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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was once the largest and most powerful party in Africa. It boasted at some point that it would rule Nigeria for 60 years. But hardly had the race gone half way when the party started gasping for breath.
The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan quickened the demise of that party in 2015. It is hard for a ruling party to lose an election in Nigeria. But that happened under Jonathan. The results of the 2015 presidential election were still being announced when he accepted defeat and congratulated Muhammadu Buhari as the winner.
Most Nigerian politicians like identifying or associating with the ruling party. They don’t have ideology or principles. They move where bread is better buttered. It wasn’t long before the movement to the All Progressives Congress (APC) started.
What appeared to have finally nailed the coffin of the PDP was the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the President of Nigeria. Tinubu did not mince words to say that power is not given a la carte, and that whoever wants it should fight for it, grab it and run with it.
Touted as a master strategist, the President aligned with Nyesom Wike, the former governor of Rivers State, in the run-up to the 2023 general election. Wike became aggrieved when he lost his ambition to be the presidential standard-bearer of the PDP in the 2023 presidential election. To worsen matters, the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, failed to choose him as his running mate. Instead, he chose former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State. This did not go down well with the man. From then, he became a sworn enemy of the PDP. He galvanized four other governors to form a faction of the party.
In the 2023 presidential election, he did everything humanly possible to secure victory for Tinubu in Rivers State. The President rewarded him by appointing him Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He still professes to be a PDP member, but dines and wines with the APC. Many Nigerians were surprised that the PDP did not deem it fit to curtail his excesses.
The party continued tottering until its key stalwarts, including governors and legislators, started defecting to the APC. Hitherto, the PDP controlled the South-East and South-South zones of Nigeria. Today, the reverse is the case. In the five states of the South-East, the APC was highly loathed. Today, out of the five states, the APC controls three while the Labour Party (LP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) control one each. Peter Mbah became Enugu governor on the platform of the PDP in 2023. Recently, he defected to the APC with pomp.
In the South-South, it is the same story. Out of the six states in that region, only Rivers is still nominally controlled by the PDP. Governor Siminalayi Fubara is just marking time. With his predecessor still there to control affairs, his days in the PDP are numbered. He is still smarting from his six-month illegal suspension as governor under the guise of emergency rule in his state.
The rest of the states now belong to the APC. Governors of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Delta recently defected to the ruling party with almost all their followers and party members. Edo State was under PDP until the last governorship election in September 2024 when Monday Okpebholo of the APC was propelled to grab power in the state. He has been talking tough. The other day, he boasted that he would resign as governor if Tinubu lost the 2027 election. He can say that because votes do not count in Nigeria’s elections. If the ruling party succumbs to the calls for serious electoral reforms, which will include electronic voting and electronic transmission of election results, people like Okpebholo and his godfathers will be disgraced out of office.
It is trite to note that the recently held PDP national convention was primed to fail with Wike still purporting to be a member. The two factions of the party used the judiciary to cement their disgraceful conduct. Aggrieved members of a faction went to the Federal High Court in Abuja to secure an order restraining the party from holding the convention in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. In giving the order, Justice James Omotosho said the convention was not in line with the constitution of the party as well as the Electoral Act.
In another Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Peter Lifu gave a similar order that the convention should not hold. Former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, had sued the party, complaining that he was excluded from its chairmanship contest.
Since the convention was billed to take place in Ibadan, another faction of the party went to the Oyo State High Court to obtain a contrary order from Justice Ladiran Akintola permitting the convention to hold as planned. Based on this order, the convention was held between November 15 and 16, 2025.
At the convention, Wike and some other renegades were expelled. They include the suspended National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu; and the former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose. The convention elected Kabiru Turaki as the National Chairman.
Two days after, the battle shifted to the Wadata Plaza, the party’s headquarters in Abuja. There, both the Wike faction and the Turaki faction flexed muscles and tried to take control of the national secretariat. Their security details showed power by throwing teargas canisters while their patrons yelled at one another. At the end of the day, the Wike faction announced the suspension of Governors Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, former Board of Trustees Chairman, Adolphus Wabara, Bode George and Turaki, among others, for anti-party activities. It later went back to court to seek nullification of the Ibadan national convention.
Some prominent members of the PDP are still optimistic that the party will bounce back. I do not think so. The party can only thrive if it joins in forming a formidable coalition against the APC. Even the recently formed coalition anchored on the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is not showing any sign of robust health. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar made some noise when he formally joined the party in his ward in Adamawa recently. His ambition to become President will be one of the major elements that will quicken the death of the party.
The opposition figures in Nigeria should study what Tinubu did before he was able to wrest power from the PDP in 2015. He remained in the opposition even when many bread-and-butter politicians defected to the PDP, the erstwhile ruling party. What he did before the 2015 election was to align with Buhari, who had a cult following in the North. He galvanized his party then known as the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) together with a faction of APGA, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to form the APC. He remained the National Leader of the party and allowed Buhari to go for the presidency. When it was the turn of the South to produce the President, he reminded Buhari that it was his turn to aim for the position. Despite many obstacles along his way, he got what he wanted.
It is still the turn of the South to produce the President from 2027 until 2031. The only way the coalition of opposition parties can defeat Tinubu is if Atiku can wait until 2031 to aim for the Presidency. Then, it will be the turn of the North. If age is still on his side then, he can make it. But if he continues with his plan to vie for the highest office in the land in 2027, he will crumble like the PDP and that will be his last chance. What he should do if he is still serious about becoming the President of Nigeria is to support Mr. Peter Obi this time round. Obi has said that he is ready to do only four years. After the four years, he will step down for a northern candidate.
In any case, Tinubu appears to be enjoying the crisis in the major opposition parties, especially the PDP. In June this year, he mocked the opposition, saying it was a pleasure to witness them in disarray. He should realize that the death of the opposition will bring down our democracy as we know it today. When there is no credible opposition to challenge the powers that be, what follows is autocracy. This was typically what led to the collapse of the First and Second Republics.
The PDP as the major opposition party should put its house in order. The party was late in sanctioning some saboteurs who do not wish it well. It is difficult to woo some prominent members who have defected to other parties back. It should still try. But as it is now, its trump cards against the ruling party which made it boast about ruling for 60 years are crumbling. As auctioneers usually say, going, going, going…! PDP is almost gone!
