Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the first major political party of the Fourth Republic. It was destined to govern for 60 years, but eventually ended up governing for 16 years. It has always run short of its own expectations. There’s none of the original founders that ever became the President of the country. It’s not out of place to submit that the party never truly attained to the vision of its founding fathers.
As a result of the PDP being taken over by outsiders from day one, democratic institutions refused to grow as the party continued to age. The National Chairman of the party was seen as the subject of the President whom the President has the right to change at will. The first President produced by the PDP was a former military head of state who saw politicians as an undisciplined bunch of people who needed a tough hand to govern. He governed the party as a kingdom in which he served as a King. Indeed he changed the National Chairman of the party about five times within a period of eight years.
It was not surprising that at the twilight of his regime, he wanted a third term to continue his reign. His kingdom was groomed and flourishing. The sycophants around him convinced him that he would get the required majority to change the Constitution to achieve a third term. He failed, and that marked the beginning of the end of the Peoples Democratic Party, and the likelihood that the party may end its life’s journey in shame.
Obasanjo needed to purge the party of all anti-Obasanjo coalition against his third term agenda, and found a neutral, uninterested, unwell, and frail politician, in the name of Umaru Yar’Adua to take over the post of President after him. He, indeed, got back at some of the opponents of his third term agenda, like Atiku Abubakar, who was stopped from contesting the post of the President under PDP. Unknown to Obasanjo, he had kick-started the journey of the downfall of the PDP.
The first arrow Obasanjo received from the PDP, after the end of his regime, was when the party kicked him out from being the Chairman of the Board of Trustees immediately after his tenure as President. He obviously thought that he still wielded the power as President, before he learnt that as your time in office ends, so your influence on your subjects ends, except where the honour you have was earned, not commanded, when you were in office. The dictatorship he built in office was used against him after his stay in office.
President Umaru Yar’Adua was a gentleman. A visionary and a compassionate being. He was so honest that he publicly disowned the shameful, rigged election that brought him to power. He set out to tackle the ills of the society, but he died prematurely from an ailment which his predecessor in office knew he had, but which he overlooked to make him President. This further divided PDP as the post of the president suddenly fell to South South in the person of Goodluck Jonathan who succeeded Yar’Adua as President from his original Vice President position.
This further divided the PDP as the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan automatically broke the eight-year agreement between North and South. PDP has a constitution that prescribed that power should shift between North and South and among the six Geo-Political Zones. This is Section 7(3)(c) of the PDP Constitution. Unfortunately PDP couldn’t enforce its constitutional provisions in 2011 when the North was to complete its eight years in office after the untimely death of President Umaru Yar’Adua. This breach of their Constitution contributed to their decline.
In 2015, PDP reached the height of its lawlessness and breach of its Constitution. Goodluck Jonathan wanted to contest again in 2015, and the party couldn’t stop him. The party even declared openly that it had printed only one presidential nomination form for Goodluck Jonathan. For the avoidance of doubt, if Jonathan won the 2015 presidential election, the South would have spent 17 years in 2019 to the North’s 3 years. The inability of the PDP to ensure that it maintained the eight-year rotational agreement between North and South after the death of Yar’Adua was what killed the party.
In 2015, the northern establishment had to wreste power by political strategy to ensure that power returned to north. I recall Prof Ango Abdullahi pleading with the PDP to zone the presidential ticket to the north and whoever it chose from the north, he will support. Even President Obasanjo revealed that the agreement was for Jonathan to do only one term and hand over to the North, but PDP failed to implement this agreement. This intransigence made prominent members of the PDP to break out of the party, including Obasanjo, to support the APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, to defeat the presidential candidate of PDP, Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election. PDP ended its intransigence in shame and defeat, the first in history.
One would have thought that PDP would learn from this lesson and ensure that it respected its Constitution, but it wasn’t in its DNA. The 2023 presidential election was its last chance at resuscitation. By 2023, a President from northern extraction, had occupied the post for eight years. It was the time for the post to shift to the south. There’s one geo-political zone in Nigeria that has been loyal and faithful to PDP from 1999 to 2023 – the South-East. The South-West and South-South have produced Presidents from the PDP, but the South-East has not. The Samuel Ortom-led committee was mandated to zone political elective positions, including the post of the president among the six geo-political zones and between north and south. This would have been a straightforward matter, especially as the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led committee, earlier mandated to zone the party executive offices, came out with the verdict that all the party offices in the south should go north and vice versa. Unfortunately, Samuel Ortom came back with the shocking news – the post of the President should be thrown open for everyone to contest for, whether north or south. This was the greatest betrayal of all times. Even the plea by Atiku Abubakar that if the post of the president is zoned to South-East he will step aside from running for the post in 2023 did not make the Ortom committee to have a rethink.
The primary was held and every politician was allowed to compete. At the end of the day, PDP’s votes were divided among Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and Peter Obi, thereby giving Tinubu the official victory with 37 percent of the votes allocated to him by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In the lead to the presidential election, five PDP governors, called the G5, whose leader, Wike, lost the presidential ticket, and lost the bid for the vice presidential ticket, decided to do anti-party against the candidacy of their party by supporting the presidential candidate of the APC. After the allocated victory to APC, the leader of the G5 was appointed the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister.
Effectively, this makes him the highest ranking political member of the PDP, being a member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and thus places him advantageously to become the leader of the PDP. He had come out to declare openly that he will support the candidacy of the APC presidential candidate in the 2027 presidential election. This puts paid to the prospect of the PDP presenting any meaningful presidential candidate or contest against APC in 2027.
In preparation for the emasculation of the PDP, the leader of PDP, Wike, had clutched to the position of the Secretary General and insisted that his candidate, Samuel Anyanwu, must assume the position. This was after the entire South-East insisted that Ude-Okoye should be the next Secretary General or they would pull out of the party. The party of course rubbished the entire South-East and preferred to go with their leader, Wike. Today, Samuel Anyanwu is the Secretary General of PDP to complete the shame of an era.
This action has reduced the PDP to an Almajiri Party where the students in the Madrasa listen to their principal to obey his commands without thinking or objecting, leading to shameful outcomes. What can be more shameful for PDP than the fact that they could not afford the ground rent of their rented apartment. A party that was the ruling party for 16 years could not become a landlord of the property it is occupying or build its own. Worse still, they are relying on the same Wike, who has endorsed Tinubu for 2027, to pay for the ground rent as the Almajiris beg around with plates for money to feed. It’s not that there are no wealthy politicians in PDP who can pay the ground rent, but no reasonable politician in PDP wants to invest in the party any longer. The shame on the party had come full circle.
The exit of the most powerful leaders of the PDP, including Atiku Abubakar, has put a nail on the coffin of PDP. The Almajiri political remnants in the PDP belong to the two major political parties in Nigeria. They are either working for the APC or working for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and none is working for the PDP. The argument of those working for the ADC is that if Wike can be in PDP and be working for APC without consequences, they can also be in the PDP and be working for the ADC. This is the greatest sign that not only is PDP dead, its dying shamefully, and the whole world cannot wait to consign this shame of an era to the dustbin of history.
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