Fragmented PDP as threat to 2027 elections
I align myself with those who believe that PDP which mounted a relentless war against our democratization process since 1999 and whose leading lights had been found to be men
I align myself with those who believe that PDP which mounted a relentless war against our democratization process since 1999 and whose leading lights had been found to be men with feet of clay, following various indictments either by the judiciary or National Assembly probe, long before its current fragmentation into six factions, cannot suddenly become warrior of democracy, just because it so declared.
I similarly don’t believe discredited individuals that have like Adolph Hitler or Donald Trump, shown inclination towards using democracy to destroy the democratization process, should be taken seriously when they say their ongoing threat against 2027 is about survival of democracy.
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But that is not to say PDP cannot win the 2027 election if their warring self-serving factional leaders work hard and put their own house in order. In a democracy, voters are after all, driven more by interests and emotions than by government policies especially those that are yet to bring relief to the people. For instance, it is most unlikely that Peter Obi’s self-confessed unthinking ‘Obidients’ will hail President Tinubu’s celebrated bold economic policy that banned importation of many items that were hither to manufactured in Nigeria, when their principal, as an importer of labour of other society is a victim.
They can similarly not hail him for his foreign exchange reforms. Those who do not suffer from collective amnesia can still remember a trending social media video featuring a Reverend Father and his congregation celebrating when those benefiting from foreign exchange round tripping orchestrated crisis in the foreign exchange market that further devalued the naira bringing the exchange rate close to N2,000 to $1.
Similarly, with the help of demagogues, democracy can produce monsters as leaders. Adolph Hitler, who later waged war against children of non-Aryan blood, did what Israel recently did in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon to Britain, France and other Europeans countries before incinerating six million Jews, was democratically elected. Just the other day, Boris Johnson, a man ill-equipped for leadership emerged as a democratically elected Prime Minister of Great Britain. And in recent times, we have seen a nation that fraudulently claims to be the greatest democracy in the world elect a serial woman abuser, a man indicted for fraud and twice impeached for sponsoring violence against the Congress, in an attempt to upturn an election he lost ‘round and square’.
Therefore, with Obi’s supporters that vote like a herd, his urban immigrants and Christian supporters and Kwankwaso’s Kwankwasiyya, that PDP is populated by men with feet of clay does not stop their chances in 2007 if they work hard at it.
The problem however is that PDP’s warring factional leaders whose forbears perfected the art of securing ‘landslide and sea-slide victories in opposition strong holds’ through Obasanjo’s ‘mainstreaming experiment’, are not used to hard work. They have no patience for discipline, compromise, internal democracy and respect for the rule of law, all of which democracy needs to thrive.
They are on the television daily, swearing about their commitment to 2027 but instead of walking the talk by facing their own demons, they try to hold on to any straw as the source of their agony. They splintered their solid party into three while the ADC, hijacked by David Mark group, further splintered their ADC host into three with all factions blaming the president and his ruling party of being responsible for their grief.
Most Nigerians had thought that last Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment, which Dumebi Kachikwu, an ADC factional leader described as “displaying king Solomon’s wisdom by not allowing his two rivals, David Mark and Nafiu Bala, he likened to ‘two thieves claiming ownership of a stolen car’, has finally provided relief for PDP’s grief. However, as if suffering from selective perception, the different factions gave different interpretations to the same Supreme Court judgment.
For Dumebi Kachikwu, ADC factional leader, the Supreme Court judgment does not validate any of ADC factions but merely asks them to return to the Federal High Court. But for Mark and his warlords, ADC Supreme Court pyrrhic victory, which allowed Amupitan’s INEC to reinstate the delisted names of Mark, Aregbesola and others, is a call for the intensification of the war against Amupitan. An act that should have ended ADC grief, has only led to a renewed assault on INEC, a critical institution of democracy that needs nurturing. And without providing an answer to Abba Moro’s crucial question-i.e. “to what end?’, ADC continues to insist on Amupitan’s resignation.
And for the Turaki/Makinde faction, the group was tongue-lashed by the Supreme Court for attempting to undermine judicial authority by obtaining conflicting orders from courts of coordinate jurisdiction, a conduct the apex court described as “an unparalleled abuse of court process”. The group was also reminded that “the rule of law is not an ornament, revoked, destroyed or discarded in practice but fundamental architecture on which the legitimacy of governance rests”. Finally, they were retold that “the very essence of constitutional democracy is imperilled “once political actors begin to treat lawful judicial processes as optional”. It was after this public admonition that the Supreme Court announced the upholding of both the high court and appeal court’s ruling that invalidated the outcome of the Ibadan convention.
The faction, although accepted the verdict, describing it as “an unpleasant judgment against our party”, but then went ahead to claim the judgment “effectively leaves the PDP as a party without a defined leadership, citing the Supreme Court minority judgment by Justices Haruna Tsammani and Abubakar Umar which they know remains an opinion despite being recorded while the majority decision binds and becomes law.
It will be recalled that, penultimate Monday, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik Abuja Federal High Court restrained Taminu Turaki faction, from accessing or interfering with the party’s national secretariat. It also directed security agencies to provide adequate protection to Wike’s faction.
And following the group’s self-serving interpretation of the Supreme Court verdict, Adolphus Wabara, says he and the PDP Board Trustees chairman will assume leadership of PDP from Thursday, April 30, 2026 directed all staff of the PDP to resume at the national secretariat of the party.
For the PDP faction led by the FCT minister however, the verdict validates and solidifies the position of Abdulrahman Muhammad’s National Working Committee, claiming the Supreme Court has done justice, by bringing an end to the factional crisis in the PDP.
The group’s spokesman reminded the public that the apex court ruling only “invalidated the Ibadan convention and dismissed the appeal filed by the Turaki-led National Working Committee”. Concluding, he asserted that besides the fact that “there was no provision in the party’s constitution, granting the BOT to take over the party”, “the tenure of Adolphus Wabara as chairman of the Board of Trustees had expired before the current crisis”.
With self-serving selective interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling, the stage is once again set for a repeat of their Wadata headquarters physical confrontation which followed their now invalidated Ibadan convention.
If you therefore ask me, I will say discredited groups engaged in continuous assault on ethos of democracy, rather than being warriors of democracy, constitute a threat to the 2027 elections. Let the fools contend (Alexander Pope, an essay on man, 1733)!
