The entire leadership of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a shameless lot. That’s the least of the adjectives to describe such unserious and un-self-examining politicians, who, in the face of an embarrassing implosion of their platform, engage in scapegoating President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as responsible for their self-inflicted woes!
How can the leaders of the PDP – who, within 24 hours, recognised, as “authentic,” three claimants to the position of National Secretary of the party – locate the source of their problems in the APC leadership, which’s protecting its members, and receiving defectors in droves from “an already capsizing PDP boat,” according to former Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South), summarising the lead-up to the “political tsunami” that swept the Delta State chapter on Wednesday, April 23, 2025?
From the acclaimed leader of the PDP, former Vice President and twice presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to the Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Adolphus Wabara, to the Acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum, and to former Senate President and ex-Governor of Kwara State, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki – all behave like the ostrich, bury their heads in the sand and blame Tinubu and APC for their leadership failure to unite the once famed “biggest and largest political party in Africa.”
All the politicians, with their structures and followers, who’ve decamped to the APC, cited the intractable division, and a rudderless leadership as reasons for dumping and jumping out of the “sinking PDP boat,” to save their lives and political careers!
Lately-decamped former Delta State Governor and the PDP vice presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, in an interview on ARISE News on April 29, explained that the PDP internal disarray – legal wrangling over leadership, disunity, and lack of electoral strategy – convinced Delta’s political elite that the party could not compete effectively in 2027. So, how are these the faults of President Tinubu and his APC government?
Wabara’s floated the most ludicrous of the PDP claims after the mass defections into the APC: That the APC will implode soon; the PDP defectors have no followership; President Tinubu is turning Nigeria into a one-party State; and politicians trooping into the APC foresee Tinubu rigging the 2027 general election. What warped reasoning from the supposed repository of the PDP leadership!
In an interview with Vanguard published on April 26, 2025, Wabara predicted that: “The PDP will laugh last because very soon, there will be implosion in the APC. Those people joining the APC will soon want to displace the party members who have built the APC over the years. The displaced APC members will look for where to go, and they will simply come over to the PDP.”
Did the PDP implode on August 31, 2013, because Atiku, seven PDP governors of Jigawa, Kano, Sokoto, Niger, Rivers, Kwara and Adamawa, the acting national chairman and some national and state lawmakers were displaced in the PDP by defectors? Certainly not!
The PDP imploded because then-Atiku’s faction, the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), walked out of the Special National Delegates Convention at the Eagle Square in Abuja, accusing the organisers of “disqualifying over 50 of the 75 aspirants” from vying for the 17 positions in PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Subsequently, the Atiku splinter nPDP, with five governors of Adamawa (Murtala Nyako), Kano (Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko), Kwara (Abdulfatah Ahmed) and Rivers (Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi), defected and dissolved into the opposition APC, which defeated President Goodluck Jonathan, and removed the PDP from power just 16 years into its dream unbroken 60-year suzareignty over Nigeria.
How can displaced APC members, due to the defection of PDP members into the APC, “look for where to go, and they will simply come over to the PDP,” as Wabara claimed? What’ll be the attraction in the PDP – which might be a shadow or carcass of itself if the trends in the party continue beyond 2025 – when there’re viable alternatives in the flourishing Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the wave-making coalition of opposition politicians, ironically headed by Atiku, the leader of the comatose PDP?
On the defection of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and former Governor Okowa, with the entire PDP structure to the APC, Wabara said: “It was expected, and I think we should expect more. But there’s nothing to worry about. That’s politics. We long expected such defections and we know the reason: Some are doing so for second tenure, and some for protection.”
As Wabara claimed, were Atiku and ex-Governors Nyako, Kwankwaso, Wamakko, Ahmed and Amaechi – all except Ahmed, on their second term in office – looking for re-election or protection from the APC that wasn’t sure of defeating incumbent President Jonathan and the PDP in 2015?
Were ex-Governors of Rivers (Nyesom Wike), Abia (Okezie Ikpeazu), Benue (Samuel Ortom), Enugu (Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi) and Oyo (Seyi Makinde) – all except Makinde in their second term – looking for re-election or protection when they worked against the PDP and it presidential candidate, Atiku, in the 2023 general election? Again, certainly not!
The governors, under the aegis of G-5 (PDP-G5), rebelled against the PDP because, against the dictates of the PDP constitution, Atiku, as the party leader, refused to yield the position of national secretary to Southern Nigeria, as Atiku and then-PDP national chairman, ex-Senate President Iyorcha Ayu, are from Northern Nigeria.
Still in denial, Chief Wabara dismissed, as “a movement of the leadership and not the followership,” the mass defection of PDP members in Delta State to the APC, adding, “Even at that, I have it on good authority that not all the leaders are moving to APC. At the fullness of time, Nigerians will decide the 2027.”
A couple of questions for Wabara: Are the Nigerians, who’ll decide “at the fullness of time in 2027,” different from the decamped PDP members combining with APC members in the APC? Who and how many are the PDP elders not moving to the APC in the exodus from the PDP?
Wabara, noting that muzzling the opposition under any guise would birth tyranny and despotism, “which pose grave danger to democracy,” said: “I have earlier warned against Tinubu turning Nigeria into a one-party state and it’s all coming to pass now. He has no apologies for that, and this is not good for our democracy.”
Has Wabara – a former Senate President (2003-2005), who didn’t last his tenure under the “do-or-die” political regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), with Atiku as Vice President – forgotten how the PDP muzzled the opposition within and without the party, turned Nigeria into a “real” one-party State, and boasted that it’d rule the country for unbroken 60 years, and counting?
Wabara also asserted that PDP defectors have an inkling about Tinubu rigging the 2027 general election, and hence their mass movements into the APC. This is the same old and tired talking point of the PDP leaders, under which they hide to cover their electoral failures. This will also be their alibi in 2027 even if they lose the poll squarely!
Whereas the APC, with the majority of elected officials and positions across the country, isn’t resting on its oars, but embarks on aggressive drive for more members; the PDP is satisfied with moaning its losses, and blaming President Tinubu and the APC for poaching its members with underhand tactics. Who’s stopped the PDP from deploying similar tactics to draw APC members into its fold?
Indeed, Saraki, on his X handle, @bukolasaraki, on April 24, spoke truth to power on both sides of the divide. Warning that a “one-party state, as being disingenuously designed by some people, will not augur well for a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and highly-diversified society like ours,” as “it is even more dangerous when we eliminate alternatives and make people hopeless,” he urged the PDP to also fish for “some governors from the other parties.”
On the defection of Delta’s governor and his predecessor in office, Saraki remarked that: “Yes, it is unbecoming and shocking for the running mate to the standard bearer of a leading party to abandon ship to join the ruling party. This is unprecedented and nobody should try to justify such an act with the talk of being put under pressure (by President Tinubu and the APC). It is simply a sign of how low we have sunk as a polity.”
Nonetheless, Saraki told members that the two years before the next general election were an ample time to reposition the PDP, adding: “That is a long time in politics. We have enough time to brace up to the challenge. There is nothing that prevents us from getting some governors from the other parties to join our ranks.”
Saraki cautioned PDP against externalising blame, saying: “Our party members should also refrain from blaming our woes on the ruling party. That would be a lazy approach. They are playing politics to win elections. It is our responsibility as party members to ignore their antics and seize the moment and momentum to make our party stronger and better.”
Rather than lamentation, the party leaders should adopt Saraki’s view that, “The PDP is better with fewer members who are loyal, sincere, determined, dedicated, and committed to its ideas, ideals, and progress than to have so many who will identify with us in the afternoon and be romancing the ruling party in the night.”
Surely, for the PDP, it’s time to “know your members” (KYM)! That seems the only strategy remaining for its survival going into 2027! Enough of its leaders scapegoating President Tinubu and the APC for their self-induced woes!