Saraki’s Balancing Act: Can He Mend a Party That Loves to Break Itself?
By the time BukolaSaraki stepped into the People’s Democratic Party’s newest bonfire of vanities, the smoke was already thick with ego, vendetta, and well-aged grudges. The former Senate President, tasked with chairing a seven-member peace committee, now finds himself trying to stitch up a party that seems most alive when tearing itself apart.
His mission? Reconciliation. His challenge? Reconciling Wike’s unyielding ambition with governors who would rather see a meteor land on Wadata Plaza than hand the party’s future back to its rebel-in-chief.
The PDP’s civil war began not with bullets, but with ballot boxes. AtikuAbubakar’s emergence as presidential candidate in 2023, and his choice of IfeanyiOkowa over NyesomWike as running mate, triggered what some insiders now call the “Delta betrayal.” Wike, along with four like-minded ex-governors (the G-5), promptly began a slow-motion sabotage that many say doomed the party at the polls.
Enter Saraki, the party’s new “therapist-in-chief,” backed by a committee featuring current and former governors, senators, and at least one wounded idealist. But the fight over who should be national secretary — Senator Samuel Anyanwu or Sunday Udeh-Okoye — has proven more litigious than spiritual. Each camp clutches a Supreme Court ruling, like warring prophets with rival holy books.
Wike’s group insists that Anyanwu is the chosen one. The governors, less pious, more pragmatic, stand by Udeh-Okoye. The Saraki committee initially leaned toward Anyanwu, citing INEC recognition, but governors pushed back, accusing Saraki of pandering to the Wike wing.
Meanwhile, in a comic twist that would make Achebe sigh, the PDP secretariat was sealed for unpaid ground rent just hours before a crucial NEC meeting. Wike denied responsibility, but the optics were biblical.
Still, Saraki remains publicly hopeful. Behind closed doors, however, even the walls might admit: this is a house divided, held together by little more than memory and ambition. For now, the only clear winner is entropy.
