2023: PDP and albatrosses on its neck

What if Ifeanyi Okowa, the governor of Delta State, declines to serve as the running mate to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections?

Outlandish as such a contemplation may seem, it is actually one of the unspoken questions on the minds and lips of not a few observers of the imminent implosion that has been haunting the PDP, since his unexpected selection as the running mate to Atiku Abubakar, flag bearer of the party, who was victorious in the presidential primaries on May 28th  2022, in Abuja. 

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Just as well, if there is one development that needs extra care by the leadership of the PDP, it is that of managing the disruptive fallouts from the choice of a running mate to Atiku. And from trending circumstances, they are yet to do a good of it, with Atiku himself setting the wrong pace for a resolution. Considering that the entire brouhaha was at the instance of his picking a running mate against the will of the party’s top hierarchy, the least that is expected of him is a robust, fence-mending-initiative that will demonstrate his capacity and disposition to stand and resolve issues as the flag-bearer of the party. Rather what Nigerians are seeing in the PDP is a situation of him fighting fire by remote control, whereby he as the leader stays away from the epi-centre of the crisis, and allows surrogates to do the job. Meanwhile this is another instance of in-house turbulence which if not well resolved, may cost the party significant losses in the forthcoming 2023 polls. It is still within living memory that the PDP lost significant traction for winning the presidency in 2019, due to a similar in-house turbulence. Is 2019 then repeating itself, one may ask.  

From available signs, the party is facing a literal revolt from some of its leading lights which its leadership may not be reading rightly, with all such due to the choice of the running mate to Atiku.  In a recent interview, Samuel Ortom, the governor of Benue State, appeared on Channels Television to denounce Atiku’s action in picking Okowa instead of Wike.  To accentuate his position Ortom volunteered the information that he was a member of the committee that picked Wike as running mate to Atiku, and the choice of Okowa was arrant injustice.  

Also speaking in the same vein, former two time Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, bluntly told the world that he was not in the camp that wants Atiku to be president. Rather, he added a twist to his case by rooting for the presidency to shift from the North to the South come 2023. Meanwhile, this is a political permutation to which Atiku’s candidature as a Northerner, constitutes an affront in the first place. Concern is now rife that Fayose, in his mercurial disposition, may eventually pitch his tent with Bola Tinubu the candidate of the APC from the South West and his kinsman. This is just as a stream of conspiracy theories has been trending on how several PDP top shots have reportedly been hobnobbing with Tinubu.  

However, a more definitive show of dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the party was the unmistakable boycott by 11 of the 13 PDP governors of the inauguration of the party’s campaign organization for the forthcoming Osun State gubernatorial polls coming up on July 16th 2022. Only Taraba State Governor Ishaku Darius and his Delta State counterpart Ifeanyi Okowa, were the governors that attended. Meanwhile, in the face of this state of unease in the party, looms the disturbing absence of Atiku from the scene even, as he would have been personally around to mollify frayed nerves. 

As things stand, not a few members of the PDP are disappointed that things are going this way and not otherwise, especially given the fact that a major general electoral exercise that may make or break the party is on the way. And given the stakes facing the PDP in the race against a formidable opponent like Bola Tinubu and the ruling APC, the PDP factors rooting on the side of caution are, not wrong. 

This scenario puts into context the question of what merit is Atiku’s presidential ticket offering the party, if all it can generate at this stage is another in-house crisis, so early in the crucial electoral enterprise. It is also in this context that the earlier question of the merit of Okowa’s position as Vice Presidential candidate in defiance of the will of the party hierarchy stands. Whether his position is serving as a unifying or disruptive factor for the party, is the question which needs to be answered, sooner than later.

Against the backdrop of the serial privations suffered by Nigerians – at least in the past seven years of the administration of President Muhamadu Buhari, it needs no emphasis that they look forward to a change in the economy and socio-politics of the country. Meanwhile, in the last few weeks the political terrain has witnessed the emergence of presidential hopefuls from the various parties. This has provided the country with alternative candidates to be voted for as likely successor to Buhari. Hence for any political party which is in the race to allow avoidable in-house turbulence to distract it from the main event, is simply shooting itself in the foot.

In that light therefore, for the PDP the options open to it are clear. Resolve the impasse over the injustice meted to Wike soon, or consider the 2023 presidential seat a pie in the sky. Whoever stands in the way of the party in this regard, is just an albatross on its neck.