By Luminous Jannamike
FORMER Jigawa State Governor and one of many founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Occasion (PDP), Alhaji Sule Lamido, has threatened authorized motion after the occasion allegedly denied him entry to the nomination type for its nationwide chairmanship, a transfer that has thrown the 77-year-old political icon into open confrontation with the very establishment he helped to construct.
The Loyalist Shut Out
For greater than 20 years, Lamido has stood as a continuing determine within the PDP’s turbulent journey, a disciple of the late Aminu Kano’s populist beliefs and a defender of the occasion’s founding social-democratic rules.
Whereas a lot of his friends defected in pursuit of political consolation, Lamido stayed behind, holding the road by way of years of disaster and electoral defeat.
However this week, that loyalty appeared to depend for little. When Lamido arrived on the PDP nationwide secretariat in Abuja to purchase his nomination type, there have been no officers, no paperwork, and no explanations.
“If I’m not in a position to get the shape, I’ll go to court docket, easy,” he informed journalists, his phrases calm however edged with disbelief.
For a person lengthy thought to be one of many conscience figures of the PDP, it was not only a bureaucratic slight. It felt like a betrayal.
The Case of the Lacking Types
The thriller deepened when each the Nationwide Organising Secretary, Capt. Umar Bature (rtd) and the Nationwide Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, reportedly informed Lamido they’d no thought the place the varieties are.
Anyanwu, showing uneasy, confirmed as a lot in a separate interview: “I’ve not even seen the shape. Because the Nationwide Secretary, my job contains preserving data and accounts of all gross sales of varieties, however I’m not in custody of any. I’ve not even seen what the varieties seem like. No person has come to me to purchase one.”
His admission uncovered not solely an administrative lapse but additionally hinted at a potential inner energy play, a quiet try, some insiders say, to form the end result of the forthcoming conference earlier than delegates even converge on Ibadan.
Thunderclouds Over Ibadan
Nonetheless, Lamido has vowed to combat on. “If I don’t get the shape, I’ll go to court docket,” he repeated, his tone as regular as his convictions.
Behind the calm exterior, nevertheless, lies a storm brewing. Occasion insiders whisper of a coordinated effort by influential governors to supply a consensus candidate, reportedly from the North-West, a transfer critics view as imposition and manipulation.
Ought to Lamido make good his menace, the following authorized tussle might stall the Ibadan conference, casting a pall over a celebration already struggling to challenge unity forward of 2027.
Between Loyalty and Legacy
For Lamido, this combat shouldn’t be about ambition however precept. These near him describe a person who values equity and course of over energy, one who nonetheless believes politics must be rooted in integrity, not intrigue.
To his admirers, he represents the ethical bridge between the PDP’s superb previous and its unsure future. To his critics, he’s an ageing idealist unwilling to step apart for a youthful era.
But even they concede that his steadfastness instructions uncommon respect in a political tradition the place loyalty is commonly traded for expediency.
Anyanwu, in the meantime, finds himself within the eye of the storm. His public admission that he has ‘not even seen the shape’ has raised uncomfortable questions on who really runs the PDP secretariat, and who stands to achieve from the confusion.
A Mirror to the Occasion’s Soul
Finally, the Lamido episode has turn into a mirror reflecting the PDP’s bigger identification disaster. The occasion that when prided itself on openness and inclusion now faces accusations of secrecy and inner manipulation.
If Lamido heads to court docket and secures an injunction, the Ibadan conference might be suspended plunging the PDP into yet one more spherical of self-inflicted paralysis.
The irony is hanging: a celebration looking for to reclaim the ethical excessive floor from the ruling APC now dangers shedding its personal by way of inner discord.
At 77, Lamido’s defiance evokes the tragedy of loyalty examined by time. The person who as soon as helped draft the PDP’s founding constitution now stands at its gates, knocking, not for favour, however for equity.
Courtroom declines Lamido’s plea
Nonetheless, in a recent twist to the unfolding drama, the Federal Excessive Courtroom in Abuja on Friday refused to grant Lamido’s software looking for an interim order to restrain the PDP from continuing with its scheduled nationwide conference.
Lamido, by way of his lawyer, Jeph Njikonye (SAN), had prayed the court docket to halt the method pending the listening to and willpower of his substantive movement on discover. However Justice Peter Lifu, in a ruling, declined to grant the ex parte order.
As a substitute, the choose directed the PDP and the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), named as 1st and 2nd defendants within the swimsuit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2299/2025, to seem and present trigger why Lamido’s request shouldn’t be granted.
The court docket’s choice implies that, for now, the conference preparations proceed, at the same time as Lamido’s authorized battle strikes right into a decisive part.
Because the countdown to Ibadan continues, one query looms like a warning bell throughout Wadata Plaza: Whither PDP?
The publish Lamido: Whither PDP? appeared first on Vanguard Information.
