One party, two certificates: the battle for PDP’s soul in Taraba
By Daniel Mtindiga,Jalingo.
The political theatre in Taraba State took a surreal turn this week, presenting a spectacle that encapsulates the profound crisis within Nigeria’s main opposition party.
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In a stunning display of internal disarray, two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have simultaneously anointed two different kings for the same throne. The Nyesom Wike-led faction issued its certificate of return to Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, while the Tanimu Turaki-led faction presented its own to Senator Joel Ikenya, both for the 2027 governorship race.
This is not just a pre-primary skirmish, it is a full-blown constitutional and existential crisis played out on a single stage. Two factions, two candidates, two certificates of legitimacy but only one can stand on the ballot. This unprecedented schism forces a moment of reckoning.What does this mean for the future of the PDP in a state it once considered a stronghold?
At the heart of this drama are two political heavyweights, each carrying formidable but distinct portfolios.
Senator Emmanuel Bwacha is a study in political resilience and grassroots appeal. A former Deputy Senate Minority Leader, his political machinery is deeply rooted in the soil of Donga Local Government. His experience is vast, but his narrative is now uniquely complicated.
In the 2023 general elections, he was the flag bearer for the All Progressives Congress (APC), finishing third. His return to his former fold,the PDP and his immediate coronation by one of its most powerful factions speaks to his perceived electoral value and the fluid, often mercenary, nature of Nigerian politics.
Bwacha represents the archetype of the grassroots mobilizer, whose strength lies in his local connections and legislative experience.
His rival, Senator Joel Ikenya, presents a different profile. A former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Ikenya’s appeal is built on a blend of bureaucratic experience and senatorial clout. Hailing from Wukari local government, he is another son of Southern Taraba, the zone that has produced the current governor, Dr. Agbu Kefas. Ikenya’s endorsement by the Tanimu Turaki-led faction suggests a claim to a more traditional PDP lineage or an alternative power base within the party’s complex ecosystem.
His candidacy is that of the established insider, a figure familiar with the corridors of both state and federal power.
This dual endorsement, however, is less about the individuals and more about the factions they represent. The “Wike-led” and “Turaki-led” labels are not mere adjectives, they are banners for the raging war of control, ideology and spoils that has plagued the PDP since its 2023 presidential loss.
The factional war in Abuja has found a perfect and destructive outlet in Taraba. By sponsoring parallel candidates, these national power blocs are using the state as a proxy battlefield. The certificate of return, a sacred document meant to signify party unity behind a chosen flagbearer, has been debased into a factional weapon. It signals a party so deeply fractured that it cannot perform its most basic function of selecting a candidate.
For party members and voters in Taraba, the message is one of chaos and top-down imposition, where their political destiny is being negotiated by distant power brokers.
Compounding this factional imbroglio is a potent geographical dilemma. The fact that Bwacha, Ikenya, and the incumbent Governor Kefas all hail from the Southern Taraba Senatorial Zone is not a trivial detail,it is a political time bomb.
Taraba, like many Nigerian states, grapples with a delicate, often unspoken, principle of zoning and rotational governorship. The concentration of power and ambition in one zone risks alienating the Central and Northern zones, whose elites and electorate may feel sidelined and justified in seeking alternatives.
The PDP, in its current disunity, appears to be ignoring this simmering discontent. Instead of strategically managing succession and zoning to broaden its appeal, the party’s factions are engaged in a selfish scramble that threatens to collapse its statewide support base. They are fighting over a throne that the entire kingdom may decide to abandon.
So, what futures lie on the horizon for the PDP in Taraba? The paths are fraught with peril. The first and most likely scenario is a protracted legal and physical war of attrition. Both factions will dig in, leading to parallel congresses, multiple lawsuits, and a toxic campaign of mutual destruction that will drain the party’s resources and morale long before it faces the APC.
The second scenario is a forced, uneasy marriage brokered by the party’s national leadership. But with the national body itself divided, any imposed solution may be fragile and resented, leaving a candidate weakened by the lack of genuine unity.
The third and most catastrophic scenario for the PDP, is a mass defection. If the conflict proves irreconcilable, one faction along with its candidate and supporters could bolt to the APC or another party, gifting the ruling party a formidable structure and candidate (potentially Bwacha, who already has history there) on a silver platter.
In the end, the spectacle of two certificates is a powerful metaphor for a party at war with itself. It means that the PDP in Taraba is entering the 2027 race not as a unified army but as two rival militias, each claiming the same flag.
It means internal resources will be spent on fratricidal conflict rather than on winning over voters. It means presenting the electorate with a choice between “our PDP candidate” and “their PDP candidate,” a confusion that the opposition APC will be eager to exploit.
The battle for Government House, Jalingo, may well be decided not on the campaign trail, but in the PDP’s own broken house. The certificates have been issued, but the only return they currently guarantee is a return to political oblivion unless the party remembers that to conquer a state, it must first conquer its own demons.
