By Godwin Mmaduihe
THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was a great party founded on the bedrock of equity, fairness and justice. Its zoning principles, as enshrined in its constitution, gave the party an edge ahead of others.
PDP was once the ruling party for over a decade and a half. It may not have provided the best of good governance, especially at the national level, but it was stable and maintained uninterrupted transitions.
It is an axiomatic fact that what led to its loss of power at the centre in 2015 was the failure of the party’s bigwigs and leaders, especially from the South, to abide by the zoning and other situational and circumstantial agreements that characterised the sudden death of then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2010.
This position was affirmed and confirmed by report of the Senator Ike Ekweremmadu’s post-2015 election committee set up by its national leadership.
That singular development and roles played by certain PDP leaders, who were men of immediacy, contributed to the beginning of the party’s lingering problems.
Worst hit by the development were the party members from the Southeast region, whose post-Yar Adua roles and dispositions were nothing to write home about.
The then national chairman of the party, the late Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, who once boasted that the party would remain in power for 60 years, was forcefully removed from office for insisting on maintenance of the zoning principles after YarAdua’s death, laughed last after 2015.
If not for the usual selfish reason, greed and lack of integrity on the part of some of PDP leaders, PDP wouldn’t have lost power at the centre in 2015, and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wouldn’t have happened. It was PDP leaders’ greed, political miscarriage and miscalculation that paved the way for APC’s victory in 2015.
This will be a story for another day, because yours truly was in the know and has documentary evidence, having been actively involved as a journalist in the coverage of several meetings at Transcorp Hotel in Abuja.
It is obvious that after losing power at the centre in 2015, PDP has been struggling as a party. Some committed and altrustic members stood by the party, while some serial political defectors and prostitutes jumped in and out of the party when it suited them.
In what looked like pacification and compensation of the North over the sudden death of Yar’Adua in 2010, and failure of his successor, then President Goodluck Jonathan, to abide by the gentleman agreement of sustaining zoning, which was majorly responsible for the PDP’s loss of the Presidency in 2015, the North was given the party’s presidential ticket in 2019, with a defector, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi, as presidential candidate and running mate, respectively.
The North enjoyed the support of the South in that direction and didn’t raise any eyebrow, though Atiku lost the election to former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Fairly and justly, it was expected that with Buhari’s eight years that ended in 2023, the northern PDP bigwigs would have supported a southern presidential candidate in 2023, in sustenance of the zoning principles and fairness.
But they failed to do so, even when the major financers and active members of the party, such as Nyesom Wike, and others, were from the South.
At the 2023 PDP presidential primary, the conspiracy theory of the North was executed and handy to be used, was the immediate past governor of Sokoto State and Wike’s ally, Senator Aminu Tambuwal.
Against all odds, Atiku won the presidential ticket to the surprise and disappointment of many, especially the southern leaders and members of the party, who felt cheated and marginalised.
The emergence of the G-5 Governors of the party, led by Wike, who insisted that for equity, balance and fairness, the next President after Buhari’s eight years should come from the South, changed the equation in the party and ignited a new debate and power struggle.
The G-5 Governors remained adamant, pushful and consistent in their quest for a President of Southern extraction in 2023, as against their party’s candidate that was from the North.
This push came to realisation with the emergence of APC’s Bola Tinubu as President of the country.
After the 2023 general elections, the struggle for the soul of the PDP continued unabated, making some governors and a good number of its elected members to defect to APC.
The G-5 Governors insisted that the 2027 presidential ticket should be zoned to the South, and national chairmanship position to the North, for peace and inclusiveness, while some others, especially from the North, who wanted to hijack the party platform to pursue their 2027 presidential ambition thought otherwise.
This development brought about the lingering crisis and disagreements in the party until recently when some members, known for serial defection, joined the new coalition, under the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC).
No doubt, their defection to ADC has brought some stability, reconciliation and repositioning in the PDP, as the party, in its just-concluded National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, zoned the 2027 presidential ticket to the South and national chairmanship position to the North, in line and sync with the position of the G-5 Governors and what they have stood for before and after the 2023 general elections.
It is expected that with this development, the party’s leadership, bigwigs and members across the divide would form a common front ahead of the national convention in Ibadan, slated for November this year. This is because the coast is now very clear and every member knows the direction ahead of 2027 elections.
This cohesive development is expected to stem the tide of defections in the party, as well as strengthen and reposition it as the most formidable opposition party in the country ahead of the 2027 elections.