The plan by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to bounce back as the dominant party in the country appears to be suffering more setbacks following the outcome of the five off-cycle governorship elections conducted under President Bola Tinubu.
DAILY POST reports that since Tinubu assumed office as Nigeria’s president on May 29, 2023, five off-cycle elections have been conducted in Bayelsa, Kogi, Imo, Edo, and Ondo States.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, won four states, while the PDP, the hitherto largest political party in Africa, claimed just one.
The continuous defeat suffered by the PDP during the elections has raised concerns and cast doubt over the party’s possibility of returning to power in 2027.
The internal wranglings rocking the party have not helped matters either, as the leaders remain at each other’s necks over the control of the party’s National Chairmanship seat.
Some analysts are of the view that the PDP needs to tinker with its approach, else it would finally implode by 2027.
The Director General of Heritage Centre, a Think Tank dedicated to research into economics, politics and opinions, Mr Katchi Ononuju, said the off-cycle elections have shown that APC is employing state capture mechanisms ahead of 2027.
Ononuju noted that the PDP which should have provided a strong opposition to the ruling party has gone comatose due to its internal leadership crisis.
Speaking with DAILY POST, Ononuju said: “Holistically, PDP is supposed to be the opposition but it’s moribund, PDP is gone, it’s comatose.
“Moreso, it undermines the role of the opposition and that’s due to the squabbles within the PDP right from the time of their disagreement which made Kwankwaso go away, Peter Obi left to start the Obidient movement and he became the new toast of the Nigerian electorate.
“So, the APC employed a strategy and protocol for state capture. What you saw in Edo is what you have seen in Ondo, which is the protocol of state capture where it captures INEC and the judiciary. Just go in there, do anything and nobody talks.
“The protocols of state capture have been mastered by the APC and that’s why you see a replication. These are not elections but captured events.
“This is the problem and because they do this with impunity, there is no reaction from a divided opposition.
“This is what Atiku and others did that damaged the PDP and forced people to leave and since then, the opposition has been in disarray.
“If you don’t have an opposition to fight in a democracy, what you will have is an executive that behaves the way Tinubu is behaving.
“If they don’t resolve their issues as opposition and come together as a team, the APC will continue to employ instruments of state capture, which in this case is the INEC. You notice that electoral fraud perpetrated previously by individuals is now being perpetrated by INEC itself and the judiciary that would give them justice.
“Our democracy is in a state of capture, so until we unite as an opposition, forget the PDP because the party is comatose.
“If the opposition wants to fight and provide the necessary strength for democracy, it needs to find a way to unite and in doing that, Atiku who became a Nigerian in 1961 should understand that Nigeria has given him a lot, thanks to the plebiscite that brought in the British part of Cameroon known as Adamawa, the Sardauna province into Nigeria.
“The truth is that a lot has been given to Atiku so he should concede and support the South for the 2027 presidential election, then you can see the opposition come back.”
He accused the APC-led government of muscling the INEC and the judiciary in a bid to capture states.
The PDP chieftain faulted the APC for nominating its party members into INEC and the judiciary contrary to the laws.
He said: “The electoral act as amended is beautiful and had instructions for a Biometric identification of voters before they could cast their votes which made the large number of votes from the North disappear in the last election, that was why Peter Obi won very well.
“But the state capture protagonists stopped the process and claimed that there was a glitch, they, later on, did what they did acrobatically and muscled the judiciary to follow suit, we need to look at that.
“The ability to muscle the judiciary and the INEC by the APC means there is no more democracy if those going for election are nominating party men into INEC and the judiciary.”
Meanwhile, an activist lawyer, Maduabuchi Idam has charged the National Assembly to make laws that would abolish off-cycle elections and ensure a uniform poll in Nigeria.
Idam described the off-cycle elections as a threat to Nigeria’s democracy, adding that corrupt politicians were benefiting from it.
He told DAILY POST: “The issue of free and fair elections in Nigeria is a work in progress, however, we are not making any progress.
“The National Assembly, which has the power to fashion laws that would enable our electoral environment to ensure free and fair elections, appears to be benefiting from the lack of free and fair elections in Nigeria, thereby, making it impossible for them to pass laws that will guarantee free and fair elections.
“Off-cycle elections exert both economic and security pressure on our national life; the resources spent on off-cycle elections can be spared by 60 percent if elections remain uniform.”
The activist insisted that uniform elections could be achieved if members of the National Assembly were willing to purge themselves and make necessary laws.
He said: “To say if we can achieve a uniform election in Nigeria – yes. It can be achieved if members of the National Assembly are willing to purge themselves; members of NASS are people who are continually recirculating themselves.
“If you go to the National Assembly, you see people who have been there since 1999 – that’s to tell you that these are the same people who have refused to allow our electoral law to grow.
“Now this is the reason it would be difficult for this set of people to come up with laws that prevent them from returning to the National Assembly.
“If there are laws made to enable uniform elections in Nigeria, the issue of off-cycle elections would not be there.
“If laws are made that after election results are declared, whatever litigation would arise from it must end before swearing in, there will not be the need for an off-cycle election.
“There will not be a need for corruption in our electoral system because you will know that if you win or lose elections, the period within which that election is tested in court will be a short period and there will be no litigation after swearing in, if this is the case, the issue of an off-cycle election would have been taken care of.
“This practice does not favour the average corrupt politician in Nigeria because that window period to gather resources to intimidate and influence any other election to his favour will not be there.
“It’s better if the National Assembly can be patriotic to pass laws that would enable elections to be uniform.”
The off-cycle governorship elections conducted under President Bola Tinubu have seen the All Progressives Congress, APC, winning four states while the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, claimed just one state.
