Gubernatorial poll results confirm PDP’s receding status

The outcome of the gubernatorial elections held in 29 states of the country Saturday, appears to have further compounded the woes of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Results available to BusinessDay last night before the paper went to bed, show that the PDP lost some of the states under its control and failed in its bid to secure Lagos and Imo States, which it had laboured so much to achieve.

Before the gubernatorial election Saturday, the PDP was in control of 21 states, namely:  Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Benue, Plateau, Niger, Kogi, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Kaduna, Ekiti and Ondo.

Out of these, elections were held in 16 states and the PDP lost Adamawa, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and Katsina states.

Analysts say that the implication of the huge losses the party suffered in the 2015 general election is that it has become a regional party.

The PDP, which has held power at the federal level and controlled most states across the country, had at different times boasted it would retain the reins of power till 60 years.

The party’s major crisis which eventually reduced it to the current status began with the pulling out of its fold, in one day, of five governors and a number of stalwarts.

There was also internal wrangling, following the widespread imposition of candidates that characterised its primaries at various levels.

It would be recalled that some ministers in the Jonathan government had resigned their appointments to contest the gubernatorial elections in their various states. Apart from Nyesom Wike, a former minister of State for Education, none of the ministers got the PDP nod to actualise his ambition.

Onyebuchi Chukwu, former Health minister; his counterpart in Information, Labaran Maku; Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta), Emeka Wogu (Labour); Samuel Ortom (minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment), among others were all denied the ticket in PDP.

Ortom, who defected to the APC in Benue, eventually emerged winner in the Saturday’s poll.

Before the elections, some members of the party had threatened to embark on protest votes to shame the party.

It would also be recalled that the insistence of the PDP to impose President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate despite agitations by some members that they should be given the opportunity to compete with Jonathan at the primary level, may have weakened the party’s base.

Observers also believe that the lack-lustre style of Jonathan’s administration in the last five years may have nailed the PDP’s political coffin.

“What we have just witnessed is a revolution. Of course, you know that revolution can come in different shapes. It is not surprising that the PDP has now taken the back seat in the nation’s politics; many keen observers saw it coming. I think it is a good development.

“We have been there for 16 years now, let’s see what APC can do in the next four years. I am a member of the PDP, but I think what has happened now is in the best interest of the country,” said a member of the PDP who asked not to be named.

ZEBULON AGOMUO