Bridge Builder: The Struggle For The Soul Of PDP (I) By Osita Chidoka

The vessel named Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared May Day on the high seas, its compass is malfunctioning, the ship is leaking and lifeboats are limited, the successive exit of Captains has left the ship with poorly trained seafarers piloting the ship. Destination is unclear as no map exist for the now promoted captains to navigate, even where they saw a torn map they could not read it as their training did not equip them for ocean navigation. Sadly, many of the passengers are dancing on the lower deck oblivious of the great danger awaiting the vessel. The few who questioned the new captain and his band of seamen were threatened with de – boarding mid-sea. Where will the vessel dock? What happened to the vessel? Many wondered. This is the story of the PDP.


In 2006, I was introduced to President Obasanjo by Nasir El Rufai, then Minister of FCT. At the meeting that night was Ahmadu Alli, then PDP Chairman, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, my former boss and then Secretary of the PDP. At the meeting, I made a brief presentation on how to reform the PDP from an electoral vehicle to a mass movement and argued why President Obasanjo should reform PDP before exiting from Office. President Obasanjo bought the idea immediately and charged us to come up with ideas on how to transform the party.

Why did we think the PDP needed reforms? At inception of the PDP, the historic mission was to end military rule and build a national consensus platform. The end of military rule was successful in that the Military was willing to exit anyway. Building a platform for national cohesion was the more arduous task as the nation was reeling under the June 12 saga, cries of marginalisation and strident agitation for resource control. The Abacha regime’s infamous murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Shehu Yar-Adua and other high profile assassinations of key opposition politicians including Kudirat Abiola, who I fondly called Mama Lekan, (I will tell her story another day), and imprisonment of General Obasanjo and Chief MKO Abiola and his controversial death left Nigeria reeling under separatist and ethnic sentiments.

PDP rose to the challenge. It recruited General Obasanjo against the widely favoured Alex Ekwueme and using the military network defeated Ekwueme in a largely free, even if not fair, primary election in Jos. The defeat of Ekwueme, gave rise to the character of the PDP. The East had risen solidly behind Ekwueme with old NPN network in the North but a new national coalition prevailed. Tempering the triumphalism associated with victory, Obasanjo and the PDP quickly offered the South East, precisely Ekwueme, the position of Senate President which ought to have gone to the north and accordingly zoned all other offices to create a sense of belonging to all parts of the country.

The PDP umbrella covered the whole nation but was rejected in the South West the home of General Obasanjo. To cut a long story short, PDP led by General Obasanjo and Abubakar Atiku defeated the Alliance for Democracy and All Peoples Party (AD/APP) alliance led by Chief Olu Falae and Umaru Shinkafi. In the North West PDP polled an average of 63 per cent to AD/APP 37 per cent note that PDP won 5 out of the 7 states in the zone and also note that the Vice Presidential candidate of the AD/APP was Umaru Shinkafi from Sokoto where they won and Zamfara. In the North East, PDP won with 69 per cent average against AD/APP 30 per cent again note the AD/APP only won in Yobe with 53 per cent. In the North Central PDP won with 71 per cent average and cleared the whole 6 states also note it had its highest percentage vote in Niger State with 83 per cent following the pattern in Katsina 86 per cent, Kaduna 77 per cent, Kano 75 per cent, it is important to note that total vote cast in Kano was 904,713 while Kaduna was 1,676,029.

In the South East PDP averaged 70 per cent against AD/APP 29 per cent winning the five states. South South gave PDP 76 per cent average victory against AD/APP 24 per cent. AD/APP cleared the South West with 78 per cent victory against PDP’s 22 per cent note that PDP made 25 per cent of votes cast only in Ekiti State and Ogun State, the home state of General Obasanjo. This result showed PDP to be a North, South East, South South Party coupled with 21 Governors against APP’s seven, AD’s six and All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP’s) two. In the National Assembly, PDP had 59 Senators representing 54 per cent against APP 29 per cent and AD’s 18 per cent. In the House of Representative PDP had 57 per cent of members, APP had 20 per cent and AD 18 per cent. The data above showed PDP as the truly national party capable of healing our past pains and building a Pan-Nigerian platform for national inclusion.

Sadly, within the first term of President Obasanjo, many factors which I cannot discuss in detail conspired to damage the PDP brand. I will mention a few. The sharia controversy, the Okadigbo debacle, poor performance of the executive, the Atiku saga, the emergence of General Buhari and the franchising of the PDP were the key issues that changed the story of the PDP. The 2003 election changed the dynamics and the trajectory of the PDP.

The sign that the Sharia controversy had hurt PDP in the North surfaced in the election of 2003 where PDP averaged 36 per cent to lose the North west to ANPP’s 62 per cent only winning by a slim margin in Kaduna State. Note that the voting numbers in Kano rose significantly to over 2 million votes with ANPP polling 1,628,085 to PDP’s 492,755 with a voter turnout of 58 per cent while Kaduna still gave 1,025,347 votes to PDP against 870,454 to ANPP. In the North East PDP won narrowly with 49 per cent against ANPP’s 48 per cent. Interestingly, PDP only won in Adamawa and Taraba due to what many interpreted as the Atiku and Christian factors. In the North Central PDP’s 1999 lead reduced from 71.7 per cent to 65 per cent still winning all the North Central against ANPP’s 33.9 per cent. It is important to note that PDP’s victory in Plateau rose from 74 per cent in 1999 to 92 per cent in 2003.

In the South East PDP’s victory came at a reduced average of 68 per cent against 70 per cent in 1999 while ANPP scored only 5 per cent of the votes the rest went to All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) whose candidate Dim Emeka Ojukwu scored 22 per cent effectively taking the votes of the AD/APP alliance and a small fraction from PDP. In the South-South PDP had its highest average vote of 92 per cent against ANPP’s 7 per cent. The major catch was the 90 per cent average vote of the PDP in the South West against ANPP’s 3 per cent. Note that in Ogun state PDP pooled 99.9 per cent of the votes cast.

By 2003 PDP had become a South East, South-South, South West and North Central Party with Christian support in the North. President Obasanjo faced with his Vice President’s widely speculated insurrection and the loud cries for him to become Nigeria’s Mandela shrewdly franchised the PDP to Governors, wooed Vice President Atiku back and rebuilt his Northern military base who had brought Ekwueme back into the fray. In rebuilding his network, President Obasanjo, unintentionally in my opinion, turned PDP into an elite conspiracy without a social base or mass following. The effort to woo the South West also cost PDP some following in its traditional base.

A vigorous and technocratic approach to governance coupled with global economic tail wind redeemed President Obasanjo’s record and gave him the confidence to attempt a restructuring of the Party and the Country. Restructuring the Party was the topic of our discussion that fateful night in his living room mentioned at the beginning of this essay. At that time the Economy was humming, PDP had 27 Governors, 76 Senators representing 69 per cent of the Senate, 223 House of Representatives members representing 62 per cent of the House and appeared invincible. Unfortunately the seed for the future defeat of PDP was sowed.