making any significant political appearance until the approach of elections. Moreover, there have been political hibernators who have withdrawn from the political scene to save themselves from the exertions which constantly nurturing the party can require. In addition, there have been what may be called ‘transitional politicians’ whose souls, as some PDP leaders have put it, have left the party with only their bodies remaining in it.
These categories of PDP members have provided a backdrop for politicians like Nyesom Wike who, once the curtains of stereotypes are drawn, reveal them as having been the true pillars of the party. In the circumstance, the PDP needs revaluation, reformation and regeneration.
