PDP Civil War: Wike’s ‘rebels’ clash with Damagum’s iron wall

•Governors, ex-governors and party chiefs trade fire as Ibadan convention becomes the frontline of a brutal fight for PDP’s survival

By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is not just divided. It is at war with itself. In Abuja this week, the party once proud to call itself Africa’s largest political family looked less like a movement, more like a battlefield.

No rallies. No cheering supporters. Only boots in Maitama at midnight, whisky and anger on the table, and papers at the secretariat stacked like weapons.

This is trench warfare. The scars will last long after Ibadan in November.

The ‘rebels’ gather

The uprising has a general: Nyesom Wike, Minister of the FCT. Still swaggering like a field marshal of dissent, he enters meetings with the calm of a man with nothing to lose, his allies moving behind him like lieutenants preparing for an assault.

Around him stands a hardened corps of ex-governors: Samuel Ortom, Ayo Fayose, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Their faces carry the scars of old battles, men who have won and lost elections but never lost their appetite for combat.

They are no longer whispering; they are shouting. Their six-point ultimatum reads less like negotiation and more like surrender terms handed to a defeated enemy.

Fresh congresses in Ebonyi and Anambra. A new South-East zonal congress. Recognition of South-South outcomes upheld by the courts. Local government congresses in Ekiti. An end to micro-zoning beyond NEC’s formula. And the chairmanship must stay in the North Central.

The message was not a compromise but a command. Without these, they declared, the Ibadan convention is ‘invalid.’ The ‘rebels’ are already making moves. Envoys slip in and out of Wike’s Abuja residence under cover of night.

Whispers of contact with the ruling APC pass through the ranks like contraband. The air in PDP’s corridors hangs heavy, like gunpowder waiting for a match.

The counter-offensive

The response was swift. At the national secretariat, Umar Damagum, PDP Acting National Chairman, stood before the elective convention planning committee during their inauguration last Tuesday. He carried himself like a commander no longer willing to retreat. His words came sharp, a dare to the ‘rebels’.

“At critical moments, I chose restraint, not out of weakness, but as a conscious sacrifice for the survival and stability of our party. The PDP is not broken. It is not defeated. It is marching forward, stronger and more determined to reclaim the presidency in 2027,” he declared.

Around him, the hall stiffened. Governors leaned in. Aides straightened their backs. The atmosphere shifted like soldiers bracing for artillery.

Then Bala Mohammed, chair of the PDP Governors’ Forum, slammed the table. The sound cracked like gunfire in the chamber.

“The time has come when we must flex our muscles. We are not cowards, and we are not afraid of anybody,” he fired.

Silence gripped the room. Then came the grenade.

“We cannot continue to take part and allow people to take us to the slaughterhouse. Consensus cannot mean stupidity. If anybody wants to form a faction of fools, let him go ahead,” he roared.

Not peace. War

Even the ‘conscience of the party’ spoke in the tone of commanders. Senator Ahmed Makarfi, standing in for BoT Chair Adolphus Wabara, spoke with the cold weight of a judge delivering sentence.

“A convention is not about 100 per cent agreement, but about the overwhelming majority. That is what must be reflected at the convention.”

Then Adamawa Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, chair of the convention committee, leaned into the microphone. His eyes were bloodshot, his voice like steel. The room hushed.

“I will not place relationships above this party. Buy the forms. Submit them. Test your popularity. That is democracy,” he thundered.

And he wasn’t done.

“Let us not take all our matters to the media. It is becoming too embarrassing. If you are a party man, you settle issues within the party. We will not allow indiscipline and blackmail to derail this process,” he lashes out.

Every line landed like a burst from a rifle. Every target knew it.

The barricade of law

The ‘rebels’ may rage, but the battlefield has its barricades. And in this political war, legality is the wall.

Inside the cramped NEC hall at the PDP Secretariat, the weary hum of ceiling fans fought with hurried whispers. Officials spread out documents like battle maps.

The iron wall was clear: the only INEC-recognised correspondence for the convention has already been signed by Damagum and National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu.

Without their joint signatures, no other convention exists. No paperwork, no battlefield. The realisation spreads like smoke through the ranks: the dream of a parallel convention is a ghost. Unless Damagum and Anyanwu switch sides, insiders call it ‘impossible’, Ibadan remains the only battleground in the horizon.

The ‘rebels’ may march, shout, curse. But the fortress of procedure holds. For now.

Skirmishes in the trenches

The fight is not just in speeches. It is in whispers, manoeuvres, sudden strikes.

In state capitals, emissaries move like scouts, testing loyalties. Some governors pretend neutrality while sharpening daggers under the table. Others speak of unity in daylight but trade secrets in the dark.

Every corridor in Wadata Plaza (PDP National Secretariat) feels like a trench. Each office is a bunker. Aides clutch phones as though they were radios at the front, passing messages coded in half-sentences.

Even silence feels weaponised. When one camp speaks, the other camp answers not with words, but with absence; boycotting meetings, skipping events, waiting for the other side to sweat.

Ibadan: the frontline

The frontline is set. Committees formed. Forms printed. Delegates courted. The war machine of the convention grinds into motion.

But the air is thick with suspicion. Every handshake feels like it hides a blade. Every smile looks like camouflage.

Rumours spread: the ‘rebels’ may boycott or walk out before cameras. Some whisper of court injunctions timed to explode like landmines on the eve of convention. Others predict defections, sudden realignments, betrayals staged for maximum spectacle.

Inside the corridors, governors exchange sharp looks. Aides sweat, phones buzzing with coded alerts. Each rumour is another bullet in the dark.

Then Fintiri’s vow cuts through the smoke: “I will not place relationships above this party. I will deliver.”

Ibadan is no longer a city on the calendar. It is the frontline. And reputations will bleed.

Survival or slaughterhouse

Two truths remain when the dust settles. First: only Ibadan matters, because Damagum and Anyanwu hold the signatures. Second: politics is not only law. It is also theatre, perception, spectacle.

The ‘rebels’ may not stop Ibadan from happening, but they can wound it. A lawsuit, a boycott, a walkout on live TV, any could turn the PDP convention into an empty parade ground, mocked by rivals.

Damagum holds his line, his words a shield: “The PDP is marching forward stronger, more determined, and better prepared to reclaim the presidency of this great country and rebuild Nigeria from the mismanagement of the current ruling party.”

But Bala Mohammed’s thunder still rolls across the field: “We are not cowards. We are not afraid of anybody. But we cannot keep quiet and allow people to take us to the slaughterhouse. That is their job. Our job is to make sure we don’t go. We will not allow it.”

Between discipline and defiance, law and legitimacy, unity and rebellion, the PDP is locked in the battle of its life.

Ibadan is the frontline. The only question is whether the party marches out stronger or not at all.

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