From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The year 2024 would be remembered as the period when Nigeria’s major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) spent more time on internal squabbles than in offering credible opposition to the government of the day.
Like at the national level, PDP leaders at different state chapters were also embroiled in various tussles for supremacy, with Edo and Rivers states sticking out like sore thumbs. In all, it was a year of conflicts for the opposition party.
The year started with party leaders agitating for a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC). The PDP National Working Committee (NWC) had failed to convene a NEC meeting for the greater part of 2023 to enable the party decide on a substantive National Chairman. The party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, was ousted immediately after the last general election.
Thus, from the beginning to the end of the year, there was no let up in the tussle for the control of the machinery of the party. With the 2027 general election in view, key leaders of the PDP were locked in a grim fight for the soul of the party.
The intra-party crisis, which defined the PDP in 2024, was a fallout of the PDP presidential primary for the 2023 polls. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had clinched the opposition party’s presidential ticket, forcing his major challenger, Nyesom Wike, to second position. Wike, former Governor of Rivers State, is now the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Atiku was to later settle for the former Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate. In the aftermath of Okowa’s nomination as vice presidential candidate, Wike, alongside Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu, as well as Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, then governors of Benue, Abia and Enugu states, formed the G-5.
The G-5 broke ranks with the PDP 2023 presidential campaign team, following the refusal of the party to accede to their demand for the replacement of Ayu, with a southerner, as National Chairman.
Regardless, the former Senate President eventually lost his seat after his ward in Benue State suspended him as a member of the party. He was subsequently replaced by the PDP Deputy National Chairman (North) , Umar Damagum, as acting National Chairman.
Damagum was expected to hold sway until the North Central, where the national chairmanship was zoned to, produces a replacement for Ayu, in accordance with the opposition party’s constitution.
What the PDP constitution says
Article 47 (6) of the PDP constitution (2017) stipulates that “where a vacancy occurs in any of the offices of the party, the Executive Committee at the appropriate level shall appoint another person from the area or zone where the officer originated from to serve out the tenure of the officer.”
Battle for national chairmanship and secretary positions
Consequently, the major issue that shaped the PDP in 2024 was who controlled the levers of power in the party, especially as the two feuding camps that emerged during 2023’s electioneering returned to the trenches.
The PDP NEC eventually met on April 18 to resolve issues plaguing the opposition party. Prior to the NEC meeting, which was the first in 13 months, the tension heightened in the opposition party as the gladiators battled for supremacy.
On the one hand, loyalists of the FCT minister wanted Damagum to continue to lead the PDP, while Atiku’s supporters pushed for the party to choose a substantive National Chairman from the North Central, in line with the PDP’s constitution.
As the Atiku and Wike camps battled over the national chairmanship of the party, the leaders of the South East chapter of the PDP were also at daggers drawn over the office the National Secretary.
The South East PDP, had, in 2023, nominated the party’s former National Youth Leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye, as replacement for the National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, following the latter’s emergence as PDP gubernatorial candidate in the last Imo governorship election.
However, Ude-Okoye’s nomination became a subject of litigation. While Anyanwu remained as National Secretary, leaders of the South East PDP, including Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, and the chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Adolphus Wabara, continued to insist on the nomination of the former National Youth Leader as National Secretary.
Wabara, while speaking at the April 18 NEC meeting, stated pointedly that Damagum had overstayed as acting National Chairman. He added that the inability of the PDP to appoint a substantive National Chairman, as well as contention over the National Secretary position, was hurting the party.
Wabara said, “Recalling the events that led to the ousting of the former Chairman of the party, in person of H.E. Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the current acting Chairman has spent over a year in office; whereas as the usual practice of the party, the region from whence the national officer hails from should have produced a viable candidate to complete the tenure of the former national officer.
“Furthermore, the contentious issue surrounding the office of the National Secretary has regrettably sown seeds of discord within our party. The ambiguity surrounding this position has led to confusion and internal strife, hindering our collective efforts to pursue our noble objectives. The solutions to these two challenges are clearly imbibed in our party’s constitution but deliberate litigations have made the application of these constitutional solutions impossible.”
Nevertheless, the NEC deferred the issue of appointment of a substantive National Chairman to August, when it would meet to take a decision on the issue.
The chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, while speaking on the outcome of the April 18 NEC meeting, expressed optimism that, at most, in September, the chairmanship issue would have been sorted out.
“In September we would have come out from our congresses. We will look at the issue of leadership and look at the issue of our constitution, where it will be. And we will do it with no rancour, “ he told journalists.
However, the NEC meeting scheduled for August never held, as the PDP NWC shifted it to October 24. When the party’s leadership was not forthcoming on the October 24 meeting, PDP leaders at a stakeholders’ meeting , attended by the PDP Governors’ Forum, BoT members, NWC members, the opposition party resolved to reschedule the meeting for November 28.
A few days to the rescheduled date, the NWC, in a statement by Anyanwu, called it off. According to him, the development was as a result of the burial of the wife of the Akwa State Governor, Umoh Eno, scheduled for November 29. Nonetheless, the PDP Governors’ Forum has charged the NWC to hold the meeting by first week of February 2025.
NWC splits
Besides, the PDP crisis assumed a new twist on October 11, as the opposition party’s National Working Committee broke into two factions, leading to suspension and counter-suspension of party officials.
First, a faction led by Damagum, in a statement by the PDP Director of Publicity, Chinwe Nnorom, announced the suspension of the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, and the National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, for alleged disloyalty.
In a swift reaction, Ologunagba, in a counter-statement, disclosed that the NWC had suspended Damagum and Anyanwu as acting National Chairman and National Secretary, respectively, for “anti-party activities”. The group went further to announce the appointment of the National Treasurer, Yayari Ahmed Mohammed, as acting National Chairman.
The split in the PDP NWC is traceable to the political crisis rocking Rivers State, where the Governor, Siminalaiyi Fubara, and his predecessor are at loggerheads. While the Damagum faction appears sympathetic with Wike, the Rivers Governor enjoys the confidence of the Ologunagba group.
Nevertheless, the PDP Governors’ Forum quickly intervened. Although the crisis in the NWC was seemingly resolved, with all the suspensions quashed, the crisis of confidence in the party organ still persists.
A Federal High Court in Abuja, in October, barred the PDP from removing Damagum from office until the party’s national convention. The convention is expected to hold in December 2025. Nevertheless, North Central leaders, including former Senate President David Mark, met recently to demand that the zone be allowed to produce a replacement for Ayu, in line with the PDP’s constitution.
Also, on December 20, the Appeal Court, affirmed the nomination of Ude-Okoye by the South East as PDP National Secretary.
Edo/Rivers PDP imbroglio
Also, the Edo/Rivers crises also took a toll on the PDP in the two states, in 2024, leading to loss of the governorship and local government elections, respectively.
In Edo State, the state chapter of the opposition party was polarised between former Governor Godwin Obaseki and the PDP National Vice Chairman (South South), Dan Orbih, over the politics for the nomination of party’s candidate in the last Edo governorship election.
Also, Obaseki fell out with his then deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, over succession politics. The crisis led to the defection of some PDP chieftains in Edo to the All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the last governorship election in the state.
Although the party set up a Reconciliation Committee to broker peace in the Edo PDP, with Bauchi State Governor as chairman, the panel did not make any meaningful progress. Thus, the PDP went to Edo governorship election and lost the state to the APC.
Also, in Rivers State, the face-off between Fubara and Wike led to the state chapter of the PDP boycotting the local government election in the state. The development led to the major opposition party losing control of the local government administration in the oil-rich state. How will 2025 be for the party?
The party would be required to conduct primary elections in Ekiti and Osun states ahead of the 2026 governorship elections in both states.