The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) started the outgoing year with high hopes that it would win the 2023 general elections, to reclaim its place as the dominant political party in the country.

The expectations of leaders of the opposition party were that once it won the February 25 polls, things would naturally fall in place for the beleaguered party. That was understandable. The preceding year had been very turbulent for the PDP, which has been forced into opposition by the All Progressives Congress (APC) since 2015.

So confident of victory was the PDP that its presidential candidate, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, through his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, dismissed concerns that the face-off between him and the five aggrieved PDP governors, popularly known as G-5, would cost the opposition party, the presidential poll. The G-5 led by now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike consisted of Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, as well as Samuel Ortom; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Okezie Ikpeazu, former governors of Benue, Enugu and Abia states respectively.

Shaibu had told Daily Sun that “Atiku will be president. Whether the cock crows or not, the sun must rise. Power belongs to God Almighty; no man can arrogate to himself the powers of God Almighty. Any man who can boast of stopping Atiku should first make himself president of Nigeria.”

However, all of PDP‘s dream for renaissance in 2023, through the last general elections, went up in smoke. Apart from its loss in the February 25 presidential poll, the opposition party did not do well in the last National Assembly election, as well as gubernatorial contests.

Also, the crisis within PDP, which started in the aftermath of its last presidential primary is still festering.

As the curtains falls on 2023, it is obvious that the year would end as another agonising one for PDP: it is a year, in which it failed to actualize its dreams.

Loss of 2023 polls

First, the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar lost the presidential election to the APC candidate, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Atiku had polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the keenly contested election, while Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes.

However, the former Vice President, as well as the PDP had protested the election results. Consequently, they took their case to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal ( PEPT) but the court affirmed the APC candidate as winner of the controversial presidential poll.

Undaunted, Atiku approached the Supreme Court. This time he obtained President Tinubu’s academic records, from the United States of America (USA), which he forwarded to the apex court to prove his case that the latter was not qualified to contest the February 25 poll. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court dismissed the former Vice President’s case, and affirmed Tinubu as winner of the presidential poll.

For the opposition party, the loss of the presidential election was just one of the low points; another was the inability of the PDP to pull its weight in the election of the presiding officers of the 10th assembly. For the first time in the last eight years, the opposition party failed to give a direction to its members in the National Assembly, in the contest, for the presiding officers of both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Recall that in 2015 and 2019, the PDP had played key roles in the election of the leadership of both chambers. Ironically, it was a spectator in the 2023 exercise. That was not all. The leadership of the minority caucuses in the Senate and House were also selected without the input of the major opposition party.

Unending crisis

Shortly after the 2023 polls, the former PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, was shown the exit door by the Benue PDP. The leadership of Ayu’s Igyorov ward, had in a resolution signed by 12 out of the 17 ward executives accused the former PDP chairman of alleged anti-party activities and suspended him from the opposition party.

According to the resolution, “the Peoples Democratic Party Executive Committee of Igyorov council ward of Gboko local government area in Benue State has passed a vote of no confidence on the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu and suspended him from the party.

“He (Ayu) was involved in anti- party activities making the PDP to lose at his ward and local government along with his allies who also didn’t vote at the Governorship Election”. Ayu’s suspension, which has been ratified by a Benue High Court was the climax in the war of attrition between him and the G5.

Ironically, the National Working Committee ( NWC) under the former party chairman, days earlier, in an apparent move to take the fight straight to traducers announced the suspension of some leaders of the party. Those suspended included former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, former Kastina governor, Ibrahim Shema and former Secretary to Government of the Federation for alleged anti-party activities. It also referred former Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom to its National Disciplinary Committee. However, all the suspensions were reversed by the NWC, under the acting national chairman, Umar Damagum, after Ayu’s ouster.

The PDP, in a bid to find closure from the loss of the 2023 polls, as well as unite its members for the tasks ahead, in June convened a meeting of key stakeholders. Ironically, Atiku, his vice presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa, former Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, as well as Wike and other members of the G-5 were absent from the meeting, which was expected to kick start the peace process.

The PDP National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, while speaking at the parley, had said it was to enable the party leaders do a postmortem of the last election and chart a course forward, as well as jump start a reconciliation process.

“We are here today and everyone knows what happened in 2023. We contributed both individually and collectively. If you rise to speak, I beg you to spell out your own role in 2023 elections, either positive or negative before you jump to accuse someone else either negative or positive. Everybody had a role to play.

“When you rise to speak, please, tell us the role you played. You can accuse anybody here for playing pro or anti party activities. The aim is when we are through, we will have an idea of what to do with the party before we move to other organs like the national caucus, NEC for the way forward for the party, “Bature told stakeholders.

Unfortunately, for the opposition party, it could not push the peace move beyond that parley to other organs of the party.

However, one state where the party crisis took an heavy toll on the PDP was in Plateau, where most of the National and State assembly seats it won were voided by the court. The election of the Plateau governor, Caleb Muftwang has also been nullified by the Court of Appeal. The Plateau PDP prior to the last general election had been plagued by internal crisis, leading to disputed congresses.

Poor outing in off-season governorship polls

Also, the PDP’s quest to use the November 8 off-season gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states to increase the tally of states it controls, ended as a pipe dream. Though the opposition party succeeded in retaining Bayelsa State, it performed poorly in Imo and Kogi states.

Prior to the November 8 encounter, Damagum, while inaugurating the PDP campaign councils for the three states had charged them to “go and conquer”, noting that the party expects nothing short of victory in the three states.

“We don’t expect less from you because before you were selected, you were found very capable and we expect nothing other than victory. We will have Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi. These are PDP states. Somehow, they slipped away but Bayelsa has always had a PDP governor,”the PDP had declared. Unfortunately, the opposition failed to reclaim Kogi and Imo states, which it once controlled.

For the major opposition party, 2023 would go down in history, as a year it aimed so high and achieved so little. A year its head was bloodied in battles it could have ordinarily won. (Daily Sun)

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