The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is not leaving any stone unturned in its effort to win the governorship seats in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States come November 11, 2023.
The party, currently the major opposition party at the federal level, has relinquished its hold on a good number of states since it lost the 2015 presidential election to the All Progressives Congress (APC) after 16 unbroken years of dominance.
At the November 11 governorship elections, the PDP will be looking to consolidate its position in Bayelsa, where it is already in control. In Imo and Kogi States, which are firmly under the control of the APC, the PDP will be fighting to the finish as the APC, which is also the ruling party at the centre, will be most unwilling to give up the seats, plus there are chances that federal might may come into play as it is usual with off-season elections in Nigeria.
But the PDP does not appear intimidated by APC’s prospects. The umbrella party is currently in control of 13 out of Nigeria’s 36 states – Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta State, Edo, Enugu, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba and Zamfara State – and will be looking to up this number to 15 or, at the very least, keep the number at the current 13.
Late last month, the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) set up a 363-member campaign council to coordinate its campaign in the three states comprising 122 members for Bayelsa, 121 for Imo and 120 for Kogi State.
The composition of the campaign councils across the three states is a showcase of who-is-who in the PDP. Taraba State Governor, Kefas Agbu, chairs the Bayelsa State campaign council; Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, heads the Kogi State campaign council, while Zamfara State Governor, Lawal Dauda, leads the campaign council for Imo State.
Furthermore, the Bayelsa team includes Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara; former Bayelsa Governor, Senator Seriake Dickson; PDP’s Deputy National Chairman (South), Taofeek Arapaja; former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori, among others.
For Kogi, there are Plateau State Governor, Caleb Muftwang; Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed; former Senate President, David Mark; former PDP National Chairman, Ahmadu Ali, and so on.
Similarly, the Imo State team comprises, among others, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno; Enugu State Governor, Peter Mba; Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki; former Senate President and Acting Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Adolphus Wabara; former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha; former Ebonyi State Governor, Senator Sam Egwu; former Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa; and former House of Reps Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu.
At the inauguration of the campaign councils on August 2 in Abuja, acting National Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagum, was upbeat that the party would win the governorship elections in the three states, which he described as PDP strongholds, and charged members of the council to work within the law to win the states.
“We don’t expect less from you because before you were selected, you were found very capable and we expect nothing other than victory,” Damagun said.
“You are going in at a time whereby the country as it is, everybody is feeling the burden of the mistakes that have happened in this country. What is expected of you is, go there and remind them that this is not what we bargained for, and that there is a time God in his infinite mercy always gives us to change the course of history, and this is the time,” he said.
Damagun assured that the party would win Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi, which he described as PDP states, adding, “Somehow, they slipped away but Bayelsa has always had a PDP governor.”
“I want to challenge everyone in this country to look at the states governed by PDP governors viz-a-viz the other parties. We have always excelled,” he said.
From Osun State Governor Adeleke to the PDP governorship candidates in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States, speaker after speaker expressed the same level of confidence as Damagun that the party was on course to win the three states in contention.
Bayelsa State Governor, Duoye Diri, who is also the party’s candidate in the election, said the people of the state have resolved to re-elect the PDP, adding, “PDP is very sure of victory in Bayelsa.”
The candidate for Kogi, Dino Melaye, said, “I just want to announce that as far as this election is concerned in Kogi, APC is history. APC has gone to oblivion. PDP is the party to beat in Kogi.”
Sam Anyanwu, who is flying the PDP’s flag in Imo, said he was back to reclaim the party’s mandate in the state.
“Imo is traditionally a PDP state. What you have there now is a product of the court. I am back to reclaim the mandate of the PDP,” he said.
But despite these assurances, the PDP is not leaving anything to chance. Last Tuesday, the party constituted a 12-man special national media/publicity committee to sensitise the people to the party’s policies and programmes ahead of the governorship polls in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States.
The role of the 12-man committee is “to liaise with the various campaign councils and committees for the elections to ensure effective media and publicity actions for the victory of our party in the elections”, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, said in a statement.
Ologunagba chairs the committee, with Richard Ihediwa as Secretary, and Emmanuel Ibeshi, Kola Ologbondiyan, Emmanuel Ogidi, Segun Sowunmi and Richard Akanmode as members.
Other members of the committee are Don Evarada, Alfred Kemepado, Arthur Ugochukwu, Ezekwe Uche and Ibu Thomas, who is to act as technical/ information and technology assistant to the committee.
The party also asked its members in the three states to go the whole hog in ensuring victory for the PDP and its candidates in the elections.
