The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is having a filled day over a protracted crisis rocking the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But having a situation where a single political party controls the government and without checks is not in the interest of Ekiti people, AYODELE AFOLABI writes.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has been confronted with several crises that has left the party’s umbrella in tatters . Now, there is no solid structure of the once vibrant party in the state. What is more, the party does not have any elected representatives in any tier of government.

Looking back at how the rain started beating the PDP, many quickly recalled the supremacy battle between the camps of former governor Ayodele Fayose and Senator Biodun Olujimi. However, the crisis appears to have festered beyond these political dramatis personae and assumed a life of its own.

Today, the party is totally in disarray. Most of the leaders of the party are either sitting on the fence or have surreptitiously supported APC and Governor Biodun Oyebanji, while the majority of members are rudderless like sheep without shepherd.

In another clime where political patronage is next to a vocation, many members are grasping for breath of survival and wondering how long they would remain in the political wilderness foisted on them by their leaders.

Members at the grassroots level and other stakeholders, who could not join the APC, are said to be blaming their political loss in the 2022 governorship election in an embarrassing and unprecedented form, coming third behind the Social Democratic Party (SDP), to the handiwork of Fayose, who was said to have allegedly sold out to the APC.

As if that was not enough, the state PDP found itself at the crossroads in the count down to the general election. The leaders completely worked at cross-purposes following the sharp division that has become the lot of the party. In the last general election, while Fayose and his group openly worked for the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, others pitched their tent with the candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubarkar. Predictably, the party got a bloody nose as Tinubu coasted home to victory. PDP lost all the three senatorial seats, the six seats in the House of Representatives and the 26 seats in the state House of Assembly.

Under Iyorchia Ayu as substantive chairman, there was little or nothing done to revive the party. The Ayu-led leadership took some decisions including suspension of Fayose group in the state chapter. However, the acting chairman, Umar Damagum lifted the suspension for “new spirit and necessity of reconciliation, unity and harmony in our party at this critical time.”

The move, however, did not provide any enduring succour to the lingering crisis as the sacked state working committee of the party, which constitutes mostly loyalists of Fayose rejected the dissolution and headed for the court to seek redress.

In the last seven months, the Lare Omolase-led executives whose tenure is expected to lapse in 2024 joined the NWC, the caretaker committee as defendants in the suit filed at the high court. The suit further widened the gulf in the party as the tendencies battled it out in the courtroom for the soul of the PDP in the state.

This state of affairs not only was the last straw, it has taken its toll on the party in playing its role of opposition to the ruling APC administration of Biodun Oyebanji in the state. Due to the tide in PDP, many stakeholders in APC, including the former Governor, Dr KayodeFayemi have on several occasions, declared Ekiti as a one-party state.

In fact, Fayose has been unrelenting in declaring his unflinching support for Governor Oyebanji. His loyalist and the party governorship candidate in 2022, Mr Bisi Kolawole, has also been unequivocal in his support for Oyebanji. Following this development, and the fact that many other mushroom political parties have since folded up, there is no known opposition in the state to keep the APC administration in check.

The Sodiq Obanoyen-led caretaker committee has remained invisible and inactive in the politics of opposition to the APC.

Many chieftains of the APC have also expressed disappointment at the turn of events in the opposition party. To them, the ruling government can be put on the spot to deliver on its campaign promises with constructive criticism from the opposition party.

As the legal fireworks and the lull in the party continues, the caretaker committee recently convened a stakeholders meeting in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, where leaders and members of the party from the 16 Local Government Areas of the state brainstormed on the challenges and proffered solutions to the issues.

Those in attendance included former chairmen of the party, Gboyega Oguntuase and Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe. The South-West zonal publicity secretary, Chief Sanya Atofarati, representatives of PDP Central Working Committee and State Executives were also in attendance. Top on resolutions from the meeting was the stakeholders’ call on the NWC to expel Fayose from the PDP in order for the state chapter of the party to come back to life again.

The resolutions, which was signed by the caretaker publicity secretary, Chief Olalekan Amerijoye read: “Attendees unabashedly addressed the issue of former Governor Ayodele Fayose, who, on multiple occasions, declared the demise of PDP in Ekiti and openly pledged eight years of consecutive governance to the ruling party, APC; to counteract this detrimental narrative, stakeholders called upon PDP’s national body to expel Fayose from the party. They firmly believed that his conduct not only undermined PDP’s standing in Ekiti State but also tarnished her reputation nationwide.

“Even when many political observers are lamenting the lot of the party and its inability to play the role of opposition, Fayose in the company of former governors of the state, Adeniyi Adebayo and Fayemi, publicly endorsed Oyebanji, who has just completed a year in office for second term in office.”

The three former governors who spoke through Fayose said they have reviewed Oyebanji’s one year in office and believe he deserved a second term, having united every political and religious tendencies in the state and mobilised people for massive development.

They all gave their backing to Governor Oyebanji at a special thanksgiving service organised to mark the first anniversary of his administration which was held at the Cathedral Church of Emmanuel Okesa, Ado Ekiti and attended by eminent personalities from all walks of life.

Fayose said: “We are all together for Abiodun Oyebanji, I am not a member of your party (APC) and I will not be. I am with you (Oyebanji) 100 per cent.

“Where is Bisi K (Chief Bisi Kolawole, PDP governorship candidate)? We are going to support you (Oyebanji), you have come to visit me in my house several times. You are doing it differently and you will get a different result. This church will pray for you and you will do it a second time.”

Fayose said the old practice in Ekiti State was more of sitting governor witch-hunting the predecessor. “When I was here I was after Fayemi, when Fayemi was here he too was witch- hunting me. But you are doing it differently. You have united all of us and your performance is superlative.

“On your matter, all of us are unanimous in our support for you. You are doing well; your leadership style is different and I am not surprised your performance has been excellent. Ekiti will do well to have you for eight years. And all of us will support and mobilise for you to achieve that.

“I am not at your party, and some people will say it is too early. It is not too early. You have done well and you deserve two terms so that Ekiti will benefit from your purposeful leadership.”  After Fayose’s speech, Adebayo said: “This is our position, the former governors. Thank you very much.”

For Segun Oni, he appears to be a lone ranger. Recalled, that barely one month after the Supreme Court decided the Ekiti governorship election in favour of the incumbent governor, he visited Oni and pleaded with to return to APC.

Oni, who said the meeting was the best he had attended this year in view of the sincerity of the governor, stressed the need to build a virile Ekiti State based on unity of purpose because Ekiti was already left behind among comity of states and all hands should be on deck to reposition the state. He however, left the Governor guessing what his next line of action would be.

However, despite the plea of the governor, feelers have emerged that Oni will likely return to the PDP. He did not partake in the endorsement of Oyebanji. He was said to still be nursing his governorship ambition and was ready to take the last shot on the platform of the PDP in 2026. An associate of Oni, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the former governor couldn’t be part of such an endorsement, especially because he hoped to confront Oyebanji once more in 2026.

Though the endorsement of Oyebanji by the former governors didn’t come to many political watchers in the state by surprise, some are wondering the basis for such an endorsement when the governor has only spent one out of four years in office. They contended that such action could end up doing greater harm than good. Some are of the opinion that they should have waited till the last year of the governor in office, noting that they felt that praising someone who has just started a race may distract him from delivering dividends of democracy to the people.