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With Just 67,000 Votes Of The Total Vote Cast, Where Did PDP Get It Wrong In Ekiti State?

If there is any Political party that has been taught a bitter lesson in the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti State, it is no other party than the People’s Democratic Party.

This is not about losing the election. There is absolutely nothing wrong in a party losing a heavily contested election like what they just had in Ekiti but for a strong opposition party like PDP to come a distant third in the contest really called for worry.

Out of the 370,753 vote cast, the People’s Democratic Party managed to record 67,457 votes to come third. Social Democratic Party that does not have a visible structure in the state or anywhere in Nigeria scored 82,211 while the ruling All Progressive Congress won with a wide margin by securing 187,057 votes.

Where exactly did PDP get it wrong in the state having left the government barely four years ago?

There is one thing to attribute to PDP failure in Ekiti and this can only be traced to the emergence of Chief Bisi Kolawole as the party candidate. 

Immediately after the primary that produced him as the Flagbearer, PDP has been enmeshed in an endless crisis that tore it apart and appeared to have spelt this doom for them. 

Segun Oni after claiming he was unfairly treated in APC defected to the PDP with the hope of picking the party ticket to contest the election. Knowing him for his Grassroot connection, many people believed that he had what it takes to return PDP to power if he picks the ticket.

But Fayose, the self acclaimed grand leader of the party at the state level reportedly stood against him. He insisted that Oni can not just return to the party and expect to emerge as Party’s Candidate.

He threw his weight behind Bisi Kolawole and screwed the primary election in his favour. Kolawole won the controversial primary and this triggered a heavy rancour among party leaders and members.

Angered by the development, Oni moved to SDP and took alongside many of the party stalwarts. Those Who remained in PDP simply waited to perfect their anti-party activities.

At the end, Bisi Kolawole, the perceived grassroot mobilizer and Fayose’s poster boy could not rescue himself and the party from the sinking ship. Even Fayose became helpless in the harples face of the political storm. They all sank together with PDP in Ekiti 2022.

Since the announcement of the results, accusing fingers have been pointing toward the direction of the former governor. He was believed to have been responsible for wrecking the party. 

The argument is that if Fayose had allowed the primary to be conducted in a credible way and didn’t impose his candidate, Segun Oni would have won the primary and all hands would have been on deck for the main election.

Instead of having a split vote like what just happened between SDP and PDP, the entire votes would have gone to the PDP and this would not have been easy for Biodun Oyebanji and APC to record such massive votes and ultimately won the election.

This is exactly where PDP got it wrong in Ekiti state.

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Seun Akin

Seun Johnson is a professional journalist and proficient media strategist with over 10 years of consistent work experience. He is Verse in content creation and versatile in editorial administration with a deep knowledge in digital, print and broadcast journalism.

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