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Gale of defections and PDP’s future

*Underrate us at your peril –PDP *Nigerians want us back -Atiku

Razaq Bamidele

Before the table turned against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, the party had been in power in the country for 16 years. The party was so formidable that its leadership tagged it the biggest single political party in Africa.

 

Its members were so confident to the extent of boasting that the party would be in power for, at least, 60 uninterrupted years. And truly, for 16 years, the party bestrode the country’s political landscape like a colossus. The party was solidly on the ground, playing the Lord of the Manor role while other opposition parties appeared to be content with the second fiddle positions.

 

It was not until when other political parties put on their thinking caps and came together in an alliance to form a coalition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), that the touted 60 years life span of the PDP was terminated at 16.

 

Other opposition political parties, that fused together to ease the PDP out of power in 2015 were the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Congress for Progressive Citizens (CPC). And, since 2015, the then ruling PDP has started playing a reversal role to the former opposition parties.

 

Ten years two months on, the hope of regaining the lost power at the centre by the PDP seems to be dimming by every passing hour, no thanks to the gale of defections hitting the party hard and proper.

In the recent time, three state governors from the stable of the PDP defected to the ruling APC, giving the impression that, by 2023, the PDP house should have become empty and deserted.

 

Insinuating this recently was no other personality than the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina. In one of his articles, Adesina had insinuated that “PDP may become empty before 2023.”

 

In the widely circulated piece, entitled: ‘Speaking to PDP in the language it understands,’ Adesina said whenever the party makes any gain, all is well. He said, however, that when the party suffers any setback, it will scream blue murder.

 

His words: “The opposition Peoples Democratic Party is being spoken to in the language it understands. And it is screaming blue murder.

“PDP is being ravaged and savaged politically, and if care is not taken, the party could become an empty shell before 2023. The vessel is leaking, and taking in water massively. It may scream ‘May Day, May Day’ soon and evacuate.”

“The irony of it is that whenever the PDP is making gains politically, all is jolly well and good. But when it suffers reversals, then, democracy is threatened in the country.”

One does not need any interpreter to understand what the president’s spokesman is talking about. It is clearly on record that recently in quick succession, three governors from under the umbrella of the PDP defected to the broom-wielding party, the APC. And with this development, PDP position on the ranking table has moved from 15 states to 12 while the APC moved from 19 to 22 states with the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), retaining only one state – Anambra.

The three new entrants into the APC from PDP are Governors David Umahi, Ben Ayade and Bello Matawalle of Ebonyi, Cross River and Zamfara states, respectively.

Besides the three governors, there are some other party chieftains that either followed them to the APC from within the PDP or defected to the APC from other parties on their own volition. For instance, Speaker of the Cross River House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Eteng Jonah-Williams, along with his other colleagues moved to the APC with his boss, Ayade.

 

From the outset in Cross River State, the APC, ironically has 18 out of the 25-member legislative house, leaving the ruling PDP with just seven members.

In Zamfara State, the National Secretary of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Sani Shinkafi, also defected to the APC, saying his defection was to support Governor Bello Matawalle in rebuilding Zamfara State. Shinkafi was the APGA governorship flag bearer in the state during the 2019 general elections.

“I am joining Matawalle in APC, with the APGA structure in the state and 14 local government areas of the state. I am not joining APC for material gains. I am joining Matawalle to develop my state.

“I am leaving APGA not because I don’t like the party, but I am also leaving APGA in order to join Matawalle in the APC to rebuild Zamfara State,” Shinkafi was quoted to have disclosed at a press conference in Gusau, Zamfara State capital.

As things stand now in the country, the APC is controlling 22 states, with PDP governing 13 and APGA, one (1).

The table at a glance:

 

APC states (22)

 

Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, kaduna, kebbi, Kogi, Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, Imo, Katsina, Niger, Ondo, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kwara, Ebonyi, Cross River and Zamfara.

 

PDP states (13)

 

Abia, Enugu, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo, Adamawa, Sokoto, Taraba, Benue, Bauchi, Oyo, Delta.

 

APGA state (1)

 

Anambra.

 

The table may change before 2023 if there is any upset in the coming governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states later this year and mid-2022.

 

For Osun State, the PDP state chairman, Hon. Sunday Bisi, is optimistic that his party would win it saying, “the margin would be so wide that there would be no room for any kangaroo by-election.

 

In the case of Oyo State currently under the control of the PDP, the South-west zonal Secretary of the APC, Mr. Ayo Afolabi, regretted that the PDP won the state by default, asserting that the state would come back to the progressive camp where it rightly belongs in 2023.

 

Exuding confidence, Afolabi declared that there is no room for any opposition party in the South-west, enthusing that rather than lose any inch of the region to the opposition, APC would rather extend its territory to the enclaves of the opposition parties between now and 2023.

 

But when contacted for his reaction, the spokesman of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, just dismissed all the insinuations with a wave of the hand, saying “the so-called gale of defections from the PDP is a media creation”, which he described as, “not normal.”

 

According to him, you cannot describe defection of just three governors out of 16 as a “gale,” insinuating that anybody, who underrates his party towards the 2023 general election does so at his own peril.

 

Going down memory lane, the vocal national publicity secretary reminded that the PDP defeated the APC in Bauchi, Adamawa and Imo states in the last election, “before they went through the back door to steal it (Imo State),” adding that the PDP also won Oyo State from the ruling APC.

 

“We achieved all these through the people in whom power resides and they are determined to repeat the same in 2023 because of the mass failure of the APC.” He lamented that the PDP would have achieved more if not for the APC’s legal rascality.

 

Also contributing to the discourse, former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, toed Ologbodiyan’s line of thinking, saying that Nigerians are eagerly waiting for the PDP come back in 2023.

Atiku was reported to have said that when he met with Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in Port Harcourt to reconcile their differences ahead of the 2023 general elections. He confirmed that his visit was basically on party affairs.

A statement by Governor Wike’s Special Assistant Media, Kelvin Ebiri, said Atiku spent some time with Governor Wike, reconciling touching issues, bordering on how to ensure unity and stability in PDP to enable the party clinch electoral victory in 2023.

“Nigerians were waiting eagerly for PDP to take over power at the federal level in 2023,” he asserted.

In Atiku’s words: “Well, I came here to reconcile with the governor on party affairs and how we can ensure that there is unity and stability in the party, so, we can take over government in 2023.

“I believe Nigerians can’t wait for 2023 to come so that PDP will return.”

The former vice president hinged his conviction on the prevailing insecurity in the country, saying the PDP at the appropriate time would unveil its policies on how it would address the issue.

He spoke further: “I have never seen it (insecurity) this bad. I am 70 years plus; I have never seen it this bad in terms of security challenges, in terms of economy, in terms of unemployment. This is the worst.

“Why can’t you give us time? We will come up with our policies. We will present them to Nigerians when the time comes. We have done that before. Under PDP, we recorded the highest economic growth, the best foreign reserves; we reduced unemployment. You know that we can do it.”

The same sentiment was expressed by the PDP Governors’ Forum in their recent meeting in Makurdi where they admitted that the PDP could still come to power in 2023 if Nigerians are convinced that the current administration in the country has failed and could not be remedied.

The Forum believed that, if it could work into the mind of the people of Nigeria that PDP is surely the alternative, the coast would be clear for its comeback.

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