By Augustine Akhilomen

Few weeks after the 2023 general elections, it appears the main opposition party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), is gradually trying to put its house in order, with the pressure on the National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu to step down from presiding over the party.


It would be recalled that the battle to remove Ayu started last year immediately after the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar emerged as the presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 elections. Ayu had then promised to vacate his position if a presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 elections emerged from the north.


However, following the emergence of Atiku, Ayu, who was variously accused of favouring the Adamawa born politician, reneged on his promise and insisted on continuing as chairman, a development that polarized the party and contributed to its loss at presidential election. Ayu was indeed at the center of the crisis that contributed to the poor performance of the party during the 2023 general elections.

Even so, his resignation had been the condition given by five governors of the party, the so called G5, including Nyesom Wike, Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Seyi Makinde, who had refused to support the presidential ambition of its candidate, Atiku Abubakar

All efforts by the G-5 Governors and their Integrity Group allies led by the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to put pressure on the leadership of the party to see reason and do away with Ayu fell on deaf ears. The party paid a heavy price for it.


Meanwhile, rather than bow out honourably after losing at the poll, the Ayu-led National Working Committee (NWC) went on a suspension spree, suspending leaders of the party like former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, former governors Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti) and referring his State Governor Samuel Ortom to the party’s national disciplinary committee.

For sure, many political observers had hoped that Ayu would have done the right thing and resigned in order to allow the party to reorganise itself and prepare for the challenges ahead. However, the embattled party leader remained unmoved until last Monday, when a High Court in Makurdi, Benue State, issued an interim injunction restraining him from parading himself as the PDP chairman. The presiding judge, Justice W.I. Kpochi, gave the interim order in suit No. MHC/85/2023 filed at the court by a party member from Benue State, Terhide Utaan with Ayu and the PDP as defendants.

Interestingly, on Thursday the party at the national level reversed the recent suspension slammed on a former governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema; former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose; Senator Pius Anyim; Prof. Dennis Ityavyar (Benue State), and Dr. Aslam Aliyu (Zamfara State)


It also reversed the directive to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State to appear before a Disciplinary Committee for alleged anti-party activities.

Before now, however, Governor Wike had mocked Ayu that his ouster was the beginning of the fight to save the party. The governor said it was unthinkable to allow someone who was unable to deliver his political unit, ward, local government and state to remain as chairman.


“Ask them, those who want to be chairman of this party (PDP), what do you have to give to the party now? Presidential election; you took bribes, and lost in your unit, lost in your ward, lost in your local government and lost in your State. Which party will you preside over now”, Wike said.

Wike said it was God who hardened Ayu’s heart not to resign when the G-5 governors and members of Integrity Group demanded his resignation after the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as presidential candidate. He maintained that if Ayu had resigned then, his cohorts who were opposed to the zoning of elective and appointive offices would have used that as an excuse for the party’s abysmal performance in the just concluded general elections.


To the governor therefore, it would be morally offensive for Ayu to remain as national chairman after the catastrophic defeat of the party under his watch in his unit, ward, local government, State and national.

“Those of you who are fighting that they have suspended him; you have not seen anything yet. The fight has started. Ayu, the fight has just started. If you know him, those of you who are close to him, tell him, Iyorchia Ayu, the fight has just started.”


Wike said instead of Ayu using his position to strengthen the grip of PDP in Benue State, he allowed it slip off him. He said other PDP controlled states would not sustain the party financially and tolerate Ayu as their chairman.

“Will you preside over the one (Rivers PDP) I have secured victory for? You want to come and preside over this state (Rivers) so that we will begin to donate money to the party? You bring your own state to the party too so that your state can contribute money to the national. If you don’t deliver your state, you can’t preside over us.


“You cannot…Look at somebody who did anti-party, he is suspending people. The chief priest of anti-party, native doctor of anti-party suspending those who have worked hard for this party. All of you who are joining Ayu, be prepared. Now, I have no other job, the job I have now is to put more heat on them and I will continue to do that”, the Rivers State governor added.


Also, as part of measures to resolve the crisis rocking the main opposition party, a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George has called for calm and unity in the PDP. According to him, a divided house is a defeated house. He called on both PDP supporters and leaders who love the party to conduct what he described as a post-mortem.


The reason for the stocktaking, George stated, is to avoid making the same mistakes that have plagued the PDP into its current internal crisis in the near future.


His words “It is not a matter of wanting Ayu or not. All I was saying as a respecter of the rules of the party was that when the founding fathers came, (they) made it exceedingly clear that whoever emerges as the President cannot come from the same zone as the National Chairman.

“I remember what Ayu told us that if the presidential candidate emerges from the North, I will resign, now he didn’t. But those mistakes have been made. The underbelly of the party is still rumbling.

“Whether I like him or not, that is not the issue now. The main issue is that we must stabilise this platform. Let everybody cool down. If we start firing ourselves and make the party look like a divided house, a divided house is a defeated house.”

In the same vein, a former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Shehu Sani, on Wednesday said Ayu led the opposition party into a worse situation. Sani, who reacted to Ayu’s resignation in a series of tweets, accused him of leading the opposition party into a more devastating situation.

“Ayu met the party in the City of Sodom and tried his best and led it to the desert of Gomorrah.

“The fact is that even if Ayu had stepped down before the election, nothing much could have changed; because those opposed to him were also struggling to survive and at the end couldn’t help themselves much.

With Ayu’s removal temporarily put to rest, questions are being raised if the leadership of the party will be sincere and pragmatic enough to work assiduously to reorganize the party and put it on a sound footing to again win the heart of Nigerians in an ever changing political environment.

While it is yet too early to determine if the appointment of Ambassador Umar Damagum as acting national chairman, will bring the needed facelift of the party, Nigerians will be watching if the party is ready to play its constitutional role of an effective opposition party.

Even then, the new leader took the right step by rescinding the decision to suspend key members of the party. The next step will be to try to appease aggrieved leaders, like the G5 and others, who were not comfortable with the way and manner Ayu ran its affairs. “The opposition parties, particularly the PDP, will have to put their act together and checkmate the excesses of the government of the day. That is the only way Nigerians interests can be protected because a virile opposition party will put the government on its toe”, says Ademola Johnson, a public policy analyst.

Johnson noted that Ayu should have thrown in the towel when it was apparent that his party had been defeated at the polls. “It was the most honourable thing for him to have done and it would have paved the way for another person to do the postmortem and prepare the way forward. The onus is therefore on the leadership of the party, which failed to realize that the only way to defeat a ruling party is to be united, to wake up and face the challenges ahead with vigour and open heart”, Johnson said.

The new leadership should however be commended for seeing the need to, “recognized the imperativeness of a total reconciliation among party leaders and stakeholders for a more cohesive party in the overall interest of our teeming members and Nigerians in general”.