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2023: Has PDP lost it?

By Omojowo Ajosanmi
06 July 2022   |   1:33 am
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been struggling ever since they lost the 2015 presidential election to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

PDP

SIR: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been struggling ever since they lost the 2015 presidential election to the All Progressives Congress (APC). From the party’s legal crisis between Sheriff and Makarfi which almost cost the party its unity; to party leaders allegedly auctioning political office slots for less competent aspirants; to their incapability to function as a prosperous opposition party, the crisis keeps coming. The primary function of any opposition party is to criticise, provide solutions and ensure that the ruling party is alive to its responsibilities. A good opposition party makes it possible for the government in power to make decisions that will better the citizenry and that’s what the PDP has not been fulfilling.

In the build-up to the 2023 presidential election, the PDP has lost quite a number of their political gladiators, among whom is Peter Obi, who left the party for the Labour Party. His exit might cost the party the election, considering the number of people mostly youths following him, which ordinarily should be to the advantage of the PDP if he was still at the party. Some individuals might want to argue that Peter Obi’s leaving poses no threat to the PDP; I, however, reckon that it poses more than a threat to the PDP. The PDP wouldn’t have lost out in 2015 if they possessed a lot of people who I called political gladiators. 

The PDP is about making the mistake by its incapability to reach a consensus on how to persuade some of its big figures, such as governors, senators, etc. from leaving the party and also the issue of choosing a vice-presidential candidate for the party which at the moment is a contentious issue in the party. The choice of Atiku Abubakar’s vice-presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State governor, with a voters’ number of 2,845,274 according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in 2019, instead of a Nyesom Wike, River State governor, a strong south-south PDP who has stayed in the party through the hardest moments, with 3,215,273 voters in his state, would have an impact on the chances of the PDP winning the presidential election. Although Okowa worked for Abubakar in ensuring his emergence as the flag bearer of the party, however, his nomination by Abubakar was against the decision of the 14 out of 17 members of the PDP panel who preferred Wike.

There is a need for the PDP to settle its fissure as early as possible so that its misfortunes won’t be to the advantage of the APC candidate.
• Omojowo Ajosanmi.

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