Nigeria election: Could the PDP lose power?

Nigeria election: Could the PDP lose power?

Tuesday, March 24, 2015 3:22 pm


President Goodluck Jonathan campaigning in the midst of poverty and economic challenges.

President Goodluck Jonathan campaigning in the midst of poverty and economic challenges.

By Sola Odunfa

This time four years ago, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was riding the crest of strong public support.

As a village boy who had braved poverty in a politically and economically repressed environment to rise to the pinnacle of academic and political attainment, he was the poster boy of many Nigerians who regarded him as their soul-mate in the fight for justice and equity in the country’s governance.

On top of his personal attainments he was standing on the platform of the most formidable political machine in Nigeria – the PDP.

When the PDP was formed to contest the elections of 1999, it was on the solid foundation of the northern political elite, the club of retired military generals and the established political leadership in the south – minus only the south-west.

It has since won every national election comfortably, and so confidently that a former chairman of the party, Vincent Ogbulafor said in 2008 that the party would rule Nigeria “for not less than 60 years”.

At the 2011 presidential election Mr Jonathan polled 22 million votes against his major rival’s 12 million.

It has taken only four years for the glamour to fade from the Jonathan poster.

A lack of security, unbridled official corruption, ethnic favouritism and economic mismanagement have been the culprits.

In that period there have been large-scale defections of PDP state governors and other leaders to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), the most prominent being Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the House of Representatives.

And so the PDP is now a minority party in the house which it had dominated since its inauguration.

This year’s presidential election was initially scheduled to be held on 14 February.

If it had been, all indications were that the Jonathan presidency would be history now and the three-times vanquished Gen. Muhammadu Buhari would have become president-elect.

Injury time

Fortuitously for the PDP, the election was postponed by six weeks to allow the military to quell the insurgency in the north-east and the electoral commission to improve on its preparation.

Sola Odunfa

Sola Odunfa

At least, that was the official explanation.

It has turned out to be akin to injury time in a football final.

The PDP is firing on all cylinders and President Jonathan is like a desperate Cristiano Ronaldo before a full house at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.

I have covered all PDP election campaigns since the party was founded but I have not seen it fight this vigorously and viciously. No holds barred.

So much dirt has been hurled at Gen. Buhari that the barrel must be empty by now.

My heart bleeds when I read about the alleged huge sums of dollars being distributed among religious leaders and in traditional palaces for mobilisation of support for the president – and I am not comforted when the inevitable denial comes.

In the past two months the president has felt the need to go beyond his parish church to seek God’s assistance.

He has been worshipping in various church denominations and attending night vigils in Abuja and Lagos, accompanied by large retinues.

It has not come to public knowledge yet that any of the officiating pastors have pronounced certain victory for PDP next Saturday.

Should the momentum for Gen. Buhari continue and President Jonathan lose, the PDP – the election-winning machine – would be thrown into a situation never imagined.

Odunfa wrote this piece for the BBC.


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