The Peoples Democratic Occasion, PDP, as soon as considered probably the most formidable opposition occasion in Lagos State, has now change into a political shadow of itself.
With an extended historical past of difficult the ruling Alliance for Democracy, Motion Congress of Nigeria and now the All Progressives Congress, APC, the occasion, as soon as described as the biggest in Africa, has now been decreased to nothing in Lagos State, the homestate of President Bola Tinubu.
The newest blow got here with the defection of the Lagos PDP Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Hakeem Amode, together with a number of high occasion leaders, to the ruling APC.
Their choice follows within the footsteps of Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor), the occasion’s 2023 governorship candidate, who had earlier dumped the PDP for APC, his former political house.
The departure of Amode and others is greater than a routine political defection, it’s the closing stamp on what political analysts now described as the overall collapse of the PDP in Lagos State.
What was as soon as a strategic opposition platform with the potential to unsettle APC’s grip has change into leaderless, rudderless and nearly totally irrelevant.
DAILY POST recollects that the 2023 normal elections had been a reminder of the dwindling fortunes. The PDP did not win a single seat within the Lagos State Home of Meeting, whereas the APC retained dominance with 38 seats and the rising Labour Occasion, LP, clinched 2 seats.
The development continued within the Home of Representatives, the place the APC secured 19 seats, LP took 5, and PDP once more walked away empty-handed.
Maybe probably the most telling signal of the PDP’s collapse was seen within the March 2023 Lagos governorship election the place the occasion’s votes had been lower than the variety of vote from an area authorities:
The results of the election confirmed that Babajide Sanwo-Olu (APC) polled 762,134 votes, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of Labour Occasion received 312,329 votes and Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor, PDP) got here far behind with 62,449 votes.
For the primary time in twenty years, the PDP didn’t even place second.
As a substitute, it got here a distant third, trailing the Labour Occasion by an enormous margin of practically 250,000 votes, in contrast to in 2019 the place PDP’s candidate Jimi Agbaje polled 206,141 behind Sanwo-Olu.
This sharp distinction to earlier elections, the place the PDP routinely positioned second behind the APC, was each historic and humiliating.
The writing was on the wall when Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran Jandor, PDP’s much-publicized 2023 gubernatorial candidate, returned to the APC.
Jandor, who as soon as left the APC in protest, cited inner sabotage and an absence of dedication from PDP management throughout the election as causes for his return.
His exit signaled to many occasion devoted that there was no future left in PDP, no less than not in Lagos. The vacuum left behind was shortly crammed by silence, confusion and infighting.
Whereas PDP struggled with inner divisions and court-imposed paralysis, a brand new pressure emerged.
The Labour Occasion, beforehand a non-factor in Lagos politics, surged ahead on the again of Peter Obi’s presidential marketing campaign and the viral ‘Obidient Motion.’
Energised by youths, tech-savvy professionals and first-time voters, LP stepped into the area PDP had vacated.
With the subsequent normal election cycle inching nearer, the PDP’s prospects in Lagos look more and more grim.
The occasion has no clear management construction, no coverage route and has misplaced most of its skilled political tacticians to the APC.
Nevertheless, regardless of the wave of defections rocking the occasion, the Lagos State chapter of the PDP has dismissed claims that its construction has collapsed following Monday’s defection of its former Publicity Secretary, Hakeem Amode, and a number of other others to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
In an announcement signed by the State Secretary, Soji Orioye, the occasion maintained that the PDP in Lagos stays strong and intact, regardless of the latest exits.
“The declare by Amode that they’ve collapsed the PDP construction within the state is laughable and might greatest be described as a comic book comment,” the assertion learn.
In the meantime, a PDP member from Gbagada, Segun Yinka, blamed the ruling APC for what he described because the systematic collapse of opposition politics in Lagos and past.
“The APC, below the management of President Bola Tinubu, has finished all the pieces potential to frustrate the opposition out of relevance. They’ve captured not simply political constructions, however establishments, the democratic area, and even the individuals’s confidence.
“They’re regularly turning Nigeria right into a one-party state. If not, how do you clarify a sitting governor from one other political occasion campaigning for him whereas the residents undergo?
“Opposition voices are being suppressed. Tinubu is aware of his recognition in Lagos is dwindling. If actually free and truthful elections are held, he’ll lose Lagos once more. It’s a disgrace,” Yinka stated.
