By Jude Opara

As the 2023 general elections draw closer, there are no doubts that the two dominant political parties in Nigeria are currently in a dirty in-fighting that could threaten their very foundation. Interestingly, the crisis rocking the ruling-All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nothing but self implosion occasioned by the illicit struggle for power and control.

While it is normal in any political setting for politicians to struggle for power, what makes what is happening in both the APC and the PDP strange is the fact that both political parties usually main the same pattern.

There is really no political ideology that one can say is a hallmark of the two political parties because usually you could see a political officer jumping from one party to then other depending on his selfish calculation and interest.

The APC clinched power in 2015 when General Muhammadu Buhari defeated the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP. One would have thought that given the robust campaign and promises made by the APC, their administration would be a sharp contrast with what made Nigerians to reject the PDP.

However, few years down the line, it has been clearly proven that there is really no difference between the two parties except in their names and logos. The APC has been like an accident waiting to happen because after their electoral victory, most of the party stakeholders cried out that they were ignored especially in appointments and placements.

President Buhari was said to have recoiled to his inner circle appointing mainly his friends and allies while ignoring most of those who fought for his emergence as the president. In fact at a point, his wife, Mrs. Aisha Buhari queried where most of the people now calling the shots now were during the campaigns.

After the 2015 victory, some elements in the APC began the policy of fencing some other stakeholders. For instance, there was the leaked memo by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna warning President Buhari to be wary of the acclaimed national leader of the party and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.  In deed Tinubu used to be a frequent caller at the Aso Rock but shortly after, he was more or less fenced off. There was the rumour that the President was keeping him at arm’s length.  

Tinubu had worked very hard for the emergence of Buhari as the president and also immediately after their electoral victory, he ensured the ouster of the former Chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun and the enthronement of his loyalist and ally, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Oshiomhole who had just left office as the governor of Edo state began operating as the lord of Manor, running the party more or less like his private empire and always talking as if he had immunity from removal. His overbearing influence came to a head in 2020 when he insisted that his estranged ally, Governor Godwin Obaseki must not re-contest the Edo state governorship election. In his attempt to replay the record of Lagos state where Tinubu was said to have rejected the former governor of Lagos state, Akinwunmi Ambode from returning, Oshiomhole ignored all pleas to allow Obaseki be but all to no avail.

The disqualification of Obaseki by the APC forced him to join the PDP who wasted no time in handing him their ticket to represent them in the election. And it is instructive to note that angered by Oshiomhole’s obstinacy, even some APC governors secretly supported Obaseki to win.

Shortly after the victory of the PDP in Edo state, the governors moved against Oshiomhole and the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC met in the Presidential Villa in June and summarily sacked the National Working Committee (NWC) led by the former Edo state governor.

The APC in their wisdom appointed a Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) headed by the Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state. The CECPC was given six months to organize and conduct a convention where a substantive NWC was to be elected by December, 2020. But more than one year after, Buni and his men are still occupying the National secretariat of the APC.

In fact Buni and his team gave reasons to believe they were never intended to leave in six months because as soon as he arrived at the party’s secretariat, he began by renovating the office of the National Chairman. Many analysts saw that as a sign that he was not ready to leave office soon.

But the chicken seems to have come home to roost because of the Supreme Court verdict on the Ondo state governorship election where the apex court ruled that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of the APC won the Ondo 2020 election.

The tribunal dismissed the joint petition of Eyitayo Jegede and the PDP lodged against the declaration of Akeredolu of the APC as the valid winner of the Ondo gubernatorial contest.

Jegede and the PDP had in their case, queried the legal validity of Akeredolu’s nomination by the national caretaker committee of the APC headed by Mai Mala Buni, Yobe governor.

They specifically asked the court to determine whether Buni, as a sitting governor, could double as national chairman of the APC to sign Akeredolu’s nomination form for the governorship election.

According to section 183 of the Nigerian constitution, “the governor shall not, during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever”.

Akeredolu narrowly escaped in a split verdict of 4-3. It was said that the governor got judgement because the plaintiffs did not join Buni in their suit.

Minister of state for Labour and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Festus Keyamo had advised the party against going ahead with the Ward Congresses last week. Keyamo advised that Buni should resign to give the party the opportunity to put somebody who may not have the baggage Buni has as a sitting governor.

Surely, going into the events that will lead to the next general elections, already different factions are germinating within the APC and surely this will not augur well for the party and also the country.

In the PDP, the story is no better because since losing power in 2015, the party had failed to play the critical role of an opposition party. They have failed to take advantage of the numerous errors of the APC to warm themselves into the hearts of Nigerians.

What they have been doing is to hope upon hopes, believing that Nigerians will vote for them given the failure of the APC. Only intermittently the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan will issue statements attacking the APC and their policies.

Many stakeholders have made calls for the Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus to resign, but somehow the Rivers state administrator has managed to hold on to his position.

But on Tuesday, the news filtered in that seven members of the NWC had resigned their position sighting highhandedness and lack transparency on the part of the party leadership. The truth is that the mass resignation is nothing but a sign that there are powers behind that action and it is aimed at forcing Secondus out.

In the last one year, the PDP has lost three governors and several members of the parliament both at the national and state levels.

Many analysts believe that one real problem the PDP is having is the fact that since after losing power in 2015, former President Goodluck Jonathan has not really played that role as the leader of the party. The former President Olusegun Obasanjo publicly tore his membership card and had said he no longer plays partisan politics. So the seeming absence of a figure in the mould of a former president has left the party in the cold.

It is only Governor Nyesom Wike of River State that is now playing the real opposition by intermittently challenging actions and policies of the federal government. The other PDP governors are simply seen but not heard.

Yes, many people have also blamed Wike for the emergence of Secondus because during the convention, he threatened the party until he had his way of enthroning his kinsman as the Chairman.

So going into the 2023 elections, there are huge uncertainties over which between these two parties that Nigerians can trust, given the fact that they are merely two sides of the same coin. There have been rumours that people like Tinubu who may not have his way in the APC will team up with some other aggrieved politicians from both the APC and the PDP to form a third force that could wrestle power from the two dominant political parties.