From all indications, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) still has enough ground to cover in its ongoing effort to reconcile feuding members and build a consensus ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Across the states that were its strong bases before the President Muhammadu Buhari tsunami turned the tables against it in two elections in 2015 and 2019, discontents still pervade the party, defying all reconciliation moves and threatening what is left of its strength.
Among the crises-ridden states, Kogi unarguably is one of the hard nuts to crack. It cost the party immense misfortune in 2019; losing all political seats to the opposition across all tiers of election even when it had all the chances to grab the ultimate prize – the Lugard House.
With this, experts fear that PDP may lose another opportunity to relaunch itself and retake the state it superintended over for three terms unless it purges itself of the internal wrangling which has continued to expose its flanks to attacks by the opposition.
How supremacy battle between political families split the party
The split in the state’s PDP emerged in the run up to 2019 which pitched two political families, Ibrahim Idris’ and Idris Wada’s, against each other. Both Idris and Wada are former governors who are related through marriages. While Idris served two terms as governor on the platform of PDP, Idris served a term and lost a second bid on the same platform.
Having lost the bid to return in 2015, Wada contested in the primary election, which his younger brother, Musa, and former Governor Idris’s son, Abubakar, were also aspirants. Musa incidentally emerged the winner of the party’s governorship primary, polling a total of 748 votes to defeat his main opponent, Abubakar, who got 710 votes. In that primary, former Governor Wada came third with 345 votes, while Dino Melaye polled 70 votes to emerge fourth. The exercise was trailed with violence as gunmen invaded the Confluence Stadium, Lokoja, venue of the primary.
The emergence of the younger Wada created bad blood between the two families and deepened the crack within the party. Even the build up to the primary showed signs of contention with 13 aspirants vying for the ticket.
Not okay with the poll’s result, Abubakar, the second runner up in the primary, went to court to challenge the outcome. Senator Melaye was also not happy with the outcome of the primary and took to his twitter handle to express his disappointment.
To further show his displeasure with the way the party handled the exercise, Melaye rejected his appointment by the PDP as the Director General of the Kogi State Governorship Campaign Council, stating that, “Let me state categorically that I have turned down the position of Director General of the PDP Kogi State Governorship Campaign Council. I wish PDP all the best. When truth is a casualty, there is chaos – Senator Dino Melaye.”
When Melaye turned down the offer, the party pushed the position to former Governor Idris whose son was in court over the outcome of the primary. Idris also rejected the offer, saying he was not consulted before the appointment. He advised the party to first get its acts together before heading for the main election, adding that issues arising from the primary were unresolved as aggrieved persons were in court to seek redress.
The crisis festered due to the failure of the national secretariat to promptly address the situation, and by the time election month arrived, its strength had weakened to the point where it could hardly muster enough energy to resist the opposition’s onslaught.
Former Governor Idris who is undoubtedly the father of the party and its main financier in the state withdrew his support, leaving the main opposition without a rallying figure to direct its affairs. The situation was compounded by Melaye’s deposition and the decision of a former Speaker of the state assembly and one time acting Governor, Chief Clarence Olafemi, to also withdraw his support for the party.
Both Melaye and Olafemi are from Kogi West, which was expected to provide an inroad for the PDP in Kogi Central where Yahaya Bello hails from. These factors and the violence unleashed during the main election affected the party’s comeback bid, and by the time the Supreme Court finally gave judgement on who the authentic candidate for that election was, Governor Bello was already months into his government.
Warning not heeded
It was obvious even before the primary that the party was doomed to fail. Stakeholders under the aegis of Concerned Kogi PDP Professionals had drawn attention the enmity revolving around former Governor Wada, Abubakar and Musa would cost the party despite its bright chances. The professionals warned that what was playing out among the three related front runners was not a political contest but bitter personality rivalry which had more to do with ego and animus than ambition.
They predicted that, “A victory for any of the three will ignite resentment in the camps of the unsuccessful duo that will most certainly culminate into the subversion of the ticket.”
The prediction came to pass and the party is yet to recover from the backlash.
Still not Uhuru
As the party strategises ahead of 2023, analysts are of the view that the first step towards regaining control is to identify and rally round a unifying force whose influence cuts across all the senatorial districts of the state after the old wounds are healed.
Already, the party said it had achieved some measure of success in its reconciliation drive to bring aggrieved party members together.
Sam Abenemi, the party’s deputy chairman in the state, told 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE that that all the issues that arouse during the last primary were being addressed, adding that stakeholders such as a former Minister of Police Affairs, Humphrey Abah, who earlier exited the party, had started to return to the fold.
Although both Idris and Wada turned down our reporter’s request for an interview on the matter, Abenemi also said the party’s National Reconciliation and Strategy Committee headed by a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had reached out to the two former governors, Idris and Wada, separately in Abuja, adding that both leaders had jettisoned whatever differences they had for the betterment of the party.
However, the National Coordinator of Kogi PDP Youth Movement, Abdullahi Okpanachi, told our reporter that there was more ground to cover in the party’s drive to stage a comeback.
Abdullahi noted that both former governors needed to be more open and show their followers that they had put their past behind them.
He said, “I doubt if the supposed reconciliation between the two leaders really took place, because their body languages indicate the contrary.”