By DAPO AKINREFON

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has almost perpetually been in crisis. Its fate can only be worsened by the defection of the nPDP to the APC.

FINALLY, the G7 governors alongside other aggrieved members of the factional People’s Democratic Party, PDP, have pitched tent with the All Progressives Congress, APC.

With this development, the political equation in the country and indeed in the south west geo-political zone is expected to change.

Former governors of Osun and Ekiti States,  Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Engineer Segun Oni were leading lights in the nPDP before last Tuesday’s celebrated merger.

Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola

The two men are remarkably some of the PDP chieftains closest to former President Olusegun Obasanjo who is known to have until recently been the patron of the PDP in the Southwest.

Obasanjo’s antagonism towards the leaders of the APC in the Southwest is a tale that has been told and retold in the region. It is instructive that Obasanjo was reportedly instrumental to the decision of two of the G7 governors to pull back from joining the APC.

However, given Obasanjo’s own well reported discomfort with the present leadership of the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan himself, many are watching to see how far Obasanjo could go to get his pound of flesh from those presently in control of the PDP.

It is in this light that curiosity would be much raised in Abeokuta today at the launch of the book, “Obasanjo: President of all Presidents.” Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national leader of the APC has been slated to attend the book launch as Chief Launcher, a development that has set several tongues wagging. Remarkably, the event has been slated for the Obasanjo Presidential Library.

The prospect of Tinubu sitting beside Obasanjo today or speaking on a book written in his honour is still befuddling observers.

The two men were also known to be some of the most rabid opponents of the APC in the region, having both been removed from office to the benefit of the APC.

But even within the PDP, the two men were also persons of contention and it is remarkable that the crisis that has bedeviled the PDP in Abuja since 2012 was largely inspired from the crisis in the Southwest.

Some party stakeholders in the Southwest had following the national convention of 2012 taken the party to court alleging that Oyinlola was not validly elected as national secretary of the party.

Last January, the court had given vent to their prayer only for a superior court to reverse the prayer few weeks ago.

Though reinstated, the interim South west leadership in conjunction with the national secretariat, however, refused to accept the ruling.

The acting chairman, Caretaker Committee, South West PDP, Engr. Adedeji Doherty was blunt in his rejection of the ruling and Oyinlola’s claim as being the PDP’s national scribe.

“It is height of self-delusion for Oyinlola and his co-travellers to imagine that he would return as the National Secretary of our great party, the PDP when a Motion for Stay of Execution has been filed at the Court of Appeal and there is a pending appeal against (same) at the Supreme Court.”

Doherty further argued that since Oyinlola has left the party for the nPDP and on the basis of which he and some of his loyalists were suspended by the Osun State chapter of the party.

He further wondered where Oyinlola sought to return, “is it as the National Secretary of a party he voluntarily left or as the National Secretary of his outlawed and illegal group? Why do they want to reap when they did not have the patience for harvest to come? If they knew they had a good case, why did they jump ship?”.

Though Oyinlola was at the Kano State Governor’s Lodge where the pact between the nPDP and the APC officials was sealed he, however, has not come out to formally stake his position. Is he abandoning his claim as the authentic National Secretary of the PDP as was recently confirmed by the Court of Appeal?

Oni on his part was not present at the meeting and associates of the former governor, however, preferred to play safe on the development when contacted on the proposed merger.

Vanguard reliably gathered that Oni, who was in Lagos at a function, received the news of the merger as every other Nigerian.

This development, Vanguard was told, did not go down with Oni, who is sitting on the fence on the matter.

Undoubtedly, the development is of no benefit to the PDP. It is bound to further worsen the fate of the party which has been struggling to find its footing in the region.