Against
the backdrop of the many challenges confronting the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) following its ouster from federal power at the 2015 general
election, KUNLE ODEREMI writes on the battle by the party to rediscover
itself.
WHERE
are the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? The
self-touted ‘biggest party in Africa’ needs their uncommon wisdom in
its quest to rise after a big fall. Can the young Turks whom fate has
thrown up as to act as a bridge mend the umbrella?
For PDP, the road to self-rediscovery appears tortuous and filled with thorns. Its difficulty in trying to find its bearing is not as a result of the defeat PDP suffered during the last general election, the first of its kind in 17 unbroken years as the governing party in the most populous Black nation. The crisis is more about the dearth of those that constitute the bulwark of its redemption; personalities that can serve as catalysts in the process of amending the broken umbrella.
The beginning
At inception, the PDP was not just a political party; it was indeed a mass movement with the intimidating presence of a moving train. The precursor of the movement was a coalition of 18 eminent persons from across the country, which later expanded in membership to 34. Like a hurricane, the impact of the new political movement was evident even before it transformed to the PDP.
One big arrowhead of the rainbow coalition that formed the PDP was Second Republic Vice president, Dr Alex Ekwueme. The list of the founding fathers include late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Audu Ogbe, late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, late Chief Solomon Lar, Iro Alhaji Abubakar, and Alhaji Dan Musa. Others are: Professor Ango Abdullahi, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, Ambassador Aminu Wali, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande and Professor Jibril Aminu.
Others were Professor Iya Abubakar, Alhaji Bello Kirfi, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Professor Daniel Saror, Dr. Sulaiman Kumo, Iyochia Ayu, Chief Tom Ikimi, Alhaji Isiyaku Ibrahim, Senator Walid Jibril, Dr. Garba Nadama, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Chief Abubakar Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Sani Zangon Daura, Chief Antohny Anenih, Alhaji Musa Musawa, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Professor Jerry Gana, Colonel Ahmadu Ali. Late Chief Bola ige, who was party of the G-34, along with other like minds, opted out to form the Alliance for Democracy (AD) after fusion talks with the All Peoples Party (APP) collapsed. Ige was also driven by his presidential ambition.
Its policies
From 1999 until 2015, PDP dominated the nation politically. It operated a mixture of free-market and left-leaning policies, beginning from the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo whose Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was able to secure debt forgiveness for Nigeria. The debts had piled up during military rule. The PDP was also known for deregulation and privatization of numerous industries in Nigerian services sector, notably the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) industry. On the other hand, the PDP adopted a measure of left-wing policies. For instance, in 2005, the then President Obasanjo launched Nigeria’s first National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ensure that every Nigerian has access to basic health care services. The party also launched the Universal Basic Education policy.
However, the organised labour was often critical of its free market policies, while also frowning at the lavish lifestyles of its members in various positions within the polity.
Still, the PDP, propelled in part by the regionalist basis of its main challengers, was able to hang on to power, until the 2015 general election when it crumbled before the superior firepower of the All Progressives Congress, made up susbtantially of breakaway PDP factions and elements of its main challengers since 1999. Its candidate and incumbent president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was defeated by General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC by 2.6 million votes, out of approximately 28.6 million valid votes cast. Buhari won in 21 states while Jonathan won in 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The loss of power at the centre considerably weakened the party, particularly as some of its members began to pour into the APC following the general election. In a recent interview with Sunday Tribune, one of the former PDP chieftains who joined the APC ahead of the 2015 elections, Chief Segun Oni, insisted that the APC could not but be happy with the continuing influx of PDP faithful into it. Thus, the centre appears to be unable to hold for the PDP.
While quite a number of those that formed the staying power of the party have transited to the world beyond, many others are still alive. Whereas some of the elders have not renounced their membership of the party, their stance of siddon-look as the party gasps for resuscitation has created crevices.
Ekwueme, who should serve as a pathfinder, has chosen to simmer down. This how he once recalled the underlining philosophy behind the formation of the PDP in 1998: “The idea of the party was not that it would be an ordinary party, it was intended to be a mass movement; that’s why I said everybody should come on board, including people who were fraternising with erstwhile military head of state Sani] Abacha.”
The setbacks
A major setback for the PDP over the years is the substantial loss of those powerful and influential founding fathers to rival political parties. The ugly phenomenon began under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose perceived unnecessary overbearing influence led to an implosion within the then ruling PDP. His intransigence exacerbated crises that made the leadership turn over at the PDP national headquarters, as well as the Senate and House of Representatives, a malignant growth. The consequent instability led to the exit of some founding of fathers of the PDP such as Chief Ogbeh and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,while many others to had a rethink over their continued membership of the party. Some joined the then APP, which later became the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), just as a number of PDP stalwarts teamed up with other politicians to form new parties from the splinter of the AD.
Beyond the eminent persons from the civilian population that conferred relative adavantage on the party within the nation’s political space was a galaxy of retired top military brass. Many of them had been circulated within the corridors of power dating back to the collapsed of the Second Republic. The names included:- Ibrahim Babangida (former President 1985-93) -- Aliyu Mohammed (former National Security Advisor under Obasanjo, 2007 PDP presidential aspirant, rumored to potentially be Yar’Adua’s choice for Presidency Chief of Staff replacing Abdullahi Muhammed) -- Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (former Chief of Army Staff from 1975-79, former Minister of Defense under Obasanjo) and Chief Samuel Ogbemudia.
All these-generals, almost with the full complements of their foot soldiers, had as back up, the presence of by another class of other personalities like Chief Anenih, who was leading figure in the the formidable political machinery founded by late Major General Musa Yar’Adua and and Chief Ojo Maduekwe.
Today, the emotional and physical attachment most of these men to the PDP seems to have diminished. Only recently, a former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, who served in the National Assembly during the Obasanjo administration, has called quits with the PDP. The party also appears to have suffered a serious deficit in the quantum of real power brokers across majority of the six geopolitical zones in the country. It is only the South-East and the South-South that the PDP apparently can boast of having a relative firm grip, though it has two governors in the South-West , as well as two out of the 19 governors in the northern part of the country. The wound inflicted by the exit of five governors elected on its platform preparatory to the 2015 general election, has not healed. Nonetheless, the PDP has young Turks like Senator Godswill Akpabio, as well as Governors Nyesom Wike, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Ayo Fayose, Hassan Dankwambo, and Darius Ishiaku of Rivers, Ondo, Ekiti, Gombe and Taraba to serve as the veritable source of inspiration and support base.
Among those seeking to occupy its chairmanship seat are Ahmed Gulak, a former aide to Jonathan. Gulak, a former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, is up against Professor Rufai Alkali Gombe, a former PDP national publicity secretary. Alkali it was who replaced Gulak as Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Jonathan. Also in contention is the immediate past Minister of the FCT, Dr Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); former national vice chairman (North-East) Senator Paul Wampana; Ambassador Iliya Damagum, Senator Sa’idu Kumo, Abdulahi Jalo and a former Minister of State, Mohammed Wakil. .
There is also the current PDP national vice chairman (North-East), Senator Girgir Lawan, who recently convened the North-East stakeholders’ meeting to nominate a chairmanship candidate. Wilberforce Juta, a former governor of old Gongola State, has also thrown his hat into the ring.
Against all expectations, the elders of the party are still locked in a battle of wits over who leads the PDP. All tendencies that have been throwing spanner at the works are at one another’s throat thus threatening the project of amending the torn umbrella. Yet, the party cannot remain rudderless. How the leadership issue is sorted out in the following months will no doubt impact significantly on the fortunes of the party, ahead of the all-important 2019 elections.
For PDP, the road to self-rediscovery appears tortuous and filled with thorns. Its difficulty in trying to find its bearing is not as a result of the defeat PDP suffered during the last general election, the first of its kind in 17 unbroken years as the governing party in the most populous Black nation. The crisis is more about the dearth of those that constitute the bulwark of its redemption; personalities that can serve as catalysts in the process of amending the broken umbrella.
The beginning
At inception, the PDP was not just a political party; it was indeed a mass movement with the intimidating presence of a moving train. The precursor of the movement was a coalition of 18 eminent persons from across the country, which later expanded in membership to 34. Like a hurricane, the impact of the new political movement was evident even before it transformed to the PDP.
One big arrowhead of the rainbow coalition that formed the PDP was Second Republic Vice president, Dr Alex Ekwueme. The list of the founding fathers include late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Audu Ogbe, late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, late Chief Solomon Lar, Iro Alhaji Abubakar, and Alhaji Dan Musa. Others are: Professor Ango Abdullahi, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, Ambassador Aminu Wali, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande and Professor Jibril Aminu.
Others were Professor Iya Abubakar, Alhaji Bello Kirfi, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Professor Daniel Saror, Dr. Sulaiman Kumo, Iyochia Ayu, Chief Tom Ikimi, Alhaji Isiyaku Ibrahim, Senator Walid Jibril, Dr. Garba Nadama, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Chief Abubakar Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Sani Zangon Daura, Chief Antohny Anenih, Alhaji Musa Musawa, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Professor Jerry Gana, Colonel Ahmadu Ali. Late Chief Bola ige, who was party of the G-34, along with other like minds, opted out to form the Alliance for Democracy (AD) after fusion talks with the All Peoples Party (APP) collapsed. Ige was also driven by his presidential ambition.
Its policies
From 1999 until 2015, PDP dominated the nation politically. It operated a mixture of free-market and left-leaning policies, beginning from the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo whose Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was able to secure debt forgiveness for Nigeria. The debts had piled up during military rule. The PDP was also known for deregulation and privatization of numerous industries in Nigerian services sector, notably the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) industry. On the other hand, the PDP adopted a measure of left-wing policies. For instance, in 2005, the then President Obasanjo launched Nigeria’s first National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ensure that every Nigerian has access to basic health care services. The party also launched the Universal Basic Education policy.
However, the organised labour was often critical of its free market policies, while also frowning at the lavish lifestyles of its members in various positions within the polity.
Still, the PDP, propelled in part by the regionalist basis of its main challengers, was able to hang on to power, until the 2015 general election when it crumbled before the superior firepower of the All Progressives Congress, made up susbtantially of breakaway PDP factions and elements of its main challengers since 1999. Its candidate and incumbent president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was defeated by General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC by 2.6 million votes, out of approximately 28.6 million valid votes cast. Buhari won in 21 states while Jonathan won in 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The loss of power at the centre considerably weakened the party, particularly as some of its members began to pour into the APC following the general election. In a recent interview with Sunday Tribune, one of the former PDP chieftains who joined the APC ahead of the 2015 elections, Chief Segun Oni, insisted that the APC could not but be happy with the continuing influx of PDP faithful into it. Thus, the centre appears to be unable to hold for the PDP.
While quite a number of those that formed the staying power of the party have transited to the world beyond, many others are still alive. Whereas some of the elders have not renounced their membership of the party, their stance of siddon-look as the party gasps for resuscitation has created crevices.
Ekwueme, who should serve as a pathfinder, has chosen to simmer down. This how he once recalled the underlining philosophy behind the formation of the PDP in 1998: “The idea of the party was not that it would be an ordinary party, it was intended to be a mass movement; that’s why I said everybody should come on board, including people who were fraternising with erstwhile military head of state Sani] Abacha.”
The setbacks
A major setback for the PDP over the years is the substantial loss of those powerful and influential founding fathers to rival political parties. The ugly phenomenon began under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose perceived unnecessary overbearing influence led to an implosion within the then ruling PDP. His intransigence exacerbated crises that made the leadership turn over at the PDP national headquarters, as well as the Senate and House of Representatives, a malignant growth. The consequent instability led to the exit of some founding of fathers of the PDP such as Chief Ogbeh and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,while many others to had a rethink over their continued membership of the party. Some joined the then APP, which later became the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), just as a number of PDP stalwarts teamed up with other politicians to form new parties from the splinter of the AD.
Beyond the eminent persons from the civilian population that conferred relative adavantage on the party within the nation’s political space was a galaxy of retired top military brass. Many of them had been circulated within the corridors of power dating back to the collapsed of the Second Republic. The names included:- Ibrahim Babangida (former President 1985-93) -- Aliyu Mohammed (former National Security Advisor under Obasanjo, 2007 PDP presidential aspirant, rumored to potentially be Yar’Adua’s choice for Presidency Chief of Staff replacing Abdullahi Muhammed) -- Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (former Chief of Army Staff from 1975-79, former Minister of Defense under Obasanjo) and Chief Samuel Ogbemudia.
All these-generals, almost with the full complements of their foot soldiers, had as back up, the presence of by another class of other personalities like Chief Anenih, who was leading figure in the the formidable political machinery founded by late Major General Musa Yar’Adua and and Chief Ojo Maduekwe.
Today, the emotional and physical attachment most of these men to the PDP seems to have diminished. Only recently, a former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, who served in the National Assembly during the Obasanjo administration, has called quits with the PDP. The party also appears to have suffered a serious deficit in the quantum of real power brokers across majority of the six geopolitical zones in the country. It is only the South-East and the South-South that the PDP apparently can boast of having a relative firm grip, though it has two governors in the South-West , as well as two out of the 19 governors in the northern part of the country. The wound inflicted by the exit of five governors elected on its platform preparatory to the 2015 general election, has not healed. Nonetheless, the PDP has young Turks like Senator Godswill Akpabio, as well as Governors Nyesom Wike, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Ayo Fayose, Hassan Dankwambo, and Darius Ishiaku of Rivers, Ondo, Ekiti, Gombe and Taraba to serve as the veritable source of inspiration and support base.
Among those seeking to occupy its chairmanship seat are Ahmed Gulak, a former aide to Jonathan. Gulak, a former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, is up against Professor Rufai Alkali Gombe, a former PDP national publicity secretary. Alkali it was who replaced Gulak as Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Jonathan. Also in contention is the immediate past Minister of the FCT, Dr Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); former national vice chairman (North-East) Senator Paul Wampana; Ambassador Iliya Damagum, Senator Sa’idu Kumo, Abdulahi Jalo and a former Minister of State, Mohammed Wakil. .
There is also the current PDP national vice chairman (North-East), Senator Girgir Lawan, who recently convened the North-East stakeholders’ meeting to nominate a chairmanship candidate. Wilberforce Juta, a former governor of old Gongola State, has also thrown his hat into the ring.
Against all expectations, the elders of the party are still locked in a battle of wits over who leads the PDP. All tendencies that have been throwing spanner at the works are at one another’s throat thus threatening the project of amending the torn umbrella. Yet, the party cannot remain rudderless. How the leadership issue is sorted out in the following months will no doubt impact significantly on the fortunes of the party, ahead of the all-important 2019 elections.
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