PDP: A Vehicle of Unity & Economic Prosperity -By Abdullahi Abva

The People’s democratic party (PDP) is Nigeria’s foremost modern day political party and has presided over its affairs longer than any party in its 60 year History. The party was formed by a group of power political stakeholders across the length and breadth of the Nigerian state known then and now as the G-34.

The party is well and truly the only thoroughly bred “National Party”. The pdp is formidable in every geopolitical zone of Nigeria and has a structural grassroot base in the nooks and crannies of the 36 states and 774 Local government that make up the country.

The party’s actions over a long span of time only goes further to buttress the “National” identity that it embodies. These actions started off in its first major outing at a General election in 1999. The PDP won overwhelmingly with more than 18Million votes and over 62% of the votes cast.

The election was a direct contest between two men of the same native background, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Olu Falae both from the Yoruba dominated Southwest. The two men shrugged it out while flying the flags of the PDP & AD which later formed a coalition with the APP for the the 1999 presidential election contest.

Unlike, the PDP, The AD was practically a southwest regional party. Thus colliding with the APP which in its own right was also battling a regional identity crisis. The PDP of course won the contest due to its spread and the national appeal of its candidate, Olusegun Obasanjo.

The party went on to to defeat the APP in 2003 to win re-election for a second term. This time against an anointed candidate of a powerful northern front under the APP which in its bid to appear as a National platform has now metamorphosed into the ANPP. Obasanjo and the PDP won again convincingly with twice the votes of the ANPP.

Once again, a motivated regional front couldn’t defeat the PDP despite an overwhelming 12 million overhaul in Northern parts of the country. The party went on to lead the country again for another 4 years to complete 8 years of uninterrupted leadership.

The party & Obasanjo went on to clear off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt, grow its GDP worth by over $215 Billon thereby creating millions of jobs and millionaire entrepreneurs in the process due it its private sector driven economy fueled by local, state & national level Economic empowerment & development strategy masterplan. (LEEDS,SEEDS & NEEDS).

The OBJ/Atiku administration set up the EFCC to root out corruption, the NHIS to subsidize healthcare and cater for public health and also introduced the first poverty eradication program (NAPEP) to cater for rising poverty.

By the year 2007, Nigeria had become a source of African pride and was well and truly on course for great things.

On the political side of things, the onus was now on the party to present a candidate to replace Obasanjo whose term as president has constitutionally come to an end. To balance the politics, it was time for the party to look northwards for a replacement and the party in its wisdom picked Umaru Yar’adua, the then Governor of Katsina state and younger brother to Obasanjo’s second in command and chief of staff, supreme military headquarters during his days as a Military Head of state.

Yar’adua picked up the party’s ticket becoming the flagbearer of the Party for the 2007 General Elections. The major opposition remained the same, Muhammadu Buhari and the ANPP. Vice President, Atiku Abubakar picked up the ticket of the repackaged AD which had become the Action Congress (AC).

Yar’adua and PDP in line with its Nationalist ideology principles chose Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s Vice Presidential Candidate from a perceived minority south south not minding the background noise.

Yar’adua won with a landslide and the major opposition ANPP and its candidate Buhari lost out again. Yar’adua embarked on a peace tact with the Niger Delta militants who were destroying national resources in the region thus, costing the country billions in revenue loss.

Yar’adua introduced the 7 point agenda which encompassed policies that revamped the agricultural sector, boosted national gross development index and controlled inflation of fuel and food prices. Yar’adua kickstarted the amnesty program that restored normalcy in the Niger delta. Yar’adua was fast ailing and became incapacitated in his later days as president. He passed away on the 5th of May, 2010.

Thanks to the PDP’s decisive and brute reinforcement of Nigerian Unity via its political exploits, thou believed to be almost impossible by political spectators and strategists, against all odds it was clear that lo and behold a man from a perceived minority ijaw south-south is now the president of the Nigerian federation.

Unlike the paranoid mentality of the opposition who felt power can only be attained with an overwhelming regionally engineered Northern base, the PDP never fielded anyone because he/she possessed regional clout. It was solely based on alignments to balance the unity of the state. It’s no coincidence that the party had representation in all zones from top to bottom tier political offices. The PDP is well and truly “the” Nigerian Party.

By 2011, going by the party’s zoning arrangement it was time to return power to the North for a second term. Goodluck jonathan seeked a second term and the party was magnanimous enough to appease the northern stakeholders of the party in the interest to continue the perceived impossible feat that destiny bestowed on Jonathan and the south south.

Once again, the party won and Jonathan defied the odds and stereotypes and PDP went home with all the bragging rights and rightfully so. The party did the impossible. This time against a full blown northern party CPC which was formed a few months to the 2011 General elections.

To buttress the regional modus operandi claims, the ANPP had matured into a growing national party as at the time. This forced the conservative Northern bloc of the ANPP to pull out and form the CPC just a few months to the election. The CPC still got 12M 94% of which came from the north. By this, the CPC had gone down the long road of full scale regionalism.

Jonathan completed his first term in office and in the process, built the fastest growing economy in Africa which produced Africa’s Richest and foremost Business Man. Jonathan established 12 Federal Universities during his term, 9 of which were situated in Northern Nigeria to reduce the alarming rate of adult illiteracy. Jonathan also established 141 almajiri schools to cater for out of school children in the North.

By this singular act, the less privileged Nigerians got a chance to go to tertiary institutions, community locals got menial jobs at these universities thus improving immediate community standard of living and education thrived by resultant effect.

It was 2015 already and 16 years down the line, the PDP had built strong institutions, a world class economy and an environment that encourages growth at all levels and sectors.

By 2014, regional parties CPC (North) APGA (SE), ACN/AD (SW) and an aggrieved faction of the PDP (N-PDP) had formed a coalition that gave birth to the defunct All Progressives Congress (APC).

By this, the factions of the legacy regional opposition parties had formed a formula that defied the PDP’s National approach, this was a recipe for disaster to unity and stability going forward but all Nigerians chanted was Change ! whilst ignoring the implications of a divided nation.

It’s a no brainer to foresee that a regional minded coalition cannot forster unity amongst a diverse and multiethnically complex nation like ours.

For the first time ever, the major opposition that was majorly dominant in the north of Nigeria sailed through to the southwest and a merger that would go on to unseat a sitting President was actualized. The unstoppable buhari tsunami that was raging in the North since 2003 was handed the structure of the predominant party of the southwest, which it fully utilized to get to Aso Rock.

Jonathan lost the election and Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the President of Nigeria after an election that largely divided nigerians along ethnic and religious lines.

This event had signified a disaster waiting to happen and in the famous words of Goodluck jonathan ;

The choice in front of Nigerians is simple, a choice between moving forward or backward, between freedom and repression, between new ways and the old ways , between a record of visible improvements and achievements and desperate power seekers with empty promises

PDP became a victim of maligned coordinated attacks mainly by ethnocentric and religious actors to appear as a sectional party due to its open arm and all inclusive style of politics and this helped anchor the divisive politics of APC’s legacy parties especially in Northern Nigeria.

To show how motivated the regional blocs were, Atiku Abubakar a very powerful and astute political powerhouse won all the 11 states in the south south and south east and also went ahead to win the de facto Yoruba capital, Ibadan and neighboring Osun state and 4 other states in the North summing up to 17 states plus the FCT in the 2019 General Elections yet still lost to Buhari and the APC.

Atiku’s exploits in 2019 showed the overall acceptability and the grassroot presence of the party across the Nigerian State and the national image his candidacy postulated on the populace in line with the all inclusive National driven politics which the party embodied. Many observers ajudged the election to be questionable and lacking in merit.

It’s been 6 years into the APC led government and it has certainly outclassed the PDP in its gross failure to fix all the atrocities it accused it for. Insecurity and Kidnapping is now a thriving multi million business industry, Northern Nigeria is under threat of basic level education going extinct due to attacks on schools. Nigeria has become the poverty capital of the world and the Nation is on the brink. Secessionist chants are the order of the day and ethnic actors are now emboldened to flaunt their ethnocentrism. The peaceful southeast is now a ticking war zone and the activities of amotekun are employed to safeguard life and property in the southwest.

How did Nigeria get here?

The ultimate question however is;

Did Nigerians throw away diamonds in search of stones?