The nomination of the immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, as a minister in the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, led by President Bola Tinubu, has thrown the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) into a quandary. GBADE OGUNWALE examines the implications for the opposition party

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is currently at a crossroads. It is doubtful, if its warring factions have come to terms with the depth of the mortal injury they have inflicted on the platform with their rabid intransigence.

Political parties the world over do lose elections at one time or the other without necessarily losing their essence as vehicles for change in governance. But, the PDP exhibits an uncanny penchant for making easy tasks look difficult. For the main opposition party, the easiest of the tasks is to reflect on where it started and where it finds itself today. So, it takes some introspection to place the lingering crisis in the party in its proper perspective.

But, party stakeholders appear to loathe the inconveniences and the harsh realities that such self-examination usually throws up. The party leadership has been screaming its head off alleging that the APC stole its presidential mandate in the 2023 election. However, the simple arithmetic of the votes scored by the four leading candidates in that election showed that the PDP was defeated by the PDP itself. The winner of the 2023 presidential election, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was only a beneficiary of the PDP’s self-sponsored defeat.

Let’s check out the final figures: Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC) scored a total of 8, 794, 726; Atiku Abubakar of the PDP scored 6, 984, 520; Peter Obi of the Labour Party secured 6, 101, 533; while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples’ Party (NNPP) recorded 1, 496, 678 votes. The total number of votes scored by Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso combined, amounted to 14, 582, 740. That gives 5, 788, 014 votes above Tinubu’s total votes. Atiku and Obi’s votes combined amounted to 13, 086, 053, which is 4, 291, 327 above Tinubu’s total votes. Ordinarily, these would have been votes from the PDP stable. That is the mortal injury PDP’s power seekers inflicted on the party with their rabid intransigence over the presidential ticket.

Obi was one of PDP’s presidential aspirants for the 2023 race. He obtained the party’s presidential nomination form but had to withdraw a few weeks before the primary when he discovered that the cards were heavily stacked against him. It was obvious if Obi had participated in the PDP presidential primary, he would have recorded the same result Pastor Tunde Bakare posted in the last APC presidential primary. Kwankwaso, also, had an eye on the PDP ticket but was able to read the handwriting on the wall much earlier than Obi did. The former Kano governor had opted for the NNPP where he got the presidential ticket on a platter. He garnered over one million votes in Kano alone in the presidential election and also won the state’s governorship seat for his NNPP.

Kwankwaso emerged from the 2023 election as the totemic “President of Kano”. These factual records are available to the PDP leaders and stakeholders for them to do an honest assessment of the poll and strategise on the way forward. The PDP leadership is remiss in its duty to reposition the party in the aftermath of the election. They seem to lack the courage to sanction members of the G-5 who openly worked against the party during the presidential poll.

PDP leaders have consistently flinched from questions regarding the fate of the “renegade” group of four ex-governors and one incumbent. The names of the G-5 members keep coming up in the party’s scheduled activities in recent times even as the “recalcitrant five” keep snubbing the party leadership. This has created the impression in the minds of many party faithful that the PDP has succumbed to the whims of the G-5 most slavishly and condescendingly. This is clearly in contrast with how the party punished Senator Chimaroke Nnamani and other PDP members who engaged in similarly anti-party activities in the recent past. The PDP had on February 10 this year, expelled Nnamani, who represented Enugu South in the 9^th Senate.

Five other members from Ekiti State, including the son of former Ayo Fayose, John Fayose, were also expelled. Others who were expelled the same day were Ajijola Oladimeji, Olayinka Olalere, Akerele Oluyinka, and Emiola Jennifer. So, the ambivalence of the PDP leadership in the case of the immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, is most confounding to many party stakeholders. It’s no longer news that Wike ditched the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku and worked to deliver Rivers State to Tinubu’s APC. It’s also no news that he is a minister-designate in the current APC administration waiting for official inauguration any time soon.

Not a few PDP leaders have been caught blinking on many occasions when journalists inquired about what disciplinary measures the party intends to take against Wike. It would be recalled that the immediate past Rivers State governor had in February this year, approached a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking an order restraining the party leadership from suspending or expelling him. But in a May 31 ruling on the application, the presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho, held that the PDP had the right to suspend or expel Wike provided due process was followed. But despite the court’s definitive ruling, PDP leaders still flinch from questions posed to them by reporters on Wike’s fate in the party.

In a recent publication in The Nation, the PDP Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum said the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) was going to meet and take a definite position on the fate of the former governor. But, to date, nothing has been heard about the NWC meeting, which Damagum said would hold on Monday, July 31. So far, the nearest the party had gone in sounding a warning on the Wike saga was contained in the first paragraph of a communique issued by the PDP Governors Forum after a meeting in Abuja on Saturday, August 5. The communique, signed by Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State who is the chairman of the group, tactically avoided specifics. It reads: “The meeting emphasised the need for party discipline and re-iterated zero tolerance for anti-party activities and sabotage. No individual or group of individuals will be allowed to undermine the unity of the party and its processes.”

It was a scratch on the surface aimed at no one in particular.

Echoes of the 2014 exodus:

The leadership crisis currently tearing the PDP apart is a throwback to the 2014 exodus that saw Atiku and some prominent chieftains, including five of the party’s governors at the time defecting to the APC. The five rebel governors then are Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa). Other prominent defectors were Dr. Bukola Saraki who eventually became Senate president in 2015; the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; and Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje. Baraje was the chairman of the then-breakaway faction, otherwise known as the n-PDP. Two other former governors, Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Babangida Aliyu (Niger) were members of the then G-7 rebellion. But, they backed out of the defection wagon at the last minute. Former Governor Aliyu was to reveal years after that all the PDP governors from northern states at the time worked against Dr Goodluck Jonathan who was seeking re-election in 2015. The high-profile defectors were driven to the APC by the prevailing “market forces” at the time.

Market forces at the time dictated that the PDP presidential ticket was meant to go the North and that Jonathan was a peevish usurper. A few of the high-calibre defectors who found “trading” on the APC platform rewarding are still sticking with the ruling party. But Atiku, Saraki, Tambuwal and others who fell into disfavour had since returned to the PDP with a straight face. Fast forward to the recent general election season; the same “market forces” which drove Atiku and others to the APC in 2014 have driven Wike into the embrace of the ruling party in 2023. This time around, the market forces dictated that the PDP presidential ticket was meant to go to Wike’s South. Added to this was the indiscretion of having the North holding on to the presidential ticket and the party chairmanship at the same time.

The North’s goose was cooked, plumage and all. Wike is the first big fish in the PDP pond to be swallowed by the kingfisher post-2023 poll. Other fishes in the PDP pond may pop up in no distant future for the hovering kingfisher to poach. It needs no telling that any fish swallowed by the kingfisher does not return to the waters. It stays in the belly of the bird with colourful plumage. And it’s well known that the new kingfisher in town has enough room in its belly to accommodate a school.

Wike today has his right foot in the PDP and the left one in the APC. Others may soon follow. It would be illogical for anyone to believe that the former Rivers State governor will work against his new employers in future elections. It has been observed that Wike’s successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara has been staying away from all activities of the party since he mounted the saddle on May 29. Fubara did not attend the two separate meetings convened by the PDP Governors Forum in Abuja recently; he was not even represented by his deputy in line with the forum’s tradition.

Like Wike, like Fubara? The Governors’ Forum’s chairman, Governor Bala Mohammed had attempted to explain away Fubara’s absence, saying that the Rivers governor “was busy”. When reporters pressed further by asking why Fubara did not send his deputy to represent him, the Bauchi governor was caught blinking repeatedly as he ignored the question. Atiku and the leadership of the party do not consider a floundering PDP as a blight to whatever they may want to flaunt as their democratic credentials.

And the question as to who will bell the cat in the ongoing cat and mouse game remains unanswered. Will the party leadership ever find the courage to bite the bullet? How does a beleaguered PDP solve a problem like Nyesom Wike’s? For now, the party leaders are preoccupied with braying over their “stolen mandate”. And the baiting game continues. (ThisDay)

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