How Atiku led PDP to win more states than APC in 2019 elections

By SUNDAY ODIBASHI

Stock taking in the post-2019 general elections tends to show that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, brought immense political capital to the opposition party that boosted its electoral fortunes.

National Daily investigation revealed that among the 29 governors that were elected in the election, PDP won in 15 states while the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won in 14 states. More so, for the first time in the history of elections in Nigeria, an opposition political party won five states at the polls from the ruling party which won the presidential election for the second term of the incumbent; albeit, the PDP lost two states to the ruling party.

While PDP lost Kwara and Gombe to the APC, it won Imo, Oyo, Adamawa, Bauchi and Zamfara states from APC, that is a profit and loss ratio of 5:2. However, Zamfara State was lost by the APC because of the intractable internal conflicts in the party.

Atiku’s defection to PDP from APC in 2018 added three state governors to the PDP’s existing 11 states at the time. So, PDP went into the 2019 general elections with 14 governors and came out with a result of increase to 16 governors in addition to controlling the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

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The party leaders are anticipating that governorship cases in Osun and Kano states may end in favour of the PDP. This could increase the number of states controlled by the PDP to 18.

National Daily inquiry further found that in Kwara State, there were allegations that the APC used federal might to take the state away from the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

In Kano State, the former Governor, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, was alleged not to have shown sufficient support for Atiku in the presidential election in Kano, thus, while bouncing back in the governorship election in the state, the ruling party took advantage of the result of the presidential election in the state to upturn the PDP winning votes during the supplementary election. The simple logic of the winner was the comparison of the presidential election result massively won by the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari and the governorship election result.

Atiku’s political capital was prominent in Adamawa State where the incumbent APC governor was defeated both in the March 9 governorship election and the supplementary election. Similar manifestation occurred in Bauchi State.

In Imo and Oyo states, the governors were leaving offices after their respective second terms.

Before now, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had the record of wining three governors from the ruling party in an electoral transition. However, the states which include Osun, Ekiti and Edo, were win through the court and not at the polls after the 2007 general elections.

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Meanwhile, the presidential election the PDP lost to the APC is still a matter of contention at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. However, President Buhari was on May 29, 2019, sworn in for a second tenure.

In the seven states – Kogi, Bayelsa, Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Edo – where isolated elections are being conducted, PDP controls one state, Bayelsa,   while APGA controls one state, Anambra. The greater burden is still on APC which controls five states.