Akoko-Edo PDP: The Real Critical Issues. – Elempe Dele Speaks

On September 19th, 2020, we went to the polls for the gubernatorial election in Edo State and PDP won convincingly. Akoko-Edo PDP did better than it had ever done in the previous election being a traditional APC LGA because of the influence of Comrade Oshiomhole for about 12 years, inclusive of the Obaseki’s 4-year reign.

The PDP lost narrowly with just about 2,000 votes and everyone in the Party hoped that with the presence of the Governor now under the platform of PDP within the shortest possible time, Akoko-Edo will easily fall to PDP completely while APC will collapse on its own.

However, the reverse or near reverse is the case from what I saw during the Christmas and New Year Holidays. The truth must be told as plainly as possible.

“We must cast our minds back to the imbroglio that started surprisingly after PDP won the gubernatorial election in 2020. It was the issue that is still raging like a wild inferno till today with no end in sight: the issue of Harmonization.”

Read more: I Am A Member of APC, Please Help – Elempe Dele

In December 2020, as it has always been an age-long tradition for the Governor or government to send Christmas gifts to party leaders, stakeholders, and supporters in all the wards, the issue of harmonization was mentioned to our chagrin and it was said that except the Old PDP members agree to the idea of the governor’s harmonization, they would be treated as second-hand citizens within the party. Yes, most of the old PDP members didn’t get what their new counterparts got. Although heavens didn’t fall, the ill feelings of such a fate were not kept under wraps. Most of us within the media circle shared our anger towards the sad development not knowing it was a trend that would be sustained.

Then in 2021, the issue of harmonization took a strong footing in the government’s party policies. Appointments were made in manners that didn’t suggest fairness, justice, or equity. Leaders of the old PDP who didn’t compromise about their excos were ostracized from the scheme of things and others were purportedly suspended albeit illegally.

The likes of Chief Dan Orbih, Rt. Hon. Ogbiede-Ihama, Hon. Segun Saiki and most of the PDP LGA chairmen were victims although laughingly because their suspensions were done in nullity but the whistle of the hidden war was already blown for the all-out open war.

During the period between the 2021 pre-Christmas and New Year, I had the rare opportunity to speak with one member of the New PDP who was suing for peace on a platform I was on when he read the communique issued after the get-together meeting of PDP Stakeholders held in Engr. Fred Attah’s (PDP National Leader, Akoko-Edo) house in Akoko-Edo. The New PDP member(name withheld) happen to be one respected elder who held an elective position in APC before he joined PDP with the governor. We were candid with each other in our discussion – son/father discussion.

He told me there was no need for sectional meetings of the sort that was held in Ososo, that if there was a need for such a meeting, it would have been better between the old and the new PDP members, and that we were friends and brothers before we even joined political parties, that I should show him any APC member in Akoko-Edo that was never in PDP, and then we cannot go into an election with this type of division.

He spoke honestly as much as he could. But I told him in a matter of factly that if as a respected leader of the New PDP he was able to organize a ‘voice’ perhaps with others to tell the governor that the New PDP in Akoko-Edo would not accept appointments that are skewed to them without carrying both the leaders and members of the Old PDP along, nor will they accept rams, cows and goats that were supposed to be fairly distributed to all members in Akoko-Edo without sidelining the Old PDP members and their leaders, I think the governor will have a rethink that these people cannot be divided.

I said, with the utmost respect, that in a case where the New PDP accepts appointments into government we all worked for equally to enthrone, accept gifts without consideration for the Old PDP, it is only logical that the Old PDP members would wish to forge a common union within themselves for their political survival within the system that treats them unfairly and unjustly. I added that the ‘good’ New PDP members also have lost their morals rectitude to be calling for peace after accepting these government’s pecks with sealed lips without asking what goes to their brothers, friends, and former colleagues in the Old PDP.

We spoke at length and promised to have a face-to-face discussion with one other opinion leader in the Party some other time and we ended the conversation with a very friendly liveliness.

However, we must note something I experienced in Akoko-Edo recently; while APC is waxing stronger, PDP is deteriorating in its gained fortunes. The Rt. Hon. representing Akoko-Edo in the House of Reps was able to send down more Christmas gifts to all APC members throughout all the wards than the Governor could. Another APC stalwart organized free medical services and gifts for widows yesterday in Akoko-Edo with thousands in attendance.

Meanwhile, the PDP is embroiled in a never-ending feud due to harmonization. APC in Akoko-Edo has been holding meetings to strengthen their grassroots base here while PDP has not held a single joint meeting, which is unnecessary though, since the protracted face-off between the Governor and the Old PDP members. In Akoko-Edo, like other LGAs, we have not seen any single APC member decamped to PDP, meanwhile, PDP members, including the former press secretary to the former LGA chairman, have been decamping to APC, swelling their membership.

While their rank is swelling in APC, PDP is facing some forms of self-inflicted implosion arising from this harmonization.

Ideally, the party which has the governor of the state attracts new members from the opposition, but in the case of PDP in Edo State, it is repelling members, and we must look out for the immediate and remote cause of this uncommon trend.

Just recently, news of the Akoko-Edo Traditional Council filtered out that it has endorsed the Rt. Hon. Akpatason for 4th term. Although it was refuted later, the effect and the salient meaning cannot be wished away with mere refusal. Ideally, would a traditional council under the governor ever be able to receive gifts and perhaps pray jointly for a member of the opposition party if things were done appropriately by the ruling party?

The people are generally losing interest in PDP Akoko-Edo like the way it is in most LGAs because of the crushing effect of the unfortunately formatted harmonization.

Members of the New PDP in Akoko-Edo must understand that the truth about our future must be analyzed if it can offer us insight into what awaits us all there. If we continue with this unnecessary imbroglio, we won’t be able to win any of the INEC organized elections in Akoko-Edo. That’s the plain truth because as much as we don’t hear about APC in Akoko-Edo, the party is strong there. Just go around communities to see for yourself. And if PDP does not win elections in the LGA into House of Assembly, House of Representative,s or even the Senate, both the Old and New PDP will go into political oblivion, and it will be worst for the members of the New PDP especially when the governor, who is their backbone and livewire leaves into political retirement after 2024. This is so because as a matter of fact, the governor has not been able to warm himself into the hearts of PDP governors in the South-South region or any block in the country for obvious reasons. And for most political leaders like Governor Godwin Obaseki who are not truly all-out politicians, what happens to their followers after they leave office is no more their businesses as they will return to where they come from leaving their followers high and dry.

So it is time for Akoko-Edo PDP to have a leadership sit-together to decide if we want to go into political extinction or if we want to win elections come 2023 and 2024.