POLL: Will PDP rise again?

From being a political party that, for 16 years, was the symbol of democratic rule in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is no longer the giant it once was.

Since losing the presidential election as well as majority of governorship and national assembly seats to the All Progressives Congress (APC), PDP’s national secretariat has been hit by one crisis or the other – from attempts (successful in the end) to force Adamu Mu’azu out of his position as chairman, to the supposedly temporary transfer of the chairmanship in interim capacity to Uche Secondus, and finally to Wednesday’s effort of Ahmed Gulak to forcefully assume the position of chairman.

The crisis rocking PDP’s national executive aside, there is the defection of its high-profile members to APC, which began after the election but still hasn’t ended, nearly a year on. When the circumstances of Uche Ekwunife’s defection are considered, PDP is exposed as a party that can no longer lay claim to loyalty of its members.

Of the few loyal leaders left behind, it’s most vociferous voices have been decimated. Olisa Metuh, its national publicity secretary, has been in detention since early January; and although he has been granted bails for two different set of charges, even the clairvoyant cannot say if or when Metuh will taste freedom.

It looks PDP is sinking deeper and deeper everyday into gradual oblivion. But someone thinks otherwise. His name – as you may have guessed – is Goodluck Jonathan!

“The PDP definitely will have some minor issues, it is expected… We lost the presidency and definitely we will have some kind of leadership problems,” he told France 24 on Thursday.

“When you have a president, everybody looks up to the president. But when you no longer have the president, it becomes difficult for the party to have strong leadership.

“I believe whatever you observe will be sorted out. Leaders of the party, elders of the party have been meeting and all this perceived disagreement will soon be sorted out.

“Every political party has misunderstanding; it is not new, it is always there. So what is happening is not new but I promise you that PDP will stabilize.”

Do you agree with Jonathan that his party will outgrow its “minor issues”?

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