The strength of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is waning in Edo, Rivers and Imo states.
Checks by LEADERSHIP reveal that unabated leadership tussle, defections and brazen anti-party activities have weakened the major opposition party in these states, creating concerns that it might struggle to retain its status as a ruling party or major opposition platform in these states where the crises have been more visible in recent times.
While PDP governs Rivers and Edo states, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is in charge of Imo State.
Since the party lost power at the centre in 2015, its bid to return to ruling status in 2019 and 2023 elections has seen it suffer more decline than progress, with the impact felt more at the state level.
The internal wrangling within its fold before and after the 2023 election came to a head last month with the agitation for the removal of the acting national chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, over claims that he is a mole of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The agitation was a manifestation of the lingering clash between the two warring camps in the party led by former vice president and the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister Nyesom Wike.
However, the retention of Damagum by the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) sparked a chain of defections and a grandstanding, especially in Edo, Rivers and Imo.
Imo
Barely days after the NEC meeting, there were over 200 high level defections from the PDP in Imo State, led by former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Emeka Ihedioha.
Besides Ihedioha, who briefly served as governor before he was evicted by the court, others who left the party include deputy governors, former ministers, members of the House of Representatives, senatorial candidates in the last elections, a member of PDP Board of Trustees (BOT), and many politically active members.
The PDP in Imo has been split between the camps of Ihedioha and national secretary of PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who has since dismissed the recent spate of defections as inconsequential to the party’s strength in the state.
Anyanwu was PDP governorship candidate in last year’s Imo election. Ihedioha, who many thought would naturally flag the party’s flag after his showing in the last governorship election before the court controversially replaced him with Senator Hope Uzodimma, who placed a distant fourth according to the result declared by the nation’s electoral body, INEC, did not even contest the primary. Anyanwu was, and still is, PDP national secretary.
However, speaking with LEADERSHIP on the state of the party, elder statesman and PDP stalwart, Prof. Jude Njoku, said PDP is clinically dead in the state. He said the defectors, who left in droves, moved with the soul of the party.
According to him, the supporters of Ihedioha believe in his leadership anchored on the Rebuild Imo Agenda.
Njoku stressed that they had challenges while in PDP, such as a lack of coordination, cohesion and non-adherence to the rules of the game which served as hindrance to the development of the party.
“This scenario contributed immensely to the total loss of the party in the last election in the state,” he said.
In his contribution, former deputy governor, Engr, Gerald Irona, told LEADERSHIP that as soon as the party relinquished power, certain impostors, pretending to be leaders, positioned themselves and ran the party aground in the state.
According to him, they saw the signals and alerted the national leadership, which paid lip service to the development, which eventually culminated to the demise of the party in Imo State.
Ihedioha said he left the PDP because of his large followership’s desire for him to lead a rebuild of Imo State, adding that Nigerians no longer perceive the PDP as a party that can take over government at the national or state levels.
He stressed that operators of the party were recalcitrant and averse to reasoning with opinions that will put the party back on track.
But countering Ihedioha’s claim, the PDP national secretary, Senator Sam Anyanwu, said those who left are suffering from political hallucinations.
He advised the group to desist from misinterpretation of the realities on the ground and desist from spreading false rumours.
However, director of Development Dynamics, an advocacy group in the state, Dr. Jude Ohanele, admitted that the PDP is in bad shape in the state, stressing that it has to embark on restructuring if it is to survive.
Rivers
The 24 years of dominance by the PDP in Rivers State as the ruling political party seems to be crumbling following the face-off between the immediate-past governor of the state and current minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, and his successor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara.
The minister still has the political structure of the state intact with 21 out of the 23 local government chairmen in the state supporting him while only two local government chairmen have openly pledged their support to the governor.
Wike also enjoys the support of a majority of members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, even though they now belong to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking on the dwindling fortunes of the PDP in the state, the Rivers State PDP publicity secretary, Tambari Sydney Gbara, said it is no longer a secret that there is a serious crack in the party.
“The caretaker committee list, which they have tampered with, should be corrected with immediate effect. The governor is the leader of the party in the state; they should work with the governor and not the FCT minister. That is one of the steps that can bring about unity and progress in PDP in Rivers State,” Gbara said.
Also speaking on the cracks in PDP in Rivers State, the chairman of Oyigbo local government area, Hon. Innocent Ajaelu, said it would be difficult for the party to recover from its present situation.
Ajaelu said: “First, PDP in Rivers State is gradually going into extinction because you cannot bring up a candidate, sponsor a candidate and a candidate becomes governor, and after three months, you come back to apologise to the people of the state that you are sorry for sponsoring such a candidate.
“So, that alone has shown that PDP is far gone in Rivers State as a political party. I don’t see the party coming back again. In less than no time, everything called PDP in Rivers State will vanish in the political space of the state.
Edo
The state of PDP in Edo State is even more precarious as the state holds its governorship election this September.
The party is sharply divided between the faction led by Governor Godwin Obaseki and the Legacy Group under the leadership of the PDP South-South vice chairman, Chief Dan Orbih.
The Orbih group had, among others, accused Obaseki of betrayal and reneging on all promises after they gave him the PDP platform to contest the 2020 election. Obaseki had been denied the return ticket by his former party, the APC.
The gulf within PDP widened recently as Orbih’s camp removed itself from the recently constituted PDP campaign council.
As it stands, the Obaseki led PDP will square up against APC and the Legacy Group led by Orbih.
Obaseki, at the inauguration of PDP campaign council last week, was optimistic the party’s governorship candidate, Barrister Asue Ighodalo, would sweep 80 percent of the votes in the governorship election.
The governor described the PDP Legacy Group as disorganised and likened it to a sheep without a shepherd.
Obaseki, while alleging that the factional PDP members fighting in the party had collected money from opposition parties to destabilise the party in the state, however, warned such persons to stay away.
Obaseki said: “PDP is one. Those who are fighting the PDP have collected money from the other parties, and they want to sell out. I want you all here to join me so that we can flush them out of our party because we are not going to allow anybody to divide us; we are one party – one indivisible party in Edo State.”
But a former publicity secretary of the PDP and a member of the Legacy Group, Barrister Nosa Adams, believes the party is heading for collapse because of the division.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP, he said, “The party, as you know, is divided, so you don’t need much to know that the party is in trouble because of the crisis. And if the party doesn’t reconcile before the election, your guess is as good as mine because a house divided against itself will not stand.
“It is unfortunate the PDP is going into the election divided with serious acrimony just like what happened at the federal level when Atiku went into the election with a heavily and sharply divided party. I really feel sorry for Ighodalo; he is contesting at an inauspicious period because the party is drifting towards the precipice.”
The coordinator, Action for Social Political and Economic Change, Osazee Edigin, told LEADERSHIP that the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, will play a major role in determining if the Legacy Group will support the PDP.
According to Edigin, “You know the crack is between Obaseki and Dan Orbih even though we have yet to know the real issue between them. I think Nyesom Wike has a role to play as well.
“Wike, as it were, is a member of PDP working for the APC government so whichever direction he chooses to support will determine where the Legacy Group will go,” he said.
Abia
The PDP has also suffered defections in Abia State.
Checks by LEADERSHIP revealed that between April and May former council chairmen have dumped the party.
Those who defected from PDP are former chairman of Ohafia local government area, Dr Okorafor Ukiwe; former chairman of Isiala Ngwa South local government area, Hon Ike Anyatonwu; former chief whip of Abia State House of Assembly, Hon Okechukwu Nwabeke; former chairman of Aba North local government area, Stanley Ogbonna; former chairman of Obingwa local government area, Uloma Nwogu, dumped the formerly ruling party in the state in April and May.
There are also claims that former Abia Speaker, Hon Chinedum Orjime, might also leave the PDP.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP in Umuahia, the capital, yesterday, PDP publicity secretary in the state, Abraham Amah confirmed the defections.
Amah, who is also PDP chairman in Abia North, said he was not aware of the details of the defections, however said he cannot preempt the reaction of the chapter for now.
“The state working committee,” he noted “will meet soon and take a position on the matter and thereafter issue a press statement to that effect.”