Former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, has blamed the deepening crisis within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on a fundamental lack of capacity and sincerity among its leadership, warning that without urgent reform, the party risks total collapse.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Suswam said the PDP was effectively in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and criticised key party leaders for failing to show direction, unity, or honour in resolving internal conflicts, particularly in their handling of issues related to Minister Nyesom Wike and the crisis in Rivers State.
Suswam was especially critical of a secret agreement reportedly struck between some PDP governors and Wike, which included the recognition of Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary and the withdrawal of all court actions connected to Rivers State.
He said the deal was reached without consultation or input from key stakeholders and was never discussed at the broader party meeting held two weeks ago.
“I keep emphasising this without sounding like a broken record. I talked about leadership. Even at the family level, if we don’t have good leadership, that family is doomed. What has happened to PDP basically is that of leadership, lack of capacity on the part of the leadership of the party. They have had secret meetings. The FCT minister mentioned it. He said there was a meeting in Lagos, he was invited. They had an agreement in Lagos. There was another meeting in Abuja, in the house of a former senate president, where those agreements were consolidated.
“If you are sincere to the people – and when we were called, former governors and current governors, about two weeks ago to a meeting, none of this was before us. Nobody knew that there were secret meetings where agreement was reached with the FCT minister. If you engage somebody in an agreement, you invite somebody and you engage him, it is only honourable that you honour the agreement. If you are not interested, why do that in the first place?
“So I don’t blame the FCT minister for what he’s saying. It’s dishonourable for me to call you and agree on something with you at my level, and then I reneged without reference to you. So I don’t blame him. It is the lack of capacity of the leadership. And the leadership has not been straight with party followers,” he noted
Suswam particularly took issue with how the agreement ignored the decision of the Southeast PDP, which had already nominated a replacement National Secretary and communicated it to the party’s national secretariat. He said such disregard reveals the extent to which the zone is being sidelined in party affairs.
“The Southeast as a bloc have met a couple of times, have decided that they want a new secretary of the party, have even nominated that person, have forwarded a letter to the headquarters of PDP. That is as a bloc. So if I’m going to engage in an agreement that would deviate from what the Southeast have done, they would have been involved. Or some of the stakeholders there would have been involved. I don’t think they were involved for them to take that decision because quite frankly, it’s confusing to me.”
According to Suswam, this pattern of exclusion and backroom dealings has not only fractured the party internally but also damaged public trust in its ability to serve as a credible opposition ahead of the 2027 elections.
Suswam’s remarks underscore growing frustration among senior party figures over the direction of the PDP, with many calling for an urgent realignment of leadership and strategy to rescue the party from further decline.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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