By Abel Daniel

Nasarawa State was the  stronghold of the Peoples Democrat Party PDP since the inception of democracy in 1999 until 2011 when, through an election, it was displaced by Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura.  The PDP governorship candidate in the 2011 poll and governor,  Aliyu Akwe Doma, lost to Almakuru, who emerged on the platform of defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.

Almakura

The fall of Akwe Doma, whom many analysts described as a sleeping governor, marked the beginning of the end of the PDP in the state.

The first tenure of Almakura witnessed the harshest opposition from the PDP dominated House of Assembly with its threat of impeachment.  The governor survived even though his party – CPC-had only three lawmakers in the 23-member parliament.

The governor, while delivering his valedictory speech at the close of his first tenure, described the tenure tenure as the most eventful moment of his life as a public servant. Looking ahead, he said: “I have fought my greatest battle with the end of my first tenure”. Almakura said that presumably because the opposition PDP had lost grip of the state with the domination of his new party, All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state House of Assembly.

At the moment, PDP has only five lawmakers in the parliament and APC 18.

The collapse of the PDP is glaring in the state as it has been forced into silence since the April elections that deposed (displaced) the party. The PDP secretariat which used to be a beehive of activities has suddenly turned to a grave yard.

The APGA with Labaran Maku as the party’s driving force has systematically taken over the place of (the leading) opposition party in Nasarawa from the PDP. The only voice of opposition can only be heard from the Maku-led APGA. However, the party did not have structure in the state until Maku decamped from the PDP over the claim that he was  robbed during the party’s primary election ahead of the 2015 general elections that brought in Yusuf Agabi as its governorship candidate.

The emergence of Agabi as the winner of the primary election was believed by majority of the party faithful as the cause of the party’s defeat at the governorship poll. Agabi apparently lacked the political structure that would have guaranteed his win. He relied on the party‘s structure.

Unfortunately the PDP did not do its home work  to secure a win; it  rather crashed even below APGA in the overall result of the governorship as announced by the INEC. The reason basically was because of anti-party activities that became Nasarawa PDP syndrome.

It was the same syndrome that led to the PDP’s defeat in 2011 when the likes of Abadullahi Adamu, a former governor, mobilized his supporters to vote for Almakura. The trend repeated itself in the 2015 election when Agabi was alleged by his Campaign Director, Senator Solomon Ewuga, to have voted for the then APC presidential candidate, Muhamaddu Buhari, among many other PDP top members.

The anti-party activities were so pronounced in the PDP that Doma on the eve of the governorship election called on his supporters to vote for Almakura of the APC. Doma did not pretend like others who will secretly campaign for the opposition and claim to be working for the PDP.

At the moment, the PDP in the state seems to have lost it political relevance and structure and in serious  need of whom to drive its affairs . There are indications that some of the foundation leaders of the party are contemplating  to decamp to APC while a  large number of the youths have indicated their move to APGA where they claim is where the future political leadership of the state may emerge.

The likes of  Adokwe Osonye, senator representing Nasarawa South; Dameshi Luka, former deputy governor; and Ewuga all lost their election and therefore may not have the capacity and courage to advance the cause of the party. Right now, the Nasarawa PDP does not have headship. The only physical evidence to prove the presence of the party in Nasarawa is the structure of the state secretariat located along Jos Road with the sign board of the party.

Some elder statesmen from PDP who would not want their names mentioned said they predicted the collapse of the party in the state the day Maku was denied the ticket at the primary. According to them, Maka  was the back bone of  the party when it lost to the CPC in 2011. They stated that APGA will witness influx of PDP members soon since the PDP has collapsed in the state.

Analysts are also speculating that APGA may take over from APC in 2019 if Maku maintains the tempo of political agitation and drive for the leadership of  Nasarawa, but also advised that APGA must build stronger political structure between now and 2019.

The result of the governorship election, still being challenged at the tribunal by APGA, has raised the hope that the APC may not be able to curtail APGA in  future elections in the state.      The burden is on Maku and his party to build a formidable structure in APGA to  play the role of the opposition and a platform to accommodate decampees that would enable the party compete favorably with the ruling APC in the state.