Date: 2015-04-28

BIOLA AZEEZ (Nigerian Tribune) gives an insight into the situation in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State before and after the 2015 elections in the state.

BEFORE the  2015 general election, some analysts in Kwara State had predicted that only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its members in the state could determine the success or otherwise of the party in the elections. They had based their postulations on the glaring divisive tendencies among members of the party, which the leaders had tried so well to manage, albeit without success.

When Senator Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, moved from the PDP, to team with others to form the All Progressives Congress (APC), those who remained in the PDP, had promised to fortify it towards taking back the government through the elections. Some of the  PDP leaders included: Senator Simeon Ajibola, Dele Belgore (SAN), Professor Oba Abdulraheem, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, Alhaja Muinat Sagaya,  Alhaji Yinka Aluko, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, Deacon John Darah and Alhaji Bio Ibrahim.

However, it was discovered that instead of working in unison towards evolving a cohesive winning plan, the PDP leaders reportedly worked across purposes, as most of them reportedly nurtured governorship ambition. This led to a supremacy tussle over the control of the state PDP executive committee, a situation that degenerated to violence during the party’s primariy election.

Also, some loyalists of Senator Gbemi Saraki in Ilorin West local government chapter of the party, led by Toyin Olosasa, addressed journalists, alleging injustice against them by the Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo-led state PDP executive committee, over the chairmanship position in the local government. There was also the case of a business mogul, Alhaja Muinat Sagaya, who is one the financiers of the party in the state. She is believed to enjoy a close relationship with the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame Patience Jonathan.

Her son contested for the Asa/Ilorin West Federal constituency. Before the governorship primaries of the party,  Alhaja Sagaya had accused Senator Saraki of being  a mole in the PDP.

There was a time that the supporters of Senator Gbemi Saraki claimed their leader was being marginalised in the scheme of things.

The yawning gab further manifested after the governorship primaries, when some governorship aspirants decided to back Senator Simeon Ajibola against Mr. Dele Belgore, who was accused of being sponsored by the presidency. Therefore, the state PDP went into the election as a divided house.

While the APC candidate, incumbent Ahmed, led in all the 16 local governments  areas of the state and polled a total number of 295, 832 votes, his PDP counterpart, Senator Ajibola got 115, 220 votes and Dr Mike Omotosho of the Labour Party scored 2, 973 votes. It is generally agreed that there is the need for a strong opposition in order to check possible excesses of those in power. However, some observers in the state are of the opinion that the PDP really needs a father figure to play the role of an effective opposition.

Some see the outgoing Minister of National Planning, Abubakar Suleiman and Senator Ajibola as personalities that could constitute a rallying point for the state PDP. Interestingly, a number of the PDP leaders in the state have promised to rise to the challenge of repositionining the party so that the party can serve as constructive opposition and maintain its firm grip on such local government areas as Oke Ero, Ekiti and Isin. According to the deputy governorship candidate, Mallam Ahmed Yinka Aluko,  despite the outcome of the poll, the PDp leaders will not shirk in their responsibility of providing true and committed leadership to PDP fathful in Kwara. He said the PDP family was determined in freeing the state from what he called an age-long economic and social bondage.

Recently, the leader of the APC in Kwara, Senator Bukola Saraki, talked about the efforts of Senator Gbemi Saraki at boosting the chances of the APC in the state. He had stated: “Apart from the fact of being a biological sister, if you look at the political family and remove the biological aspect of it, tell me who is in the PDP that is not a family member of this place (Great Hall of Late Olusola Saraki),  or who is in the PDP that did not start from this place? So, if they accuse the APC of implanting Gbemi in the PDP, then all of them, we took them there for implantation. The only difference between Gbemi among them is the issue of being my biological sister. Is it Bio, Abu, Ajibola or Yinka Aluko, tell me who among them? The only person there you might say did not come from the house is Dele Belgore. Apart from Dele, everybody in that place is coming from this house. Tell me one person who has risen in his political independent of this house. That is a cheap blackmail that cannot take them anywhere.”

Senator Saraki, who traced the dismal showing of the PDP in the  elections to a lack of people-oriented ideology by its leaders, said they were only interested in fighting Saraki family and not to care for the people, adding that the outcome of the election had showed the direction which the people desired. His words: “In Kwara here, the message I have always been saying from day one is the way politicians in the opposition parties behave. They think that Kwarans are fools. They go away for three and half years and come back six months to elections and believe they can take the people for granted,” he said.

There is no doubt that the Kwara PDP has a great task ahead. It is the challenge of re-engineering to achieve a better performance in subsequent political contests, coupled with restoring confidence in party faithful on the ability and capacity of  its men to rise again against all odds and insinuations that the best had left their  fold.