With the defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, his appointees, and all elective political office holders in the state elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the PDP has finally lost its grip on the South East geo-political zone, placing it as a party that came, held sway but failed to manage its success in the zone, LAWRENCE NJOKU writes.
Like a pack of unarranged cards, the once famous and populous reign and dominance of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the South East zone of the country has been put on hold exactly 26 years after the party came to political limelight.
The PDP had been around since 1999, following the restoration of democratic rule in the country. In fact, the return to civil rule popularised the party such that it took control of the five South East states, producing the governors as well as the National and State Assembly members. The fame and dominance of the party grew so strong that its leaders boasted that it remained the largest political gathering in Africa and was bound to rule for about 60 years.
However, last Tuesday, October 14, what used to be known as a “dominant” PDP was reduced to the rubbles when the only governor it produced in the South East during the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Mbah of Enugu State, dumped the party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mbah led the entire political structure of the state, including National and State Assembly members, local council chairmen, councilors and appointees into the APC, sealing the end of PDP’s dominance in the state. While adducing reasons for his defection, Mbah stated that the state had stood for the PDP for decades, but regretted that opinions and suggestions of stakeholders on issues bothering the party in the state were disregarded.
A Fall Foretold
THE first sign that all was not well with the party was during the 1999 presidential election in which former president Olusegun Obasanjo became the party’s flag bearer against former vice president, Alex Ekwueme, who worked hard to put the party together. Those who worked with Ekwueme to ensure the birth of the party and its strong footing in the South East had then warned against the attitude of the leadership.
For instance, the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo had once lamented some unpleasant developments in the party when he warned that the PDP “pays good deeds with bad coins.” Okadigbo was lamenting the denial of Ekwueme the opportunity to fly the party’s flag as its presidential candidate in the 1999 elections after his personal efforts and sacrifices in summoning the G-34 that eventually metamorphosed to the PDP. Ekwueme was reportedly sabotaged at the Jos presidential primary of the party, leading to the emergence of Obasanjo as the flag bearer.
Okadigbo had also lamented the spate of leadership change at the Senate when the position of President of the Red Chamber was zoned to the South East by the party. The change in the leadership of the chamber then was such that within the space of four years, the position of the senate president had rotated among the five states of the region.
Okadigbo, who was one of those elected as senate president at the time, was uncomfortable that himself and those who served after him from the zone were removed in quick succession; thus creating distrust among the political leaders of the region and making it difficult for the zone to benefit from the office as it ought to.
While the party showed indifference to the discontent and disconnect that brewed out of the development, a leadership crisis arose in Anambra State in the build up to the 2003 general election between a self-styled godfather, Chris Ubah and then governor of the state, Chinweoke Mbadinuju. Ubah, who prided himself as the leader of the party, had insisted on replacing Mbadinuju with Chris Ngige, a former minister, in the guise that Mbadinuju failed in the implementation of the agreements they entered before he became governor. His arguments soon found a place in the heart of the national leadership of the party, who jettisoned Mbadinuju for Ngige in the election in which the party managed to rig its way to victory against Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). While Obi went to court to reclaim his victory, Ubah and Ngige, began a fresh “war” in Anambra State.According to those close to Ubah, this was as a result of the reneging of the agreement he (Ubah) reached with Ngige.
In the attempt to force Ngige to resign from office, hired political thugs went berserk in the state, attacking and setting public institutions on fire. In the process, Ngige was forced out of the Government House and held hostage in a hotel in Awka for several hours.
As supporters of Ngige and Ubah struggled for the control of the party structure in Anambra, the disagreement between the two was imported into a zonal congress that was held in Enugu that year at the Micheal Okpara Square. Their supporters turned the venue into a free for all in the attempt to outdo one another. Bullets freely flew about and the chaos led to the abrupt end of the congress. The struggle naturally ended when the court, in 2005, threw Ngige out, ruling that he was not the rightful winner of the election and pronounced Obi as the winner. That was the first time the party lost control of a state in the region. Gradually, PDP began to lose grip in every election conducted in the state and currently holds no elective public office in the state.
A Serial Downward Trend
THE disdain against the party soon spread. Its reign in Imo State was punctured after eight years (1999 – 2007) during which Achike Udenwa ruled due to the crisis. In the build up to the 2007 governorship election, the party had chosen Charles Ugwu as its candidate. But Ifeanyi Ararume, who wanted the ticket, went to court and dislodged him.
Perturbed by the development, Obasanjo as serving president, had while campaigning in the state, distanced the party from Ararume. While addressing members of the party, he urged them to vote against Ararume over certain allegations raised against his person.
PDP went ahead to adopt Martin Agbaso of the APGA as its candidate. But Ikedi Ohakim, who emerged on the platform of the Progressives People’s Alliance (PPA), won the election. Ohakim later defected to the PDP, where he contested and lost in the 2011 governorship election of the state. Since then, the PDP has failed to return to Douglas House, Owerri. A feeble attempt was made in 2019 when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pronounced Emeka Ihedioha the winner of the election. But the Supreme Court quashed his victory, leading to the emergence of the incumbent Governor, Hope Uzodimma, of the APC in 2020.
In Ebonyi State, the party held sway for 20 years. But a crisis set in, especially over who occupies what office during the Dave Umahi administration. Umahi,as the leader of the party, dictated every pace and dealt ruthlessly with opposing views.
In fact, during one of the zonal congresses held at Enugu, then National Vice Chairman (Southeast), Ali Odefa,tasted the bitter part of the now Minister of Works for allegedly refusing to bury his interest in favour of his younger brother,Austin Umahi.
At the congress, Odefa was given the beating of his life by political thugs before being thrown out of the congress venue for the process that threw up Austin to continue. The contention, among others, negatively impacted the PDP’s run in the state such that after the 2019 general election which Umahi contested as the governorship candidate of the party and won, he jettisoned the party for the APC.
Since Umahi ran into the APC, the fortunes of the PDP have continued to dwindle in the state. Peace has refused to return to the state chapter even among the remnants of the party. The last effort by the national leadership to restore sanity to the chapter through a Caretaker Committee was rebuffed.
In Abia State, the party held control from 1999 to 2007 when Orji Uzor Kalu governed the state. However, Kalu handed over to Theodore Orji of the PPA whom he supported to win the governorship election from the correctional centre. But Orji soon fell out with Kalu, and returned the state to PDP, where they both belonged originally. He was re-elected on PDP’s platform in 2011 and handed over power to Okezie Ikpeazu in 2015. However, the party lost to Labour Party’s Alex Otti in the 2023 general election. Otti’s win has continued to diminish what was left of the PDP as its members, including elected officials, defect to either the APC or LP almost on a daily basis.
When Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State left the party with the state’s political leaders last Tuesday, it was clear that the party had been decimated in the zone. Part of the grievances that contributed to the development was what he described as “deliberate marginalisation of the South East during the controversy over the national secretary position.”
When the position became vacant in 2023, Mbah, then leader of the party in the region, had summoned a zonal meeting in Enugu, where the stakeholders reached an agreement and presented Sunday Ude-Okoye to replace Samuel Anyanwu, who had gone to contest the governorship election of Imo State. Ude-Okoye was, however, not accepted by the national leadership of the party despite threats and pressures from the region that it may be forced to review its membership should its voice be ignored.
After a zonal meeting in Enugu in May this year, the party had said: “In the event that the South East’s position that Sunday Ude-Okoye should replace Samuel Anyanwu, who left to contest the Imo governorship election, is not implemented promptly, the South East PDP, as a family, will be compelled to reconsider our relationship with the PDP going forward.”
It was in fulfillment of this threat that Mbah moved the entire structure of the party in the state to the APC last Tuesday, a development that has not only strengthened the ruling party in the region but deepened the scorn against the PDP.
Road To 2027Elections
AS 2027 elections come close, can the PDP still overcome its present predicament, participate and win in the zone?
Some analysts insist that the party must purge itself before venturing to contest any elective office in the region. According to them, it would be difficult to trust the party again, especially when there is nothing to show for the massive support it received from the region these 26 past years.
A lawyer, Ekemezie Nwobodo, stated that the greatest betrayal from the government was the refusal to “reward the South East after the Ohanaeze Ndigbo had on two occasions adopted the presidential candidates of the PDP as their sole candidates.”
He added: “Remember that when Buhari paired with Okadigbo, Ohanaeze refused to support them even when Okadigbo was from the South East. The group rather went for Obasanjo. Goodluck Jonathan was adopted as our own son because of the PDP, even when other Igbo persons were gunning for the position in other political parties.
“Now, we have tried the PDP for several years; we cannot boast of anything that the party did for the good of Ndigbo. So, I do not know who will want to vote for the party again in this area. For me, it is going to be an uphill task for the party to be restored again in the region.”
A foundation member of the APC who reacted to the development, Osita Okechukwu, stated that members of the party in the zone were defecting in droves in reaction to the “utter disregard for equity and justice by the PDP, especially in 2023, when the party breached the Fourth Republic’s long standing zoning arrangement.”
Okechukwu maintained that PDP’s serial betrayal, neglect and abuse of the South East were sufficient grounds for anybody to want to quit the party.
A former National Auditor of the PDP, Ray Nnaji, however, noted that it was not all over for the party, stressing that what it required was the right candidates that could muster support and votes during elections.
“Those running into the APC are doing so because they are trying to hide something. It is strictly out of personal gains and not for the interest of the South East region. With time, they will realise that they have made a huge mistake. We will go back to the drawing board and we will come out stronger. All we require is to come up with the right candidates that will win elections. PDP remains a brand anytime, any day and whatever the party is passing through at the moment will end someday,” he said.
Nnaji, who stated that he would not leave the PDP, insisted that, “those leaving the party are not doing well.”
“How can a governor who claims to be performing leave a platform that produced him to another platform?” he asked. “It shows insincerity; it shows that they don’t have principles and ideology. But we will remain in PDP to rebuild the party.”Another chieftain of the PDP, Jerry Ogu, while stressing that it was a “trial moment” for the PDP, noted that it would take time for the party to overcome.
He said: “This is really not the best of times for the PDP in the South East region. The way things are with the party that once held sway in the region, it is becoming doubtful whether we would prosecute and survive the next general election in 2027.
“Recently, it was difficult for us to convince anyone to fly our flag in the November 8 governorship election in Anambra State.The cold feet developed by theprospective governorship aspirants for the ticket of the party in an election where the All Progressives Congress (APC) was having a swell time with aspirants was not as a result of the N40 million placed on the sale of the forms, but the uncertainties in the party.
“That’s all about politics. What you see in the APC today will soon implode. We understand that those running into the party are doing so based on one man’s ambition. But we will live to see how the party will manage the development after 2027,” he stated.
Admitting that it would take some time for the party to stabilise, he added that losing the “only state we secured in 2023 is humiliating”, but quickly noted that, “Mbah who just left did not help the cause of this party. He has always had his eyes on the ruling party.”
