AHEAD OF 2027… PDP, Labour Party ‘Caged’ As Opposition Coalition Eyes SDP

With the major opposition platforms, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), entangled in intense internal wrangling, the prospects of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) leading the much-anticipated coalition ahead of 2027 have arisen.

This follows former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his new membership of the SDP.

El-Rufai, a founding APC member, defected to the SDP shortly after he met behind closed doors with former Osun State governor and interior minister Rauf Aregbesola and Pastor Tunde Bakare, a former presidential running mate of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

El-Rufai, who has become a key figure in the opposition coalition movement, also met with Buhari in Kaduna last week during which he was believed to have told the former president about his defection plan.

Other coalition members discussed are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, former Minister of Transportation Chibuike Amaechi, and former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami.

The coalition aims to stop President Bola Tinubu from getting a second term in the 2027 election.

LEADERSHIP learned yesterday that El-Rufai’s move to SDP was to gauge the ruling party’s reaction, after which other opposition members would follow suit.

An insider, who pleaded anonymity, hinted that besides the known politicians in the coalition movement, the former Kaduna State governor hopes “to woo members of the CPC camp who have been relegated within the APC.”

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was formed by Buhari ahead of his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2011. He was to lead the party into a merger with Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) ahead of the 2015 election in which Buhari won the presidency on his fourth attempt.

However, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, a key member of the coalition movement, is hesitant about leaving the PDP under which he ran for president in 2019 and 2023.

Even though Atiku has been canvassing an opposition coalition to defeat the APC, he refuted claims that he had dumped the PDP on Sunday, declaring he is still a bonafide member of the main opposition party.

Similarly, Kayode Fayemi, the former governor of Ekiti State, has distanced himself from reports that he had dumped the ruling APC.

Fayemi, in a terse statement, said he remains a card-carrying foundation member of APC and “this position has not changed.”

Former Kaduna governor El-Rufai, who has been estranged from his successor, Governor Uba Sani, hinted at his dumping the APC in a recent interview on Arise TV, saying the APC had left him.

El-Rufai’s meetings with the SDP national leadership since 2023 had fueled speculations of his likely defection from the APC after the Senate rejected his ministerial nomination by President Bola Tinubu, whom he recently blamed for it.

The prospects of a coalition movement have sparked speculations about an El-Rufai and Peter Obi joint presidential ticket in 2027, which some PDP governors are backing.

The PDP Governors Forum, however, refuted this claim over the weekend.

It was also learnt that the SDP was chosen because of its relative stability, even though the party has always been considered a possible alternative opposition platform.

It will be recalled that in the heat of the post-2015 crisis in the PDP, some party leaders had broached the idea of adopting the SDP should the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led camp defeat the Senator Ahmed Makarfi group of the PDP.

In the build-up to the APC primaries for the 2023 election, some Tinubu loyalists considered SDP if he was denied the APC ticket.

 

 Why I left APC – El-Rufai

Justifying his resignation from the APC, El-Rufai said developments in the last two years confirmed a lack of desire on the part of those who currently control and run the party to acknowledge and address its unhealthy situation.

El-Rufai, a former FCT minister, said he had raised concerns in private and, more recently, in public regarding the APC’s capricious trajectory.

“Therefore, at this point in my political journey, I have concluded that I must seek another political platform to pursue the progressive values I cherish,” he said.

The former governor said he submitted a letter resigning his membership of the APC to his ward in Kaduna, effective immediately.

He said he concluded consultations with his mentors, colleagues and loyalists across the country about the future, adding, “I have now decided to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and adopt it as the platform for our future political engagements and activities.

“Without prejudice to this decision, as a member of the SDP, I will focus on engaging with and persuading other opposition leaders and parties to join us and congregate under a unified democratic platform to challenge the APC in all elections and bye-elections between now and 2027, by the Grace of God.”

El-Rufai recounted his contribution to the founding of the APC and his role in the party’s electoral victories since 2015, saying, “It had been my hope since 2013 that my values and that of the APC will continue to align up to the time I choose to retire from politics.”

The former governor noted that as much as founders feel attached to institutions they helped create, “I recognise that the party has since strayed and left me stuck in the vision of its well-meaning founding fathers and mothers.”

He called on all his supporters and other persons concerned about the country’s future to join SDP in making Nigeria flourish as a beacon of pride for Africans and the Black Race.

The SDP presidential candidate in 2023, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has welcomed El-Rufai to the party.

He said with an avid worker like El-Rufai joining the party, it was time to liberate Nigerians from the shackles of poverty and insecurity that the APC has put them in over the years.

Writing in his official X handle, @Pres_Adebayo, he said: “On behalf of the teeming members of the SDP and patriotic democrats, who believe in Nigeria and her promise of inevitable greatness, I heartily welcome my dear brother El-Rufai to our party.

“With the hardworking and sagacious Mallam joining our ranks, an avid worker for the people has been enlisted in our forces against poverty and insecurity.

“Now is the time for us to put our collective shoulders behind the efforts to fulfil Chapter 2 of the Constitution and rescue Nigerians from bad governance and underdevelopment to restore #HopeAgain 2027 to the suffering masses callously left behind in the locust years of the APC and its co-traveller PDP,” he said.

 

…Kaduna Won’t Lose Sleep Over El-Rufai’s Defection- APC Party Scribe

 

Meanwhile, the Kaduna State chapter of the APC has said the party will not lose sleep over El-Rufai’s defection.

The secretary of the APC in Kaduna, Alhaji Yahaya Baba-Pate, said the party is unconcerned about El Rufai’s move but focused on delivering the state to President Bola Tinubu and Governor Uba Sani in 2027.

Baba-Pate, who spoke to journalists in Kaduna on Monday, said the influx of high-profile politicians reflected the party’s rising profile.

He said, “The APC in Kaduna State is growing daily, judging from the calibre of politicians streaming into the party daily. So, we are not disturbed by anybody defecting to another party based on our governor’s inclusive governance in the state.

“We are not disturbed and will not lose sleep over El-Rufai’s moves. The party in the state is growing more than before,” he stressed.

 

PDP, LP still entangled in internal party conflicts

With less than two years before the 2027 presidential elections, the PDP and Labour Party have remained enmeshed in a series of crises, leading to massive defections from their folds.

The intra-party crisis in the PDP, which preceded the 2023 presidential election, has gotten worse as the battle for control of the party between the G-5 PDP Group, led by the then Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and the pro-Atiku group has assumed different dimensions.

From the agitation for the resignation of PDP acting national chairman Amb Illiya Damagum to the battle between Wike and his estranged successor and Rivers State governor, Sim Fubara, for control of the party, the party has yet to find a common front.

A tussle over the national secretary position between Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Hon Sunday Ude-Okoye has further weighed down the former national ruling party.

Although the party’s governors, Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Working Committee (NWC) have recognised Ude-Okoye as national secretary following judgements of high and appellate courts, Anyanwu insists on retaining the position and is awaiting the Supreme Court judgement on the matter.

A new crisis emerged recently over the leadership of the party in the South-South geo-political zone.

These crises have caused a split with the PDP national leadership and a blackout of aspirants ahead of the November Anambra election.

PDP leaders have accused the ruling APC of instigating the crisis within their folds, saying the plot is to weaken the opposition and create a one-party state.

The situation is no different in the Labour Party (LP), which has also been engulfed in a leadership crisis.

Following a protracted opposition to Julius Abure’s return as LP national chairman, some party leaders set up a Caretaker Committee led by Senator Nenadi Usman, a former minister, in 2024.

Although Abure challenged the decision in court and won, the party has not been the same again.

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), which came fourth in the last presidential election, is not faring any better.

The party’s founder, Boniface Aniebonam, has been fighting to reclaim his position from the 2023 presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, whom he accused of hijacking the party he joined in 2022.

The crisis has produced three different factions—one is loyal to Kwankwaso, one is loyal to Aniebonam, and the third is loyal to the Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf.

So far, SDP appears to be the only national party devoid of rancour, bickering and defection.

 

Our Party Still Strong – LP

But LP’s national publicity secretary, Obiorah Ifoh, has dismissed concerns about his party’s state, arguing that it will soon receive defectors from other parties.

“I can tell you that political movement is based on interest. A member of the House of Representatives moved from PDP to Labour just last week.

“We are not concerned about the present alignment. We are only concerned about people holding political mandates who keep moving from one place to another. In the Labour Party, a lot has happened and will still happen before 2027,” Obiorah said.

According to Obiora, the LP is awaiting the Supreme Court’s pronouncement on defection before announcing it.

 El-Rufai moved too soon – Ex-APC Vice Chair

A former national vice chairman of the APC in the northwest, Salihu Lukman, said El-Rufai should have been patient enough for them to walk out as a group based on the ongoing negotiation.

Lukman, a chief strategist and key leader in the proposed national political coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections, said as an ally of the former Kaduna helmsman, he would not join him in the SDP unless the party met the coalition’s requirements.

The former director general of the Progressives Governors Forum said El-Rufai’s defection had been anticipated, especially after his recent interview.

“I expected that he should have been a bit patient for us to walk out as a group based on the current negotiation that is ongoing.

“But he knows better, and I hope his decision will not become like a breakaway from whatever we are doing. In the end, I hope we can reconcile and work together under one platform.”

While he underscored the need for the right conditions to join the SDP, Lukman said Nigerians need a platform to promote political competition in the country.

“If you remember, the problem Nigerians had with PDP was the imposition of candidates. And when the APC came and promised ‘Change’, Nigerians expected we would change the culture of imposition.”

He said APC has failed in that regard and has become worse.

“Only if SDP meets our set conditions, which I have highlighted. At the moment, they have not met it. We are in discussion, no doubt about it. If they meet it tomorrow, fine,” he added.

 

El-Rufai’s defection not a threat to APC – Shehu Sani

Reacting to El-Rufai’s defection, former Kaduna Central lawmaker Senator Shehu Sani said the former governor has been pushed into political oblivion.

He said while the country needs a viable opposition, it does not need a congregation of disgruntled politicians, adding that APC will win Kaduna State without El-Rufai.

Sani also played down the visits made by El-Rufai to some prominent politicians, adding that his exit from APC is of no consequence in Kaduna State because the incumbent governor is serving the state well.

“What we are having in Kaduna State is far better. By 2027, we will deliver APC as we want because we have the people on the ground,” the former lawmaker said.

He predicted that El-Rufai would cause a crisis in the SDP, adding that wherever the former governor goes, he causes trouble.

Stressing that he will dump the APC if El-Rufai returns to the party, Sani said, “I can’t stay with somebody who brings crisis habitually.”

 

I Will Tackle Gov Sani’s Opponents, Says Ex-Speaker Zailani

Meanwhile, a former Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly and member representing Igabi West constituency, Yusuf Zailani, has vowed to tackle Governor Uba Sani’s political opponents, saying Igabi local government area is for President Bola Tinubu and Governor Sani’s re-election in 2027.

Zailani noted that Governor Sani’s policies had impacted the vast majority of the people of Kaduna state.

The former Speaker Zailani stated this when Governor Uba Sani and some senior government officials paid him a condolence visit at his family house in Rigachukun, Igabi local government area, over the passing of his stepmother, Hajiya Fatima Abdullahi.