Nigeria's PDP faces internal crisis as election campaign begins

Nigeria's Peoples Democratic Party is facing a fresh test of survival as the campaign for January's general election officially begins. The party, once the dominant force in Nigerian politics, is now described as being on the brink of extinction. A factional struggle over who is in charge has escalated into court action, raising questions about whether the party can remain relevant at the ballot box.

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The party was founded in 1998 and rose quickly after the end of military rule a year later. Its presidential candidates Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan held power for 16 years, while the party also controlled most of Nigeria's 36 states. That long period of dominance ended in 2015, when Muhammadu Buhari and the newly formed All Progressives Congress defeated Goodluck Jonathan in the federal election.

The loss in 2015 marked the start of a prolonged decline, according to political analysis cited in the report. The party then struggled to adjust to opposition politics after years in federal power. By 2025, the situation had worsened sharply, with defections and internal conflict weakening its structure across the country.

The most recent blow came through a series of state-level defections that reduced the party's influence further. At the start of 2025, the PDP still held eight states, but by December five governors had moved to the ruling APC. Those governors were from Delta, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Bayelsa and Rivers, and they said the party's declining viability and the need for better cooperation with the federal government influenced their decisions.

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The party's collapse in state power has now left it with no governorships, after Oyo also slipped from its hands last month. That makes the current leadership dispute more significant, because the party is entering a national campaign without the territorial base that once sustained it. The report suggests that the combination of defections, court battles and organisational weakness could leave the PDP irrelevant in the election.

What happens next will depend on whether the party can resolve its internal dispute before voters go to the polls. The report does not say how the court case will be decided or whether any reconciliation effort is under way. It also remains unclear whether the PDP can rebuild enough support to challenge the APC in January, or whether its decline will deepen further during the campaign.

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