Apart from the nauseating, unending internal leadership wrangling in the flagship opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), there seems to be a disturbing, uneasy calm and silent rumblings in the folds of both the ruling and other opposition parties in recent weeks.

From the situation in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leadership secret manipulation to detonate the volcano threatening to erupt and disintegrate the ruling party in all fronts ahead of the 2027 general elections, to the precarious harmony, equanimity and apprehensive state of affairs in the opposition parties, the political temperature in the country seems to have slide into a state of doldrums, quietude and worrying serenity.

In the thinking of many pundits, there has been graveyard inactivity, in the past few weeks, in almost all the opposition parties, comprising, Labour Party (LP), the coalition African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), among other hitherto visible and viable political parties.

It was gathered that in almost all of the parties, there has been movement without motion, the type that could be likened to a local Igbo proverb of a frog trapped in the midst of a burning bush, but was not consumed in the inferno, yet did not escape.

There has been this uneasy calm and nervous composure among the gladiators previously behind reinforcing the constant tension and agitations engulfing almost all the political parties. Previously, since the conclusion of the 2023 general elections, no day passes without reported cases of the political parties subsumed in one form of leadership or personal interest crisis or the other in an upsetting magnitude.

But the situation seemed to have suddenly changed in recent times. Astonishingly, the crises within the political parties are noticeably no longer making cover page mentions or in the media front burner, yet the quietness within the parties could be described as anything but peaceful.

Yes, there are occasional eruptions and escalation of crisis within both the ruling and opposition parties, but in recent times, there was disturbing unobtrusiveness and quietness suddenly, in almost all the folds of the parties, or how else can one describe the unexpected fizzling out of the LP from the news?

Surprisingly, there has been a suspicious tranquil from the loyalists to the party’s acclaimed national chairman, Julius Abure, and his detractor factional chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman, previously fuelling the leadership crisis within the LP.

They are suddenly no longer fiercely at a loggerhead, holding each other on the jugular in a suffocating manner, but both camps are still actively laying claims to be the authentic headship of the Peter Obi-inspired party.

Members and admirers of the party are becoming more curious since both camps activated sordid silent mode and seemed to have ceased from deliberately fanning an orchestrated psychological amber of brutal media warfare, most noticeably since after Abure’s publicised meeting with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike few months ago.

Although the rightful de facto overall leader of the party between Abure and Usman has not been finally resolved with the double recognitions from both the court of law and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), curiously, the contention has gone into moratorium and abeyance with both gladiators, perhaps weakened to continue prosecuting the battle. Some observers however suggested they may be strategizing to unleash new fangs at the right time.

Recall that the situation in the LP became a negative reference point in the past that the presidency and the ruling party would constantly point at it as campaign tool against the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to underscore and taunt him as incompetent, claiming that a man who cannot settle his party’s internal crisis ought to be the least qualified to lead a highly complex country like Nigeria.

Activities within the formally active opposition party, in the past few months, seem to have depressed into quiescence perhaps because of lack of political activities and may continue until next year, when the preparation for both the two off-cycle Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections and the FCT Area Council election come up in full swing to kick-start the major build-up to the 2027 general elections.

And, like the awkward silence in the LP fold, little or nothing has also been heard or reported about the hitherto persistent raging leadership battle in the NNPP.

The unending battle royal between the party’s 2023 presidential election, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and the founder of the party, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has simmered down completely to the point that the constantly speculated defection of the former (Kwankwaso) into the APC may have also died a natural death.

Apart from the minor skirmishes at the state chapters of the party and very insignificant defection incidents, very little has surprisingly been heard about the grappling hostilities previously engulfing the opposition party at the national level now.

It has become even more amazingly shocking to many political watchers that, instead of reporting festering internal cracks as was the case previously, some prominent members and chieftains of the APC Kano State chapter are even defecting to the NNPP, just as some from the NNPP are equally defecting to the APC.

Retrospectively, apart from the suspension of Kwankwaso’s political ally, Jibrin Abdulmumin, member representing Kiru/Bebeji constituency in the House of Representatives, and his recent return to the APC, no serious negative report has emanated from the party in the past few months.

Unlike Abdulmumin, he did not even stir up any controversy during his defection to the APC, nor did he give any concrete reason for dumping the party, nor did the party seem to even feel the impact of his departure.

In the statement he issued announcing his reception by thousands of supporters in his hometown of Kofa, Bebeji LGA of Kano State, where he formally announced his decision to leave the NNPP and the Kwankwasiyya Movement, he noted that: “In a show of solidarity, I was warmly received by thousands of my constituents in my hometown.

“The gathering resolved to leave the NNPP/Kwankwasiyya, join the APC, and endorse President Bola Tinubu for a second term in office. Earlier, about 2,000 Ulamas from my constituency offered special prayers for the president and peaceful coexistence, progress, and development of Kiru/Bebeji, Kano, and Nigeria at large,” he said.

If sudden quietness in the camps of other opposition parties is understandable, in the consideration of many, there is palpable apprehension over the disturbing extinction of the flaming and blaring fire in the camp of the coalition ADC, having blown hot since its inauguration of new national leadership a few months ago.

Since that revival, ADC had muscled other parties as the only promising opposition voice crying in the wilderness against the ruling party, the APC. The coalition party had become even too vociferous and loudly very critical of the ruling party that it was receiving loud ovations as the hope of democracy, until it suddenly disappeared into oblivion recently.

When it was firing on all cylinders, the coalition ADC could issue as many statements as possible, to the point of becoming a thorn in the flesh of the ruling party by criticising every negative policy or policy summersault ranging from the incessant foreign loan request to orchestrated attempts to show dictatorial tendencies in leading the country.

However, the intensity has not only drastically reduced to the once active and proactive coalition firing from all cylinders, sparingly issuing statements perhaps devoid of the usual aggressive responses it started with a few months ago, but clear signs that clash of personal political interests may have weakened its hitherto radiating confidence.

Perhaps because of the source of funds coupled with the inordinate ambition of the major gladiators and frontline prospective aspirants, in addition to combinations of other factors, the hitherto vibrant ADC is gradually becoming a shadow of itself.

Confirming the precarious and discouraging situation in the party, a chieftain of the party told Daily Sun that the coalition has been struggling to escape the frustrating multiple landmines the ruling party has continued to place on its path to truncate the progresses made.

The chieftain, who spoke in confidence, quipped: “It is tiring and frustrating how the APC-led government has become too intolerant to opposition. They have continued to plant hurdles to truncate every progress we tried to make.

“Again, and very unfortunate, the failure of our two heavyweights, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, to align and harmonise their presidential ambition is also a cog in the wheel of progress of the party too. And the earlier they do that, the better for our party. We don’t want to allow them to disintegrate the ADC as they have done to the PDP,” the party’s chieftain prayed.

Probably the calmness in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which recorded a landmark victory in the recently concluded Anambra state off-cycle governorship election, is understandable.

May be because of their poor campaign activities in the build-up and apparently very poor performances during the governorship poll, there is the same uneasy calm situation in the other opposition parties, particularly the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which was hitherto engulfed in leadership crisis, which even culminated into the suspension and or outright sack of the former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

Surprisingly, if anyone is thinking that the ruling party, APC, is immune to the pandemic of the silence crisis threatening to engulf all the former vibrant political parties, the person is making a mistake. In the APC’s fold, secret efforts are being made to silently quell and resolve the several seen and unseen rumblings and fulminations confronting it from many fronts.

According to insider sources, there is a widening crack among most of the leaders and stakeholders of the party. The source further noted that harmonising the rancour and rivalries at the state chapters between the new defectors and the main founding members and chieftains of the party, is equally posing a challenge to APC.

Incidentally, if it were only managing those crises at the state chapters of the party that the party’s leadership had to contend with, the ruling party would have been celebrating.

But the alleged animosities, rivalry, and bitter cold war among the members of the national leadership and the averted protest from the secretariat staff have all formed the octopus, compounding the situation in the ruling party.

The grudge, bitterness, and resentment allegedly brewing among members of the national leadership, according to sources, purportedly started in Plateau during the burial ceremony of the mother of the party’s national chairman, Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, when the National Working Committee (NWC) delegation allegedly staged a walkout.

According to the source at the Plateau event, the members of the national leadership had hinged their action on the failure to recognise their presence. The development, our source claimed, coincided with the rejection of their demand for a review of their reward system, which degenerated further with the frayed relationship between the eggheads of the NWC.

It was gathered that the rumbling threat from the secretariat staff to stage a mother of all protest and embark on strike was finally averted when it received prompt attention last week Thursday when the national chairman did not only avoid the important event to declare open the training of the state chairmen on membership e-registration but also hurriedly held an official meeting with members of the secretariat staff.

And to underscore the gravity of the meeting, he gave them mouth-watering offers, including payment of the arrears on their housing allowances, promotions that had been stalled for years, and, more importantly, a prompt payment of their 13-month salary.

However, dismissing the insinuations, especially about the rejection of the NWC’s demand for a review of their rewards and the staging of a walkout in Plateau, as a figment of detractors’ imagination, an NWC member who spoke to the Daily Sun in confidence during a chat took time to clarify the misinformation.

The NWC member insisted that: “There is no iota of truth in the insinuations, particularly the claim that two eggheads are involved in any form of cold war. They have the best form of relationship. They are working together harmoniously, and I can tell you there is a cordial working relationship between them.”

Equally dismissing the allusions that the NWC worked out on the chairman during the burial of the chairman’s mother, the NWC member attributed the misunderstanding to the chaotic nature of the situation during the event.

“I am not trying to hold brief for anyone, but I can tell you on good authority as an eyewitness that the situation during that burial was so rowdy that even a governor lost his handset while the security details were trying to squeeze the dignitaries into the hall.

“It is not true that NWC members walked out on our chairman, but there were many of them rushing to catch up with their flight schedules, just as some of us who travelled by road hurried to leave Jos town before it got too late. We would not have walked out on our chairman because there is no need for it.

“Whatever insinuations coming from any quarter must be a figment of the imagination of those spreading such because there is no need for the members of the NWC to fight either the chairman or among each other. Our party is very peaceful, and we focused on receiving the defectors joining our party and ultimately ensuring that President Tinubu wins his re-election in the 2027 presidential election,” he insisted.

Whether it was a temporary respite, reprieve, or a short-lived uneasy calm, the worsening crisis in the PDP has heightened the political temperature and painful agonising situation to contend with for now, before the volcano erupts in other parties very soon. (The Sun)