The imminent collapse of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the once biggest political party in Africa, is no longer in doubt following the gale of defections from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). There are fears that more governors of the PDP will follow the style of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, who decamped to the APC yesterday along with his predecessor and other party members. It will not be a surprise if Akwa Ibom State governor, Umo Eno, joins the train too. He has recently displayed support for Ashiwaju’s second term bid as well as the second term bid of Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Other governors said to be considering defection to the ruling party include embattled governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, and Enugu State governor, Dr. Peter Mbah.
The sign that some PDP governors will not join the Atiku Abubakar’s coalition against Tinubu’s 2027 presidential bid became clearer when at PDP Governors meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, the governors ruled out any coalition with any other political party ahead of the 2027 general election. As the main opposition, they impressed Nigerians that the PDP will stand alone. Since losing presidential poll in 2015, the PDP which ought to be the main opposition party has remained a shadow of its former self. The party which used to be the darling of aspiring politicians no longer commands respect of its members and outsiders.
The party has not been able to obey its rules. Everybody in the party behaves the way they like. The party lacks internal democracy like most political parties in the country. The trouble with the PDP is still the same trouble with the larger Nigerian society. The PDP had an opportunity to defeat the quickly assembled APC opposition in 2015 election but greed could not allow the leaders of the party to do the right thing. And they went to that election as a divided house and were thoroughly beaten. After President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years in power, the PDP had a golden opportunity to take over power but they again bungled it on account of selfishness. Instead of zoning its presidency to the South as the APC did, they zoned it to the North.
Following this awkward decision, the party was rocked by monumental crisis that worked against its candidate in the 2023 presidential poll which Tinubu came first, Atiku second and Peter Obi third. Imagine the outcome of the poll if Atiku and Obi had worked together. The conduct of the PDP primaries, which led to the emergence of Atiku as its presidential candidate was not fair to the other contenders, especially Nyesom Wike who came second. The failure to placate Wike after the bungled exercise made Wike and the other governors under the G5 to part ways with the PDP and most of them lending support to Ashiwaju. No doubt, the Wike factor helped to shore support and vote for Tinubu in Rivers State. The injustice meted to Wike and even the South-East when PDP zoned its presidency in 2023 to the North can partly explain the crisis that rocked the former behemoth and still rocking it till date.
The death of PDP is imminent if its governors will leave in droves to join the APC before the 2027 election. If the PDP governors are no longer safe in using the umbrella platform to contest for their second term bid, their legislators may soon join the bandwagon. Let those who have tears begin to weep for the dying PDP. The PDP brought this problem on itself. That is why it does not deserve any pity from some Nigerians. However, the matter does not end there. The death of the PDP has implications for the future of our democracy. It has implication for the survival of the country. It is implication for the opposition.
While the APC is laughing and celebrating the defection of Sheriff and others to APC, it must be cautious as we move towards 2027. Defection is not a-one way traffic? People can defect from PDP to APC. Some people can also defect from APC to some other party now or in future. More defections will likely occur as we move towards 2027 poll. In fact, the mother of all defections is yet to come. Therefore, let nobody laugh so much over the current few defections. 2027 is both near and far. Nobody can say for sure what will happen in 2027.
Now that some PDP governors are subverting the PDP coalition plan with other political parties ahead of the 2027 poll, what will Atiku, Obi and others spearheading the coalition do to still remain in calculation for 2027? If the wave of defections to the ruling party is not timely checked, Nigeria will gradually become a totalitarian state. Students of history know what that means. Democracy is nurtured when there are many political parties for people to express their views and powers. But when it morphs to a one–party state, the opposition is stifled. The view of one powerful man becomes the law. Totalitarianism will not augur well for Nigeria with over 250 ethnic groups.
What suits Nigeria is multi-party democracy which allows all people to air their views on any national issue. Making everybody to be with the ruling APC, either by force or persuasion, is not the way to go. It is capable of truncating our nascent democracy. Since independence in 1960, no single political party has ever succeeded to throw the country into a one-party state. The NPC had coalition with NCNC in the first republic while the AG was in opposition. The NPN had alliance with NPP during the Shehu Shagari era, while the UPN remained in opposition. In 1999 when the PDP became the ruling party, the other parties, AD, APGA and others remained in the opposition. It was the amalgamation of the opposition parties that gave birth to the present APC which uprooted the ruling PDP in the 2015 presidential poll. Arising from the above, it is clear that Nigeria has no room for a one-party state. Let those trying to do so have a rethink.