The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is yet to succeed in its bid to return to power at the national level after nine years and two consecutive attempts.
The acting national chairman of the party, Alhaji Umar Iliya Damagum, believes, however, that the party won in the 2019 and 2023 elections.
Though he assumed position as national chairman of the party after the 2023 presidential elections, he has not been spared blame for the loss.
Damagum, who spoke in an interview with Weekend Trust, said though he inherited the problem, he has chosen to remain calm so as to accelerate the healing process.
He says, “Well, when you have a fragmented party that is full of people that are not happy they lost, people have played different roles; so my duty here is to take the bullet for all sinners so that the party will remain an indivisible party.”
Just like other chairmen before him, Damagum has come under fire for the seeming inability of the party to mend its cracks ahead of the 2027 elections.
The different camps
Currently, the PDP is embroiled in a serious crisis with several of its leaders refusing to concede positions.
Within the last one year, the PDP has had cause to change its leadership for a record three times and has not been able to hold a convention to elect a new chairman due to internal crisis.
The party is yet to elect a substantive national chairman since the exit of Iyorchia Ayu and had to postpone taking a decision on the matter till the next National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party while asking the acting chairman, Umar Iliya Damagum, to continue.
Split into two major camps – one led by former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the other led by former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike – both sides have been implacable and have tenaciously held on to their positions with righteous indignation.
There also seems to be an emerging third camp which does not align with any of the two camps led by Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, who is equally believed to be nursing a presidential ambition.
It is believed that it is the Atiku camp that is pushing for the election of a new national chairman from the North-central zone while Wike’s is okay with Damagum continuing as chairman.
Aside the issue of camps, the North-central zone of the party is insisting on Damagum’s removal, saying the position of national chairman ought to return to the region since the ousted chairman, Iyorchia Ayu is from there.
Even as the matter has temporarily been calmed, there are mixed feelings over whether the party would be able to put its house in order and do better in 2027.
Former Senate President and Secretary to the Government of the Federal, Anyim Pius Anyim, who served in both offices on the PDP mandate, and former deputy speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, recently left the party.
This is even as 60 federal lawmakers have threatened to leave the PDP if Damagum does not step down from his position.
How the problems started
National chairman of the party in 2015, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, under whose leadership the party lost the presidential election, also suffered the same fate.
Mu’azu resigned his position as the party’s national chairman on May 20, 2015, owing largely to this disagreement and that opened the flood gates to fresh issues.
A fresh crisis arose over the need to retain the chairmanship position in the North, after the then deputy national chairman, Uche Secondus, held the position in acting capacity for some months. In February 2016, a former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who had joined the party, was asked to step in to replace Secondus.
Sheriff acted as chairman for three months when former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, was asked to take over as caretaker chairman leading to a legal tussle between Sheriff and Makarfi, which was finally won by the latter at the Supreme Court.
The party was able to hold a convention and Secondus was returned as chairman on 10th December 2017, in an election.
Another crisis erupted and Secondus who was said to have overstayed his tenure was made to leave and on October 31, 2021. One time Senate President Iyorchia Ayu emerged through a consensus as the new national chairman of the party.
Ayu led the party to the 2023 elections during which a major rift occurred in the course of electing a presidential candidate for the party.
After so much back and forth, the party for the first time jettisoned its principle of zoning which enabled former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, to contest the primary from where he was duly returned as the flag bearer.
This caused a major rift in the party as the then governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who was eyeing the ticket, felt betrayed and decided to fight back.
Following the emergence of Atiku, Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, insisted that Ayu should resign as chairman of the party. The problem continued up till the elections, in which the party lost the presidency, and even after the polls.
Damagum on his part attributes the party’s loss of power in 2015 to contests for the presidential ticket, adding, “the presidency was supposed to rotate after Yar’adua’s term, but when it didn’t, many people were aggrieved. Unfortunately, we couldn’t put those grievances aside to sit down and say, “Okay, even if it’s just another four years, let him finish, and then we’ll move on.” We failed to realise that the consequences of not addressing those grievances would be so severe for the party.”
Why erring members have not been sanctioned
The inability of the party to discipline erring members is seen as the biggest encouragement to such acts of defiance. This comes as surprising for a party which in the past did not condone any act of indiscipline and which at the slightest indication of anti-party tendencies moved to enforce discipline and order.
In the past, the party took disciplinary actions against powerful members like Alhaji Atiku Abubakar even as a sitting vice president and other state governors.
In the current dispensation, almost all the leaders of the party have been accused of working against the interest of the party at one time or the other but without consequences.
The G-5 governors led by Nyesom Wike, which had Samuel Ortom of Benue; Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, as members also challenged the party at various instances with some of them working openly for presidential candidates of other parties.
Their stance is believed to have contributed to the defeat of Atiku, the PDP presidential flag bearer in that election.
Wike, who is the leader of the G-5 took the matter beyond the general elections by accepting to serve as a minister in the APC-led government and has continued to poke his fingers at the rib of the party.
Former Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has said openly that the G-5 governors would replicate its support for President Bola Tinubu’s candidacy in 2027 if he decides to seek re-election.
“Our leader, Nyesom Wike, has already made a declaration that in 2027, we are supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he stated.
Resolving the crisis
In the bid to resolve the issues facing the party, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party recommended the setting up of two committees – the reconciliation and the disciplinary committees.
The disciplinary committee headed by a former minister of foreign affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, has started work and has invited those accused of working against the party’s interest to appear before it.
Some believe not much can come out of the exercise because those accused are the leaders of the party.
In an interview with Weekend Trust, Sule Lamido said, “They are not ordinary Nigerians or voters. The erring members are former presidents, vice president, governors; I mean leaders who invented the PDP. They are supposed to lead by example and understand the legacies of the party and what is ahead of it.”
But the infighting has not abated even as the party is trying to show that it is capable of managing the crisis.
Only recently, Wike threatened the PDP governors for trying to intervene in the matter between him and the Rivers State governor Sim Fubara.
Why PDP is hopeful
Despite the crisis, the PDP believes its structures are still intact and is able to pull a surprise in the 2027 elections.
Inside sources in the PDP say though the perception outside is that the party is dying, happenings within it indicate that it has maintained its position as the ‘strongest’ party in Nigeria.
“I can assure that you will see what will happen once the whistle is blown. During our last congress, we know the number of people from the other parties who approached us,” one of the party leaders stated.
The view appears credible given that the PDP is recording a high number of interests in its presidential ticket even when political activities are yet to start.
So far, former vice president Atiku Abubakar is believed to be interested in vying, while the governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, is also said to be interested, even as there are moves to convince former President Goodluck Jonathan to run on the platform of the party.
Evidence that the party is doing well, according to another source, lies in the fact that the PDP has held its National Working Committee and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings as well as ward, local government and state congresses successfully in 24 states.
“So, how can anyone call such a party a dying party when it is doing all that a political party is supposed to do and functioning well?” the source queried.
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