The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, once regarded as the most formidable opposition party in Lagos State, has now become a political shadow of itself.
With a long history of challenging the ruling Alliance for Democracy, Action Congress of Nigeria and now the All Progressives Congress, APC, the party, once described as the largest in Africa, has now been reduced to nothing in Lagos State, the homestate of President Bola Tinubu.
The most recent blow came with the defection of the Lagos PDP Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Hakeem Amode, along with several top party leaders, to the ruling APC.
Their decision follows in the footsteps of Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor), the party’s 2023 governorship candidate, who had earlier dumped the PDP for APC, his former political home.
The departure of Amode and others is more than a routine political defection, it is the final stamp on what political analysts now described as the total collapse of the PDP in Lagos State.
What was once a strategic opposition platform with the potential to unsettle APC’s grip has become leaderless, rudderless and almost entirely irrelevant.
Media Talk Africa recalls that the 2023 general elections were a reminder of the dwindling fortunes. The PDP failed to win a single seat in the Lagos State House of Assembly, while the APC retained dominance with 38 seats and the rising Labour Party, LP, clinched 2 seats.
The trend continued in the House of Representatives, where the APC secured 19 seats, LP took 5, and PDP again walked away empty-handed.
Perhaps the most telling sign of the PDP’s collapse was seen in the March 2023 Lagos governorship election where the party’s votes were not up to the number of vote from a local government:
The result of the election showed that Babajide Sanwo-Olu (APC) polled 762,134 votes, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of Labour Party got 312,329 votes and Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor, PDP) came far behind with 62,449 votes.
For the first time in two decades, the PDP did not even place second.
Instead, it came a distant third, trailing the Labour Party by a massive margin of nearly 250,000 votes, unlike in 2019 where PDP’s candidate Jimi Agbaje polled 206,141 behind Sanwo-Olu.
This sharp contrast to previous elections, where the PDP routinely placed second behind the APC, was both 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 once left the APC in protest, cited internal sabotage and a lack of commitment from PDP leadership during the election as reasons for his return.
His exit signaled to many party faithful that there was no future left in PDP, at least not in Lagos. The vacuum left behind was quickly filled by silence, confusion and infighting.
While PDP struggled with internal divisions and court-imposed paralysis, a new force emerged.
The Labour Party, previously a non-factor in Lagos politics, surged forward on the back of Peter Obi’s presidential campaign and the viral ‘Obidient Movement.’
Energised by youths, tech-savvy professionals and first-time voters, LP stepped into the space PDP had vacated.
With the next general election cycle inching closer, the PDP’s prospects in Lagos look increasingly grim.
The party has no clear leadership structure, no policy direction and has lost most of its experienced political tacticians to the APC.
However, despite the wave of defections rocking the party, the Lagos State chapter of the PDP has dismissed claims that its structure has collapsed following Monday’s defection of its former Publicity Secretary, Hakeem Amode, and several others to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
In a statement signed by the State Secretary, Soji Orioye, the party maintained that the PDP in Lagos remains solid and intact, despite the recent exits.
“The claim by Amode that they have collapsed the PDP structure in the state is laughable and can best be described as a comic remark,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, a PDP member from Gbagada, Segun Yinka, blamed the ruling APC for what he described as the systematic collapse of opposition politics in Lagos and beyond.
“The APC, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, has done everything possible to frustrate the opposition out of relevance. They’ve captured not just political structures, but institutions, the democratic space, and even the people’s confidence.
“They are gradually turning Nigeria into a one-party state. If not, how do you explain a sitting governor from another political party campaigning for him while the citizens suffer?
“Opposition voices are being suppressed. Tinubu knows his popularity in Lagos is dwindling. If truly free and fair elections are held, he’ll lose Lagos again. It’s a shame,” Yinka said.
