Will the PDP give Taraba up?

So much of Nigeria’s political narrative is driven by the conversation that revolves around the Wazobia trio that consists of the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa (who are lumped in with the Fulani), but Nigeria is a lot more layered than those narratives suggest. For example, most Nigerians have possibly not heard of the Mumuye ethnic group, but they are the largest ethnic group in Taraba State that has a landmass of 54,473km² which is almost twice the entire South-East which stands at 29,000km² and larger than the Netherlands which has a landmass of 41,543km².

The Mumuye ethnic group shares Taraba State with other indigenous groups like the Jukun, Itchen, Fulani, and 39 other ethnic groups who speak more than 70 different languages. Taraba State should be better and more influential than it is, and it takes proper governance to bring it to its rightful place. On 11 March 2023, people from the Mumuye and other groups will be electing legislators and a new governor for the state – the serving governor Darius Ishaku is seeing out his 2nd term and will not be contesting.

As far as candidates go though, the people of Taraba will only become certain about their choices of candidates on 3 March because the two major parties in the state – the PDP and APC – are dealing with legal tussles resulting from controversial primary elections that will be clarified by the Supreme Court on 3 March. The PDP had made Kefas Agbu its governorship candidate after he was adjudged the winner of its primary elections. A suit challenging his eligibility to contest the Taraba PDP governorship primary that he won was filed but he was favoured by an appeal court ruling that dismissed the suit. Another contestant, Professor Jerome Nyameh took the case further to the Supreme Court which has set 3 March as the date it would rule on the issue.

The APC has been unable to cash in on the PDP’s troubles because it has woes of its own. Its governorship candidate, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, has been accused of forging the credentials he presented to the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission for admission into its primary election process. The Supreme Court, Abuja will sit on the issue on 3 February, and only then will it be clear who the APC governorship candidate will be.

With all that being said, it is important to note that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has never lost a gubernatorial election in Taraba since the reintroduction of the democratic system in 1999. The PDP is quite dominant in the state and the APC and other parties haven’t done enough to suggest that this dominance can be eroded. In the last governorship election, the current governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku won in 12 of Taraba’s 16 LGAs so it is probably best to assume that the PDP would win this state regardless of who emerges as its candidate.