For the past six years, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was at the helm of affairs of the country for 16 years, has been battling for survival.
Daily Trust reports that the political misfortunes of the PDP started in 2013/2014 when top shots of the party formed an alliance with others to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Four times, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, the party won the presidential elections and occupied the Presidential Villa, Abuja until 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC walloped the then sitting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who was PDP’s flag bearer.
The defeat of Jonathan by Buhari ended the 16 years reign of the PDP. Before then, many stalwarts of the party had boasted that they would be in power for decades. In fact, in 2008, the then national chairman of the party, Vincent Ogbulafor, said they would occupy the presidency for 60 years.
Since then, the fortunes of the PDP have been sliding. Many of the party’s stalwarts who played key roles in its victories in previous elections are now in APC.
Only last year, two of the party’s sitting governors – Ben Ayade (Cross River) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) – moved over to APC. It would be recalled that Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State in 2020 also joined APC when he jettisoned PDP.
With 13 governors in its kitty, PDP has been swimming in crises until the recently conducted national convention that brought in a new crop National Working Committee (NWC) under the leadership of a former Senate president, Iyorchia Ayu.
Like in 2015, the party which says it is working to sack the APC in 2023 is still faced with the challenge of zoning. It’s a battle between the stalwarts of the party in the northern and southern parts of the country.
Pundits have insisted that the jettisoning of the zoning arrangement of the party in 2015 was one of the key factors that worked in favour of the APC.
There are reports that former President Jonathan is on his way to the APC to fly the party’s ticket in 2023. This is just as former Vice President Namadi Sambo is accused of not contributing much to the party in North West geopolitical zone and Kaduna where he hails from, party sources told Daily Trust.
How has the party fared? Will it bounce back in 2023? University dons and political scientists spoke on these.
PDP has not done well – Prof Kari
An Associate Professor of Political Sociology, University of Abuja, Dr Abubakar Umar Kari, said PDP has not done well as a leading opposition political party in the country.
He said President Buhari’s main opposition actually came from his own party for the greater part of his first term.
Kari said, “PDP has no option but to put its acts together, mobilise and challenge APC robustly, stoutly and meaningfully”.
This, he added, it must do at all levels and at all times, if it is serious about wresting power, and for the sake of democratic consolidation.
“For me, PDP has not done well as the major opposition party in the last six years. Immediately after its defeat in 2015, it plunged into a deep and protracted leadership crisis (between the Sheriff and Makarfi factions), which was only resolved by the Supreme Court.
“The judgment was a kind of a lifeline for the party, but it did not bounce back as spectacularly as one would have expected.
“For some time, the APC was given so much breather despite its glaring underperformance and blunders. For the greater part of PMB’s first term, his main opposition actually came from his own party, especially the Senate and House of Representatives led by Saraki and Dogara respectively,” he said.
He said PDP stalwarts appeared to be largely unwilling or even unable to pose any credible opposition.
“They simply lacked the moral courage or were afraid of their past. Except in the build-up to the 2019 elections, PDP hardly put up any serious challenge.
“After they lost the elections again, there has been a relapse into inactivity, apart from occasional press releases by erstwhile publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
“Opposition is quite necessary and desirable for democracy to grow and prosper,” he said.
Why PDP failed — Prof Olasupo
Prof. Mutiullah Olasupo, Director, Institute for Peace, Leadership and Development Studies, University of Abuja, pointed out reasons why PDP members have been unable to voice opposition to the APC-led government.
He said playing the role of opposition became a strange role for PDP because it had been the ruling party in Nigeria since the restoration of democracy from 1999 to 2015.
He said for the past six years, PDP found it difficult to understand opposition information management in Nigerian politics, stressing that “most of its statements are not credible and empirical. In most cases, its publicity secretary lacks the sophisticated political language to use.”
He nonetheless said PDP started “strongly” by always “checking” on the APC administration by issuing a statement or addressing a press conference on policy matters almost on daily basis.
On his part, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, Executive Director at Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), toed the line of Professor Olasupo.
He said PDP found itself in an “unfamiliar territory of being the opposition” after losing the 2015 general elections.
There is need for pragmatic action from PDP – CSO
Tunde Salman, the Convener, Good Governance Team (GGT) Nigeria, said with PDP as the longest-standing political party in terms of history in the Fourth Republic and could boast of more than 20 years of existence, Nigerians should be able to see pragmatic action from the leading opposition party.
He said: “I would have loved to see a much stronger political party, better run in terms of administration, and knows how to gather different interests.
“For me, I would have wanted that kind of political party to look beyond elections. I have seen a lot of their energized actions when an election is around the corner, which is for every political party.”
“They should go beyond focusing on power-sharing by helping to build a democratic culture.”
We’ve given legitimate opposition to APC – BoT member
A former minister of Police Affairs, Adamu Maina Waziri, said PDP has done well as an opposition party within the context of the socio-political environment of the country, saying they have given legitimate opposition to the government in power.
Maina, a Board of Trustees (BoT) member of the PDP, said;” If people are saying the opposition party should be radical, we are going to end up in disintegrating this country. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, the PDP has taken a stance that Yoruba will call ‘surulere’ because we should first have a Nigeria before we could have something like a party in power and parties in the opposition.
“Even though we want to attain power, we should not compound the problems of the country to such an extent that there will be no country again. You see, we must realise that we are politicians who know that the losers have two choices – to accept the results or challenge the results in the competent court of law.
“The PDP challenged the results in the court of law, the court of law confirmed the electoral results as announced by INEC. Whether we like it or not, the government will be in power for four years. Then, it will be good to allow the government to stay since we don’t have further challenges to operate.”
On 2023, he said, “ the moment we go to the mid of 2022, when the environment will be full of political or electoral contests, then, people will now see that the PDP will gear up, we will examine what the APC has done, to disclose the failure of the ruling party in addressing some issues, and the ones it has also inflicted on the country.” (Daily Trust)
