By Ola Ajayi, Ibadan

JUst as things have fallen apart for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre, the Oyo State chapter where the party had wielded so much influence since 1999 until 2011 when it was overthrown by the broom wielding All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. Badly hit by the 2011 defeat of the party, by the incumbent governor, Abiola Ajimobi, the PDP tried to gather its remnants together and fought spiritedly in the just concluded April 11 governorship election. Its fall this time around is more devastating. It came a distant fourth trailing the APC, Accord Party (AP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

pdp-chiefs-in-Oyo

One wonders if the founding fathers of the party like the former National Vice Chairman of the party, South West, Alhaji Yekeen Adeojo; former Minister of Power and Steel, Elder Wole Oyelese and several others had fallen into deep slumber. With this thunderous fall, the party may find it difficult to get back to its feet again. Surprisingly, instead of the party to appraise what led to its fall and make necessary amends, it has started preparing for another fall in future election as chieftains of the party have started blaming one another for the terrible blow that the party suffered in the election.

Politicalbitterness

It is no longer news that one of the factors that led to its fall was the unresolved internal crisis that has dogged the steps of the party since 2011 which the leaders, despite several efforts, failed to tackle in 2015. Just last week, chieftains of the party began another round of political bitterness by trying to put the blame at the doorsteps of some notable people in the party.

Alhaji Adeojo, who campaigned throughout the state for Folarin and the party was annoyed that all his efforts amounted to nothing and that success of the party was punctuated by the uncooperative attitude of leaders like the Minister of State, FCT, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide; Senator Ayo Adeseun and the Chief of Staff to former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, Dr. Saka Balogun.

Following their alleged anti-party activities, Adeojo announced their suspension with immediate effect. Oloye Akinjide who coordinated the presidential campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan in some parts of the South West zone was alleged to have used the money of the party to garner support for the Accord governorship candidate, Ladoja. Other politicians that were axed by the party include Alhaji Kunmi Mustapha from Iseyin Local Government and Hon. Moroof Akinwande from Oyo.

As for Adeseun who defected from the APC to PDP, Adeojo accused him of working against the PDP in Ogbomoso zone by his tacit support for the Labour Party governorship candidate, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala. Adeojo said, “It is a shame that these so-called leaders of the PDP sold out their conscience for personal aggrandisement and greed, despite their professed loyalty to the party.

Loyaltyto the party

While they have deceptively carried themselves as members of the PDP, their activities in the last governorship election showed their duplicity and it is on this account that the party has suspended them.” But, in response, some leaders of the party under the aegis of the Progressive Youth Frontiers (PYF), led by its secretary, Comrade Abiodun Adeniyi, accused Adeojo and the governorship candidate, Senator Teslim Folarin of being the cog in the wheel of success of the party.

They described Folarin as someone who lacked the political clout to win election in his ward let alone the state adding that the party leadership began another journey into the abyss of failure immediately they picked him as the candidate against the interest of several chieftains of the party. Apart from Folarin, leaders like Alhaji Adeojo was not left out saying their refusal to allow Senator Rashidi Ladoja, former governor of the state who parted ways with PDP after he was denied a second term ticket in 2007 back into the party and be fielded as the governorship candidate of the party.

The group said those “retrogressive elements pushed Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, Mr Seyi Makinde, Elder Wole Oyelese and others out of the party just to gratify self-serving ends.” “They took hold of the National Working Committee of the PDP in Abuja, embarked on a zero-sum game and tilted the party to a near abyss all because of selfish interest and unrealistic ambition,” the statement said. As the heated controversy is raging between Adeojo and others, Alhaji Adebisi Olopoenia and the state executives of the party are at daggers’ drawn over the results of the election.

Olopoenia, while reacting to an earlier comment by the Publicity Secretary  of the party in the state, Mr. Kehinde Salawu, who threatened sanctions against those who are   trying to put the losses behind them and forge a new PDP, said “Everyone knows they are failed executives of the party. I do not even expect them to talk at this point in time. They should come and tell the  whole World what they have done towards the progress of the party in recent  times, most especially, the last general elections.

“I can say that all they know is to share bags of rice and collect money from aspirants in the guise of giving them tickets. A promise which they did not fulfil 100 percent. Some of those they collected money from and failed to give tickets to contest the last election are still  raining curses on them”. “It still baffles me that the party’s PRO  is now coming out to kick against a group of people who are willing to  transform the party and give it a new face. Where was he when the APC was  hitting hard on the PDP on radio, T.V and even on the pages of newspapers?

“He should be able to tell us why he was unable to respond to criticisms from opposition parties most especially the APC before and during  the last general elections. In fact, I’m still wondering how such a group of  people will be threatening sanction on a particular set of people who are  ready to change things from the old way of doing them in order to turn around  the fortune of the party in Oyo State”.

Speaking on the fatal fall of the party in the election, Senator Lekan Balogun, another bigwig of the party attributed the festering crisis to alleged high handedness of some leaders saying, “some ministers destroyed the party and the presidency. It is more painful that the party may be destroyed permanently.

Globalinterest

According to him, instead of the party leaders to take global interest as their cardinal principle, they pandered to selfish interest which spelt doom for the party. He added that for the party to regain its lost glory, there has to be radical departure from its selfish interest. In as much as he would not want to be enmeshed in the unedifying crisis within the party in the state, he disagreed with those who said Senator Folarin was a wrong candidate.

To him, if the leaders had genuinely worked for the party, Folarin would not have lost the election noting that as a former Senate leader, he had contested and won election before in the state. Will PDP rise to its feet from this mud in which it has fallen? Only time and its willingness to mend its torn umbrella which has exposed its members to scorching sun and downpour will determine.