The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) does not deserve the votes of Nigerians in 2023 and there are at least 3 reasons why.
The last ten days have been bad for Nigeria. Actually, the headlines have been no more depressing and scarier than over the last few years when it comes to murder and loss of lives, but the audacity of terrorists is escalating.
First, the attack on the Kaduna airport on March 25 which accounts suggest were aimed at hijacking planes with passengers still on the tarmac.
Then the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train three days later, with at least 8 dead, 26 injured and 21 missing persons reported. Unfortunately, that is not the full picture because we might never know the complete number of people kidnapped or how many were on the train that night.
Why? Although the train has capacity for 840, only 362 tickets were validly sold and there might have been as many as 970 people on it. Only another day in mindless theft of public resources with serious implications for accountability.
Yet our leading opposition party, PDP, is unable to be the type of opposition we need – vocal, clear on recommendations and leading the charge to empathize with those who are suffering.
This is the first reason why the party should be boycotted. Despite the consistency of the onslaught on Nigerians socially, economically and politically as a result of APC’s unthinking policies and unbridled state capture, asides from a few statements, PDP has not engaged the public half, as well as APC, did when it was Nigeria’s leading opposition party.
PDP’s comatose posture might be a testament to the care that APC has taken to close the civic space and muzzle dissent but it is also an indication that PDP has learnt nothing from its 2015 defeat: the party and its members were out of touch with Nigerians.
Another reason to boycott PDP in 2023 is that 11 months to an election with promise, where the incumbent in Aso Rock is not on the ballot, PDP is still undecided what zone its presidential candidate is going to come from.
Section 7(3)(c) of PDP’s constitution provides that in furtherance of the party’s objectives it will ‘adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of the party and public elective offices’.
There are at least 3 permutations that contribute to the difficulty the party faces: one is that PDP’s last president (2011-2015) was from the South and as such the presidency should be zoned to the North.
Another is that President Jonathan as the party’s presidential candidate in 2011 created a break with zoning and third, that since Nigerians have endured 8 years of a president from the North (regardless of party), PDP’s presidential candidate should be from the South.
For onlookers, this situation that PDP is grappling with has been inevitable since the 2019 presidential election results were announced. This means PDP has had 7 years to determine this question.
However, instead of resolving the question of zoning early and definitively, to give its presidential candidate time enough to win the hearts and minds of Nigerians and convince sceptics who see no difference between PDP and APC, we have at the last count at least 13 contenders – 5 from the north and 8 from the south with one woman so far.
A party that boasted, at the height of its reign, that it would stay in power for 60 years, should have learnt from the last two election cycles and worked hard to pre-empt this situation.
The inability to be focused and think strategically about the internal workings of the party indicates a lack of political will to tackle Nigeria’s challenges as we have witnessed over the 16 years of the PDP presidency.
PDP’s avoidance of their zoning question also signals that the ruling members have no sense of justice and equity and are prepared to ignore rules, even theirs, to get what they want; the same way they indulge themselves at the expense of the public when it comes to managing public resources.
Finally, those who represent PDP have no sense of rectitude. During a week of ASUU strike, no-end-in-sight fuel scarcity and nationwide power outage, Governors Wike and Obaseki took the edge off our pain with distracting drama.
The trade in words was a show that should induce shame but Nigerians, from the impoverishment of the soul and the pocket, no longer think much of shame; it has no purchasing power and it is not required to capture and wield political power.
Again, like the attempted coup within the APC’s national executive team in the run-up to the APC convention, the squabble between the two governors is about the control of the party and how the PDP primaries will be determined. Nothing to do with us and Nigeria’s trials..
Read also: Nigeria’s 2023 elections: The ballot or the bullet?
APC and PDP do not deserve our votes in 2023 and there are logical reasons why. However, it will be near impossible to shake them up and out with our votes without massive concerted effort.
This is not only because Nigeria has been evolving towards a 2-party system (represented now by these two platforms) but in addition, there are deep subliminal and popular beliefs about not wasting votes for outliers and candidates that do not fit the profile of abusive use of power and then there are those invested in strengthening narratives about the inevitability of APC and PDP’s victory at the polls.
We are not doomed to a non-choice between these parties that are not even two sides of a coin but a cheat coin with the same sides. There are elements of what it can take to win from a non-mainstream party with a review of Soludo’s win in the Anambra gubernatorial election last year– albeit from a party with some track record at the state and national level.
Emmanuel Macron’s win in 2017 also gives us a study of what a combination of luck (acts of God or in our case the man-made incompetence of the APC administration and the history of PDP’s governance which when used strategically could be a tsunami of disadvantage), focused partnerships, consistent messaging and an energized electorate can achieve.
There are no examples of oppressive systems reforming themselves without a demand – how we vote in 2023 will signal our determination that we deserve and want better.
If we vote for either party in 2023, we will be rewarding ineffectiveness and entrenching the sense of entitlement – unless and this is a big exception, the parties give us candidates who are a deviation from the norm.
A lot of work is required but voting in candidates not from the two main parties is not impossible. The louder the voices telling us we have no choice except those 2, the more determined we should be to prove them wrong because there are enough ethical, competent Nigerians to fill all the elective and appointive positions in Nigeria – we need to keep repeating this until it sinks in and becomes our reality.
Ayisha Osori, author, Love Does Not Win Elections
