Ex-rep: Internal crisis discouraging politicians from joining PDP

Rimamnde Kwewum, a former member of the house of representatives, says the internal crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is pushing politicians to seek refuge elsewhere.

Kwewum, who represented Donga/Ussa/Takum federal constituency of Taraba from 2015 to 2023, spoke on Focus Nigeria, a programme on AIT, on Monday.

He said political parties in Nigeria have become mere vehicles for contesting elections, rather than platforms grounded in ideology.

“I dare say that it is a peculiar Nigerian situation that political parties don’t mean much to people,” he said.

“To us politicians, they are just platforms to conduct elections, for people to find where to contest.”

He said many politicians who left the PDP later returned, claiming that other parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), are worse.

“Unfortunately for most people, I’ve seen a lot of people who went out of the PDP to other parties and they go back to the PDP saying that the other parties — of course, including the current ruling party — are worse than even the PDP itself,” he said.

He added that self-interest is the dominant force in Nigerian politics.

“The fact of the matter too is that a lot of politics in Nigeria is about self. It’s about groups, small interests — and about self largely — because some people need to survive,” he said.

Kwewum said politicians will avoid a party that is disorganised and unable to win elections.

“If PDP is showing signs that it is unable to put its house in order and it’s unable to win elections, anyone who wants to win the election definitely would not want to go to PDP,” he said.

“They would prefer to go to where there’s a chance to win, whether they are going to win the election by fair means or by any means whatsoever.”

He added that many politicians treat elections as do-or-die affair.

“All they’re interested in is that they should be in government. That is why very high-profile persons like the senate president, when he was the minority leader, decamped from the PDP to the APC,” he said.

“You are seeing governors who presumably control their states moving over to the APC, and some of the excuses, some of the reasons they are giving don’t make sense at all.”

On Sunday, Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the APC, said the PDP is on its way to extinction.

Ganduje who described the party as a “failing opposition”, added that internal divisions within the PDP will lead to its collapse before the end of 2025.