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Impunity is PDP’s other name. With the party’s latest act of impunity ending in a fiasco in Ibadan High Court last Friday, the question on the lips of Nigerians concerned about the health of our democracy and party system are asking is what next?

Following a suit filed by some aggrieved members of the party’s factional leaders late last year, Justice James Omotosho had ordered their Ibadan convention to be halted until the party complies with the statutory requirements of its own constitution, the Nigerian Constitution, and the Electoral Act. He therefore directed the PDP “to go back and put its house in order, and to give the statutory 21-day notice to INEC before it can proceed with the proposed convention.”

Similarly, Sule Lamido, an elder of the party claiming he was denied the opportunity to purchase a nomination form to contest for the party’s chairmanship, in violation of the PDP constitution and guidelines, also secured a Federal High Court injunction suspending  the convention.

But without first vacating any of the judgments, PDP sought and secured the help of an Ibadan High Court which, on November 4, 2025, cleared the party to proceed with the national convention.

When Kabiru Tanimu Turaki’s attempt to enforce his faction’s Ibadan phyric victory was resisted by the other faction that had taken control of their Abuja Wadata national secretariat, he sought recognition of the Ibadan convention and validation of the NWC that emerged at the convention from another Ibadan Federal High Court presided over by Uche Agomoh. However, instead of the relief sought, the court last Friday nullified the November 15 -16, 2025 convention on the ground it was conducted in flagrant disobedience to two subsisting judgments of the same court. Turaki and other officials purportedly elected at the convention were barred by the court from parading themselves as national officers of the party forthwith.

Predictably, Turaki’s faction was defiant declaring “We are aware of the judgment of the Federal High Court” but, “Notwithstanding this judgment, the Turaki–led Peoples Democratic Party, which emerged from the Ibadan convention, remains legally intact and unshaken, as we await the authoritative pronouncement of the appellate courts”.

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It is often said those destined for ruin, are often out of sheer pride driven to act irrationally. With timetable for the 2027 election already released by INEC and with otherwise loyal PDP party members in search for alternative platform to escape a PDP sinking ship in droves, one would have thought these times call for sober reflection with reason prevailing among PDP warring factional leaders.

It is not as if PDP deserves tears of Nigerians if its fate is now sealed. Nigerians, except those playing the ostrich, still remember their ongoing nightmare was a direct result of 16 years of PDP deliberate and calculated assault on our economy and the general health of our nation. It was their confiscation and conversion of our national resources to personal use of their members that brought our nation to ruins  With air of invulnerability, they went on to share the nation’s national patrimony kept in their temporary care for our grandchildren  and great grandchildren. If death is the wages of sin, that PDP deserves s to die is not debatable.

But Nigerians, a much forgiving people did not want PDP to die. They want it to live even if not totally out of altruism. It is on record that for the first 16 years of the fourth republic, PDP became a threat to our budding democracy achieved through intense struggle, sweat and blood. It was an era of thriving anti-democratic elements such as Olusegun Obasanjo, David Mark  Atiku Abubakar, A Ali,  men who purely for sadistic humour irreverently danced on the tombs of those who made the supreme sacrifice that democracy may thrive in our land.

Of course there are other reasons Nigerians should have no restraint singing the traditional night prayer- Nunc Dimittis for the passage of PDP if that is its ordained fate.  For instance this is a party of warring factional leaders for whom honour counts for little when they are engaged in war of attrition over illegal sharing of our national resources. It was PDP leaders that told Nigerians which of them stole what.

It was Obasanjo’s PDP children including Atiku Abubakar and Dino Melaiye who first attempted to disrobe their father on the street by accusing him of alleged corruption. The former alleged his principal directed him to deploy state resources to buy a car for his concubine and the later asking the following rhetorical question following their principal’s labelling of the National Assembly as an assemblage of ‘pen robbers’: “Has Baba forgotten it was not the 8th assembly that collected ‘Ghana must go bags’ from him for his failed third term debacle?

It was Bukola Saraki who became the whistle-blower in the fuel subsidy scam through which PDP stalwarts and their siblings defrauded the nation of billons of naira. It was also Saraki who personally confessed that he literarily ‘stole’ the presidency of the 8th assembly. It was David Mark who betrayed his greed by going to court to pre-empt EFCC that had raised question of impropriety in his process of buying the senate mansion, a national patrimony which did not fall under items for sale under government monetization policy.

PDP alive is probably as dangerous as the one that will ultimately end up in hell. But for our own selfish interest, we need it alive to give legitimacy to our budding democracy which thrives better under a multi-party system. This is why in spite of PDP capital sins, Nigerians have quietly prayed and hoped it stops digging itself into the hole.

Unfortunately neither Nigerians’ past fervent prayers nor its envisioning of better future for PDP has stopped it from self-destruct.

It is for instance on record that in 2013, Atiku Abubakar, ever in search of presidential platform at every election season , along with Usman Bugaje, his adviser, pulled out of PDP to join forces with Bukola Saraki and some PDP governors to form nPDP. They eventually joined forces with newly formed APC. That betrayal of their party was all untested APC needed to collect power from weakened PDP.

In 2019, with  characteristic display of air of invulnerability of the Obasanjo and Tony Anenih’s  era of ‘do or die elections’, Atiku, Saraki and their group  headed back to PDP. But with APC now consolidated in power, PDP was roundly defeated by President Buhari in spite of his-first term’s lack-lustre performance

A leopard does not change its spots.  In 2023, PDP leaders including Atiku Abubakar, Iyorchia Ayu, David mark and Tambuwal jettisoned their party’s time-tested power rotational policy. They treated party members that disagreed with them with disdain.

Tambuwal was Wike’s trusted ally. He, however at the last minute, came out to play the ethnic and religious card by supporting Atiku Abubakar. They did not stop hitting Wike when he was down. Despite winning 14 of the 17 votes cast by PDP leading lights for the VP slot, Atiku by-passed him and settled for Ifeanyi Okowa, the governor of oil-rich Delta State notorious for generous donations towards successive PDP presidential campaign war-chest.  Wike’s answer to Atiku’s impunity was to disallow him from campaigning in which he went on to secure for candidate Bola Tinubu.

It was also curious that PDP did not weigh the consequences of ignoring the legitimate demand of the southeast that was the most important harvester of votes for PDP outside the north. It equally ignored the nuisance value of an opportunistic Peter Obi who, emerging from being a two-term APGA governor, quickly rose to become PDP VP candidate in 2019.

Realising he stood no chance against Atiku in the 2023, PDP presidential primary, he migrated back home to exploit the ethnic and religious sentiments of his equally aggrieved Igbo people. Obi later moved to Lagos and other Nigerian cities with huge Igbo urban immigrants to harvest group Igbo and Christian votes that placed his Labour platform third in the election. His gain was PDP’s loss.

It is apparent the only people that have continued to benefit from impunity since the birth of the fourth republic are its perpetrators. Everyone else including members of party oligarchy, political office holder and seekers, at the end has been a loser. Group interest and personal ambitions of party members, best achieved through compromise are frittered away through zero-sum intra-party struggle. The result is threat to the survival of party system, abuse of the judicial process and a culture of fear and heightened tension. And the cheapest solution according to Justice Omotosho of Abuja High Court is PDP putting its house in order.