As the 2023 general elections draw closer, Nigeria’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still rocked from left to right by endless internal squabbles. Notwithstanding, the party was able to conduct one of the most rancour-free elective national conventions in October 2021, chaired by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa state which produced Senator Iyorchia Ayu as the party’s national chairman. That momentary calm almost fooled commentators into believing that the party has overgrown its penchant for crisis.
However, like a thunderstorm, the serenity of the convention turned out to be a calm before the storm. This is because, unlike the October 2021 elective convention, the May 2022 presidential primaries of the PDP were conducted in gloomy circumstances as other candidates felt aggrieved and became enraged. Nigeria’s former Vice President and 2019 PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the party’s primaries, polling 371 votes. He defeated his main rival, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state, who scored 237 votes.
In a last-minute permutation and what seems to be the promotion of regional agenda by the northern block of the party, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state climbed up the podium and overtly withdrew from the contest and asked delegates who intended to vote for him, to vote for Atiku. Tambuwal’s solidarity with Atiku and the North didn’t go down well with Wike and other governors from the southern part of the country. Since then, there have been crossfire by the seeming warring factions of the party with Wike and his camp dissipating unsavoury statements that have worsened an already bad situation by the day.
And, as the crisis in PDP at the national level lingers on with Wike, backed by some southern leaders of the party criticising the presidential candidate for not prevailing on the party’s national chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, who’s also from the north, to resign, it will appear the party’s chances of whatever is left of it continues to dim. Wike and his co-travellers have on several occasions claimed that Mr Ayu had promised to relinquish his seat for a southerner in the event that a northerner clinches the party’s ticket but reneged after Atiku’s emergence. Whatever the truth is, Ayu has stuck to his guns, dismissing Wike and co as children.
As the PDP boils at the centre, some states are also battling pockets of intra-party glitches threatening the successful outing of the party in the upcoming general elections. And, one of such states is Zamfara. The Zamfara state PDP’s ill-fated expedition towards the 2023 general elections began in late June, 2021 when Governor Bello Matawalle put an end to prolonged speculations of his defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, by formally decamping in a magnificent event attended by 11 APC governors, ministers, senators and House of Representatives members from the ruling party.
That move by Matawalle appears to have sounded the death knell for the PDP in Zamfara state. This is because, Matawalle did not only take leave of the party, he also took with him its soul and a number of prominent party members. As if that was not enough, the man has been able to bring together foremost and prominent stakeholders in the state, including three former governors; Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, Mahmud Shinkafi, and Abdul’Aziz Yari, the immediate past governor of the state to the APC.
And now, APC has been repositioned from a party against itself, into the only political force in the state even as the remaining members of PDP or whatever is left of it make a meal of each other in a free for all kefuffle that includes the courts and just anyone who cared to listen. As the PDP is currently setup, it will amount to an hyperbole to even refer to the party as an opposition in Zamfara. APC as presently setup is simply too big and too threatening a formation to beat, but certainly not by PDP.
It was indeed under the dizzying effect of APC’s overwhelming strength, that the PDP in a last ditched effort which frankly smacks of desperation suddenly approached the court to stop Matawalle’s defection. However, the Federal High Court sitting in Gusau on February 7, 2022, affirmed Matawalle’s decision.
Not submitting to the will of God, the visibly disorganised PDP approached the Court of Appeal seeking to reverse the earlier judgment. But, in its judgment last July, 2022, the Appeal Court ruled in favour of Governor Matawalle and the appeal was therefore dismissed and the judgment of the Federal High Court, Gusau, affirmed. Indeed, the die has been cast, and everyone but PDP appears to be in the know, and who will blame them. For a party in disarray, clawing at straws appears the last resort.
Things went from bad to worse just when the party was beginning to settle down to its mediocre role of toothless opposition as adversity struck. The Federal High Court in Gusau, Zamfara state, nullified its governorship primaries which produced Dauda Lawan-Dare as the party’s governorship candidate in the 2023 general elections in the state. Delivering justice on the matter on Friday, 16th September, 2022, Justice Aminu Bappah-Aliyu, ordered that the PDP immediately conduct fresh governorship primaries. It would be recalled that, three aspirants, who are plaintiffs in the suit -Dr. Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau, Alhaji Wadat Madawaki, and Hafiz Muhammad -sought the nullification of the primaries over alleged irregularities.
It appears a case of boomerang fortunes. This is because, whereas PDP’s attempts to stop Matawalle through the courts failed woefully, it is the PDP that’s now thrashing wildly as it gets suffocated from the courts and indeed from within. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Governor Matawalle, APC is flourishing in what commentators are saying is the most clement the party has ever been for a long while. Different strokes for different folks.
This internal calm in the APC signposts the besmirched future of the PDP in Zamfara state. A member of the party, Ahmad Magaji, told newsmen in Gusau after the recent court judgment that nullified the party’s primary election that brought in Dauda Lawal Dare as its governorship candidate, that from all indications, the party will be going into the 2023 contest unprepared. Magaji said the lingering internal crisis in the party in the state was becoming irrepressible, saying that the situation has been so terrible that the party dangles from one crisis to the other.
In more revelations, another member, Ibrahim Abubakar, also lamented that the cracks on the walls of the party have paralysed PDP, stressing that in Zamfara state, the party is divided and there is no secret that the PDP is having serious political problems.
Today, most of the members of the party are gradually defecting to the APC as the party becomes stronger by the day. Matawalle has been working round the clock and providing critical infrastructure across the nooks and crannies of the state while curtailing the prevailing and ravaging insecurity caused by marauding bandits, kidnappers, and cattle rustlers. This much has further endeared him to the people who can’t wait to lineup behind him.
As we head towards the 2023 general elections, the coast is becoming clearer for the APC and Governor Matawalle as possibilities of PDP going to the 2023 election without a flagbearer becomes more and more glaring. For the people of Zamfara and Matawalle, it is finally time to pay those who only wanted to use the PDP ticket to cause chaos in their coin.
Bashir writes from Abuja.
