Everything is being done to bury the People’s Democratic Party.
Its governors have been cajoled to abandon the platform that brought them to power.
The ruling All Progressives Congress has an unprecedented super majority in both houses of the National Assembly.
And the judiciary has been weaponised to ensure the opposition party remains dysfunctional and struggles to hold a convention, let alone forge a united front to challenge the APC.
But for some inexplicable reason, the party simply refuses to die in preparation for its burial.
And it’s as if Nyesom Wike is sarcastically screaming PDP, why won’t you just die?
Bode George on the other hand is murmuring in response, ‘I have a whole lifetime ahead of me’.
One explanation for the party’s perseverance could be that; in the more than two decades of existence, no one person or group could claim ownership.
That, however, is now changing.
If internal and external sabotage cannot send the party to the grave, try narrow interests and turning the party into a platform for the ambitions of fewer and fewer members.
State governors can make or break a political party.
It is a reality that has been proven time and again. Back in 2007, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau had a major falling out with Muhammadu Buhari over the elections and the candidates that would fly the ANPP flag in Kano.
As the outcome of the election showed, it was Shekarau that came out on top.
Teaming up with his Borno State counterpart, Ali Modu Sheriff, they ended up pushing Buhari out of the ANPP.
That was how the CPC was born.
Shekarau managed to secure the presidential ticket of the ANPP for the 2011 election but Buhari’s expulsion was in reality the beginning of the end of the ANPP.
But maybe the greatest impact state governors had on the fortunes of a political party was in 2013 when five PDP governors; Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto and Rabiu Kwankwaso dumped the party to join a coalition of opposition parties to form the APC.
Their defection in the lead up to the 2015 presidential election would result in the first and only time in Nigeria’s history that the ruling party would lose the election.
Two state governors had been part of the meetings that would eventually lead to the five defecting to the APC.
The two, Sule Lamido of Jigawa and Muazu Aliyu of Niger chose to stay in the PDP.
Along with the others, they had also pushed for Jonathan to reconsider contesting.
What was reported then was that Sule Lamido couldn’t bring himself to leave the party he had helped build.
Torn between loyalty to the party and having power return to the north, he chose the party.
But even then, he didn’t go as far as wanting to hold on to power by any means after the PDP was swept away in the presidential election and across the country in governorship contests.
He proved to be a party man through and through.
That is why it is hard imagining Sule Lamido now choosing to bring the entire house down because he was denied the opportunity to contest for the chairman’s seat.
Before rebelling, Nyesom Wike only wanted to be the running mate to the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 election.
He has been on a mission to cripple the party ever since.
You can’t accuse Lamido of wanting the same thing, yet he has also gotten a court to stop the party’s convention.
Imagine being the only chairman of a ruling political party to have ever lost an election.
Imagine, as chairman, having to break with the presidential candidate of your party and threatening to concede defeat on the party’s behalf unless the candidate did so.
That was the unenviable position Ahmad Muazu found himself in after the results of the 2015 presidential election was announced.
For all those thinking of the most difficult jobs in the world, they should try being chairman of a major political party.
Whether it is the ruling party or opposition, surviving a full term in office takes a little more than good fortune.
The PDP for example; the only party from the class of 1998 that is still standing, has had 17 chairmen.
Audu Ogbeh came closest to spending a full four years though the party’s constitution limited his predecessors to much less.
Most, though did not last beyond two years with some forced out in dramatic circumstances.
And in a majority of the cases, it was the presidential ambitions of different state governors or the failure to align with a sitting president’s reelection bid that forced out party leaders.
Audu Ogdeh was reportedly working against Obasanjo’s agenda and supporting Atiku Abubakar to succeed Obasanjo.
Vincent Ogbulafor had to resign because he suggested power should return to the north rather than have Jonathan contest in 2011.
Ezekwesilieze Nwodo wanted to curb the influence of governors in the party and Bamanga Tukur defended Jonathan’s right to seek reelection inevitably forcing five governors out of the party.
The remaining governors went for his head.
The APC, which is only 12 years old has had nine party chairmen.
Two of those were in acting capacity and only lasted several weeks each.
Again, like PDP, the politics of succession and presidential elections was what determined the rise and fall of party chairmen.
Adams Oshiomhole was laying the groundwork for Tinubu to succeed Buhari at the expense of the governors.
Mai Mala Buni chose to work for his own interest and position himself to be vice president, while Abdullahi Adamu tried to shut out party stakeholders in electing a presidential candidate.
When it came to Abdullahi Ganduje, he had simply gotten in the way of the president consolidating power and putting Kano in the bank ahead of the 2027 election.
As reports go, the ambition for higher office were once again at play when Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi teamed up with Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa and other PDP governors to push Atiku Abubakar out of the PDP.
A replay of what happened to Buhari in the ANPP.
It was also in direct contrast of how the APC handled the different factions and interests that came together at its formation.
The five PDP governors that defected helped build momentum back in 2013.
But before Atiku joined the coalition, he had one condition; the opportunity to seek the party’s presidential ticket in a free and open contest.
Today, the PDP is not only narrowing the size of its tent, it shut down the contest for party chairman in the name of consensus.
A harbinger of what is to come.
Yes, the governors have an agenda by rallying around Tanimu Turaki as consensus candidate for party chairman.
Turaki, a former minister of special duties under President Goodluck Jonathan, has been at the heart of PDP’s challenge to the presidential election results through several election cycles.
As much as he is an independent politician with his own aspirations, electing him as party chairman would represent an open invitation to Goodluck Jonathan to try and make a political comeback.
That looks to be the ultimate goal of those calling the shots in PDP now.
But it is also not a new idea.
One memorable quote from any Nigerian politician came from Adams Oshiomhole when he said anyone that can’t handle the pain of losing should not be in politics.
In that sense, Atiku Abubakar appears to have nine live lives.
But the bigger question is whether Jonathan has exhausted all his life-lines because it is a pain he knows all too well.
Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, certain forces within the presidential villa attempted to draft Jonathan into the election and even named former Nasarawa governor Abdullahi Adamu to carry out the assignment.
It failed spectacularly.
First because his backer didn’t control the party and then Jonathan wanted to party to roll out the red carpet without him lifting a finger.
He also wanted to party’s presidential ticket handed over to him without putting up a fight.
This was despite knowing there were gladiators in the party with life-long ambitions to be president who felt in that moment in time; it was their turn.
Essentially Jonathan lacked the spirit to risk everything, fight for the ticket and the presidency.
He had been stung before, being the only sitting president in Nigeria to ever lose a reelection bid.
And once again, he is hesitant to throw his hat in the race for 2027.
But considering the extent the powers that be in the PDP have gone, and the number of people purged from the party, they now need Jonathan more that he needs them.
Should he join the race under the party?
Win or lose, it ensures a future for PDP.
But a display of the indecisiveness of 2023 will put PDP out of contention now and maybe a federal high court will dutifully issue a death certificate and that burial process earlier postponed could take place.
