Umbrella, the symbol of the People’s Democratic Party, once the largest political party in Africa and currently the main opposition party in Nigeria and presently the ruling party in Oyo State is in the tableau of ruin.
From media mudslinging, internal fisticuffs, campaign of calumny to direct physical confrontation – think of the chaos that erupted on the 18th November, 2025 at the Wadata Plaza in Abuja (that was the day GSM was teargassed), the PDP, once a powerful and dominant party, is teetering on the precipice of irredeemable oblivion.
Not only in the southern Nigeria where the party has suffered devastating blow in part because gladiators like FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde have bitterly and persistently lock-horn, fighting tooth and nail over the party’s leadership structure at the National level but across units and wards, nooks and crannies of the country where the party’s presence and reputation predate it current debacle.
Of course, the leadership crisis rocking the PDP has been years in the making – for a fact, it all started right from its formation when internal politics was jettisoned on the altar of entrenched interests of certain powerful and influential individuals. In effect, the conflagration tearing the party apart has sadly evolved and extended beyond the national level alone. It has in fact metastasized, like cancer, into the spines of both the local and states of the federation where party bigwigs and leaders have been subject of intense poaching by parties like the ADC and APC – reflect on the sudden defection of the veteran grassroot politician, Senator Hosea Ayoola Agboola aka Alleluya from the PDP to the APC in Oyo State. One step at a time, the PDP has been walking quietly slowly into the abyss of perdition with little or no chances of ever regaining its lost electoral midas touch.
I am not here to write the obituary for the PDP – or any other party for that matter – no-one should, for the sake and survival of democracy and civil rule. In a sense, the massive defection of Governors, Senators, and Members of the House of Representatives from the party is itself more than an obituary message for those who know how a political party die either naturally or by suicide. And as things stand, PDP is facing the natural death and self-immolation in one fell swoop.
To adequately and properly situate this high-stake, topsy-turvy and delicate political conversation, it helps to take some steps back. In 2003, amid the re-election bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, five out of six southwest Governors under the platform of the defunct Alliance for Democracy, AD, the main opposition party in the country at that time agreed to back, endorse and support their kin, a fellow Yoruba man, Olusegun Obasanjo against late General Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, of the APP at the poll.
Four years earlier, the party had supported Yale University trained economist and former minister of finance, Samuel Oluyemisi Falae as its Presidential flagbearer against the same Obasanjo. But four years later, the party had decided to flip the coin by throwing its weight behind the same man they once repudiated at the poll.
Out of the five Governors that bought into that political trick, thinking OBJ would ensure their smooth and seamless re-election, none survived the plot of the general turn ‘democrat’. In quick succession, they didn’t just perish politically but disappeared into the quicksand of political irrelevance. The only man that survived OBJ evil machination was the Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. As the OBJ’s political bulldozer ram into each of the states of the federation with ferocious rage, Lagos stood gallantly as the beacon of the opposition and dissent.
For Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu now the President, no one knew better than him in understanding that surviving OBJ’s political onslaught and assaults must not just be an exercise in political ogfight but must count for something substantial and important. That moment, lonely and sobering, marked BAT’s interest in building and iterating with various ideas that has the capacity to give the PDP a decent run for their money. By 2015 alongside other notable opposition parties and leaders, the idea that fueled BAT’s resolve and determination had matured, crystalized and transformed into a battle-ready platform to take on the PDP – blow for blow, blood for blood, and eye for eye.
Once it was evident that BAT, as the governor of Lagos would be embarking on a lonely, painful and rough journey of building a viable, strong and sterile opposition, alongside his lieutenants, they began to reach out to like minds across the country. He was, in the words of Billionaire banker, Tony Elumelu: THE LAST MAN STANDING. But One thing is clear, though, President Tinubu wasn’t the last man standing by chance.
He was, dare I say, divinely chosen, deliberate in planning, resource lucky by virtue of Lagos, calculative in his choice of comrades, and strategic in thinking. He knew that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown of opposition politics in Nigeria. Back to the reality of our time. In effect, the sudden and abrupt defection of the Rivers State Governor, Sim Fubara to the APC has effectively narrowed the number of PDP Governors in the Southern Nigeria to just one: Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. In simple comparison, GSM is standing on the same political pedestal once occupied by the President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, twenty-two years ago, but will he also be the last man standing?
Despite the similarities in the story of the two political leaders, many differences have emanated in the same staccato pace. For instance, Asiwaju Tinubu proudly identifies as a core progressive and has uncompromisingly remained in that cycle since the return of democracy in 1999. For Makinde, he has leaned more towards the conservative bent of the political divides. Although, his stewardship in the state carried the emblem of the progressive, still the PDP from the get-go professes and proclaims ideas that are rooted in conservatism. Additionally, both are business minded individuals. They don’t just think in business terms but act practically and politically drawing from their extensive knowledge of business on a national and global stages.
I reckon that becoming the last man standing is not a walk in the park or a child play. One has to be a builder, a visionary one for that matter. By iterating with many ideas about the structure and nature of opposition parties in Nigeria, President Tinubu was able to tinker with AD, AC, ACN and finally APC. He wasn’t just interested in leading the opposition movement but wanted to capture the imagination of millions of Nigerians through his interventions. The success of that visionary thinking eventually congealed into what led to the APC. Not sure Governor Seyi Makinde is ready to walk that path of consolidating his base while expanding his tentacle beyond his current political reach.
Again, there was also a place of atomic thinking in the Asiwaju’s political ideology. For instance, after escaping OBJ’s cudgel, Asiwaju didn’t start by making himself the national leader of his party immediately. In 2007, he backed former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for President under the defunct AC. He supported Nuhu Ribadu in 2011 under the ACN and threw his weight behind late Muhammdu Buhari in 2015 under the APC. Apart from building great platforms, he also learned the Art of not Giving a Fuck, resilience, patience, political artistry among others while building a mass of politically savvy followers. Combined together, his ideas eventually snowballed into not just winning elections but sustaining his political machinery. The question therefore as we move closer to another era defining politicsl moment: will a GSM towed the same path of writing his name on the sand of time as the last man standing when all others succumbed to the bait and temptation of the ruling party?
OYO101 is Muftau Gbadegesin’s opinion about issues affecting the Oyo state and is published every Saturday. He can be reached via @Upliftnuggets on X, muftaugbadegesin@gmail.com, and 09065176850.
