2023 election: Atiku, PDP, Wike and the engrossing traps of power

By Cyril Mbah, Abuja.

The confrontation between Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] led by National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu reached its crescendo on September 21, 2022 when the governor and his group, who were appointed as members of the Atiku Campaign Council rejected the appointments and insisted that their demands for the restructuring of the party leadership positions should take place first.

No matter from whatever angle one may look at the situation at hand, the political horoscope at the moment does not show anything good at all for either Atiku or the PDP. Pride, greed, haughtiness, deception, bigotry and desperation have taken center stage in the party and polluted the air with tainted thought patterns which are taking uncanny toll on decisions and progress. These wild, destructive forces of power, left uncontrolled, may lead to the awful defeat of the PDP in 2023.

The dark clouds indicate danger ahead for the party and its presidential candidate with the withdrawal of the governors of Rivers, Oyo, Benue, Abia and Enugu states as well as other party bigwigs from Atiku Abubakar’s campaign team. These personalities may be in the minority but they have influence over thousands of their followers and the supporters can be easily swayed to vote against the party and change its fortunes in the 2023 polls. One may dismiss the protesting PDP members as inconsequential but history shows that one negative thought builds up to several extras because it is easier to destroy than to build and many other aggrieved persons will follow the footsteps of the dissident group before the elections.

Also, the non-governors, who joined in pulling out from the Atiku Campaign Team, including Chief Bode George and some northern progressive elements, after a long meeting held at Governor Wike’s private residence, near Port Harcourt are equally very influential politicians, who have clout and large followership in their states that should not be taken for granted.

Governor Wike and his faction have clearly placed their cards on the table by telling the PDP categorically that they will not be part of any campaign activities until the national chairman steps down. The group also insisted that the position of national chairman must come to the South for balance, impartiality and equity in the party. It also demanded that an acting chairman from the South should lead the PDP National Campaign Council.

Wike has never hidden his aversion for the politics of exclusion and sectionalism that the northern elite in the PDP and other political parties have adopted and propagated for some time now as he has insisted that the PDP constitution should be respected by ensuring that the national chairman and the presidential candidate do not come from the same geographical zone.

In responding to the latest development, Atiku Abubakar has failed to hold the bull by the horns and squarely address the lingering issues at stake that brought the party to its present debacle.

The troubled presidential candidate shocked the world when he lightly expressed surprise at the withdrawal of the group, saying in a statement signed personally by him: “I am quite surprised with this withdrawal. I have been informed by officials of our party, apart from the Rivers State chapter of the PDP, all the remaining states of the federation submitted names of people who they wanted to be included in the Presidential Campaign Council.”

The presidential candidate stated that he was very saddened by the withdrawal of several very senior and influential members of the PDP from his Presidential Campaign Council set up to judiciously plan and prosecute the general elections scheduled for February 2023.

What many Nigerians find difficult to understand however is why Atiku has bluntly refused to openly accept that the PDP breached the party’s constitution by allowing the north to occupy the most important leadership positions in the present executive. Atiku kept mute while the constitution, which he vowed to defend, was being trampled upon in the composition of the PDP leadership. He also failed to acknowledge that Wike and his group are right to insist that the wrong calculations of the northern mafia to dominate the PDP should be remedied before the campaigns begin.

The PDP flag-bearer also failed to convince Dr. Ayu to see reason to leave office even when refined democrats from the north, such as the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, accepted that the balance of offices in the party was against the south.

Atiku was not moved to reason along the same lines with the former PDP BoT chairman who accepted to step down after adding that it was unfair for the presidential candidate and the national chairman of the party to come from the same zone and went ahead to state that “the PDP cannot produce the presidential candidate, the national Chairman, the BoT Chairman, all from the North for the 2023 presidential elections.” Senator Jibrin added that the “PDP is a democratic and national party that caters for all Nigerians. It is not sectional but loved by all Nigerians.”

It was a bare-faced deception when, rather than seeking workable means of amicably address the PDP crisis, Atiku said the call for the resignation or removal from office of the national chairman, was a personal decision for Dr. Iyorchia Ayu to take and that only Dr. Ayu can decide on what to do.

His words: “If Dr. Ayu is to be removed from office; it must be done in accordance with the laws that set out the basis for such removal. In any event, you will all recall that the very body that is empowered by law to initiate this removal from office has already passed a vote of confidence in him.”

In another breath however, Atiku describes himself as “a committed democrat and firm believer in the rule of law and democratic tenets and our party being one set up, organized and regulated by law and our constitution, it is my absolute belief that everything that we do in our party must be done in accordance with and in conformity to the law and our constitution.”

Also, rather than settling the PDP crisis with the wisdom of Solomon, Atiku decided to appeal to emotions by reminding party members that “Our nation is currently in the throes of a multidimensional crisis encompassing insecurity, economic meltdown, disunity, mutual mistrust and educational dislocations. I have a plan to address these issues and I have graciously been given the ticket to lead our great party in next year’s presidential elections, with the singular mandate to come and lead the efforts to cure these ills.”

It is really paralysing for supporters of the PDP that the party will go into the campaigns for the 2023 general elections that will hopefully commence at the end of September as a fragmented entity rather than one, united front. Sympathisers of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and lovers of its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar have wondered why the party allowed the dispute among its members to simmer to its present dangerous levels during an election year when all hands should be on deck to face the challenges of rescuing the nation from the grip of the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC].

People are beginning to see some valid sense in the assertions of Governor Wike to the effect that the PDP does not want to win the 2023 general elections. What Atiku and those in the PDP, who are backing Dr. Ayu have failed to understand is that Nyesom Wike has nothing to lose if the party fails to win the elections. The governor has asserted that the party would be assisted to lose the polls so long as it maintains impunity and lack of balancing in party appointments and from all indications, he is not just bluffing but is willing to pull down the PDP umbrella and tear it to pieces.

The governor recalled that the constitution of the PDP clearly states that elective party offices must be zoned. As if addressing the north directly, he recently said: “You have taken the presidential candidate. You have taken the party chairman. You have also taken the Director General [DG] of the campaign. Are we still talking about party politics?”

Wike said decisions in the PDP are now made by the three northerners, namely the presidential candidate, the party chairman and the DG of the campaign alone, stressing that something must be wrong if, “You can put pressure on the BoT chairman to resign, when his tenure has not come to an end, but you cannot put pressure on the national chairman to resign.”

The unending crisis in the PDP has created impressive opportunity for the ruling party to exploit to its own advantage. It has started raking up the gains early enough by mocking and portraying the opposition giant and its presidential candidate as leaders incapable of leading or uniting the country well since they have failed to put their house in order. The mockery came after the ruling party made unsuccessful overtures on the Rivers State governor, who despite his new status as the beautiful bride of Nigerian politics, has restated his resolve to remain in the Peoples Democratic Party.

Without mentioning Atiku by name but in an obvious reference to him, Wike lashed out at a recent forum by saying: “We will do the fight in the party. We are not like them, when in 2014 they walked out from the Eagle Square. They have forgotten. They walked out and joined the APC,” and while promising not to leave the PDP, Wike stressed that those who run away from fighting are weak people.

It is hoped that Atiku Abubakar and the leadership of the PDP know what they are doing. It is also hoped that the Turakin Adamawa did not join the presidential race to be counted among those who participated in the 2023 general elections, like his other previous attempts. It is hoped that Atiku would see reasons to reconsider his position on the seriousness of the issues at stake at the centre of the PDP crisis and do the right thing, rather than pitching tent with those who place self interests first, especially those who do not mean well for him but are supporting wrong actions that will help feather their nests.

It is not too late for the PDP to mend fences. It is also not too much for the south to ask that since Atiku Abubakar, a northerner has emerged as the presidential ticket bearer, the PDP constitution should be respected and proper balancing of leadership positions reflected in the party structure in the interest of equity and fairness.

The PDP and Atiku should be wise enough to know that Wike and his group are not push-overs. They have rather become the tough, prickly bone in the neck that the PDP, Ayu and Atiku cannot ignore and the sooner they face the challenge head-on and amicably resolve the problems at stake, the better for the party. There should be compromise now because it will be disastrous for PDP to disappoint its teeming supporters in 2023. Ends.