Mr LA Vs Sardaunan Badarawa : Has PDP Sold Out?

 

By; MIKE ODEH JAMES 

The intrigues and suspense that trailed the nullification of the Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP) primaries that saw Mr. Lawal Adamu Usman elected as the party's standard bearer for Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 2023 general election is gradually reaching its climax.

After the hastily arranged November 9, 2022 rerun, which saw Mr. Usman Ibrahim winning by a huge margin, many party faithful and outsiders are beginning to ask if the the party hierarchy at the state have not compromised or sold out.

Amongst the questions on the lips of many party faithful are, why allow Usman Ibrahim also called Sardaunan Badarawa, a known APC supporter and a close ally of Governor Nasir el-Rufai into the PDP few months into the primary? They are also asking why he was given a waiver and go ahead to participate in the primary earlier this year.

Others  had observed that following the primary early this year,  the Felix Hassan Hyet-led PDP gave the Sardunan Badarawa a leeway to file an appeal  even against the stipulation  of the 2022 electoral act as amended, which categorically stated that one must file an appeal or complaint not later than two weeks after the exercise. The Sardaunan Badarawa camp filed its appeal  after the expiry of those two weeks.

Many party faithful were bewildered when they learnt that the PDP had fixed a date for the rerun  few days after the court's decision. The party officials did not deem it fit to exhaust its internal mechanism of dialogue, but went ahead with the rerun. More appalling was the fact that  party officials decided to go ahead with the primary when they were aware that Mr.LA had gone to a court of higher jurisdiction to appeal  the nullification of his victory, his appeal also came with a stay of execution.

Many people had  alleged that at the rerun proper, Mr.Lawal Adamu Usman and four other aspirants boycotted the  exercise, despite the boycott, all the six  aspirants’ names were published as having participated.

They also added that, within a time frame of 1:47 minutes on the morning of the 7th of November, the  primary was  held with less than 100 delegates present out of 250,  who refused to participate.

However, the state party chairman, Felix Hassan Hyet  while speaking to newsmen in Kaduna,  debunked the allegation  making the rounds that the leadership of the party is partisan and out to favour the Sardaunan Badarawa over Mr LA  being the reason for the quick conduct of the primaries against the stipulated 14 days as pronounced by the federal high court.

He explained, “I want to tell everybody that as a party, and me being the Chairman of the party, I monitor political developments in other parties just like other parties do monitor ours, I realised that, if we do not go into that primary re-run early, we could end up having serious problems, that may deprive the people of the central senatorial district a candidate for the PDP."

By and large, the interest of the PDP at the state level is to make sure that it provides platform for candidates with sterling qualities and the clout to win elections in the forthcoming polls, in this regard, it can be argued that based on the current happenings, Mr LA, having spent more time in the PDP and helped to reposition the party after its electoral defeat in 2015, has a better chance of winning the Kaduna Central Senatorial seat for the PDP than Mr Ibrahim .

The entrance of Ibrahim into the PDP at a crucial moment  is seen by many as a grand plot of the APC to cause confusion within the party in order to blight its chances of defeating the ruling party .Many political pundits are of the opinion that the Hyet-led PDP should have seen this from the beginning 

More so, Mr. LA enjoys the support of the Presidential flag bearer of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and the former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, all these are political advantages which would translate into victory for the PDP in the next election, an advantage which Sardaunan Badarawa does not have.

The PDP in the state has not reckoned with the fact that the electorate in Kaduna Central have Mr. LA etched on their minds as their candidate, due to his performances in the past four years.Thus displacing him with a lesser known fellow  would almost come with a backlash resulting in the victory of the APC .

In the final analysis, a victory for Lawal Adamu is certainly a victory for the PDP in the state as his influence can motivate their victory of the party at all levels of the election.