Between 1999 when Nigeria returned to democratic rule and 2015 when the behemoth PDP hegemonic ship of corruption capsized, Nigerians had first hand experience of wasted opportunity, mismanagement of national will for restructuring of the system on the right path and the promotion of corruption and indiscipline to a national flag status. While the opposition was learning their bitter and hard lessons under the jackboot of the PDP, the big boys in government was busy with the art of “chopping life” as noveau-riche while the ship of state lost its compass and became rudderless. In the engulfing confusion obviously occasioned by flatulence of power and corruption, the PDP slept off and before they could wake up, the opposition created in the funnel of fire had wrestled power from the PDP.
In these first 16 years of Nigeria in her fourth republic under the PDP, Nigeria missed her early opportunities to return the country back to democracy friendly structure rather they consolidated power at the centre and created a pool of clumsiness and filth. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo descended heavily on all voices of reason and created an imperial presidency. As Nigerians grow in political enlightenment in the years that follows, the imperial system give way to the cabal system in the presidency perpetuating primordial interests as against national interest and this transcended even into the early years of the APC rule.
Today, by the divine intervention of God, Nigeria has crossed the Rubicon after 24 years in the wilderness of democracy with a president and leader groomed in the art of strategic thinking and boardroom planning; schooled in the art of resources mobilization and management; mentored by democratic heroes of our history and tested in the fiery tunnels of opposition ascension to power in Nigeria. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has today in just two years shut down the fuel subsidy cabal and the multiple forex rates hyenas; he has strengthened the states financially and working on giving life back to the grassroots through the local councils. Today, in just two years, through administrative actions, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has returned Nigeria to regional coordination via the establishment of six development commissions, one for each of the six geo-political zones, a feat the all the former administrations could not attempt despite two National conferences under the PDP in 2005 and 2014. Today the almighty exclusive legislative list of the PDP years is losing weight even without a constitutional conference, pointing to the intention of the leadership to align our structure with true federalism. Today, our pre-independence tax laws have been reformed to make productivity enticing and unlock national growth. Today, in just two years, Nigeria crossed the Rubicon of trade deficit to trade surplus, we have started clearing our sundry indebtedness to make us stand tall for legacy borrowings if we must borrow at all. Access to education has been further liberalized with the establishment and release of Fund in billions of Naira to the Education Loans Board. Today life is not easy yet as our expectation for average Nigerian but we are not blind to the gargantuan reformation being undertaken towards a new model Nigeria of our glory and the pride of our yet unborn generation just like the new Lagos which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pioneered between 1999 and 2007 as the Governor of the State.
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As expected in any political dispensation, the coming of every election is set to roughen and toughen the feathers of the incumbent while testing the resourcefulness, resolve and reliability of the opposition as necessary in a democracy. Opposition in Nigeria however seemed to have stopped with the APC ascension to power in 2015 as the PDP, once the largest party in Africa continue to disintegrate and decimate, courtesy of its own indiscipline, rudderlessness and “kari-ka-chop” (see and eat) syndrome.
Eventually, if anybody is still in the PDP today, it is about predating on the material assets as the is no goodwill left. The best of their serving Governors are leaving in droves to align with the vision of the ruling party to build a new Nigeria since their party has lost its soul to fragmentation due to greed and avarice. In 2023, when it mattered most for the PDP, it fragmented into three as PDP, NNPP and LP. Now in 2025, the same PDP rather than return to rebuild their homestead, bury personal ambition and self aggrandizement and provide Nigeria with credible and reliable opposition in her democratic journey, has rather finally killed the only hope of opposition by tearing the umbrella.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a two-term president under the banner of the PDP (1999-2007) was the first to tear his PDP membership card on television before the whole world. Alhaji Abubakar Atiku his vice for the same period has been in and out thrice with no love for the party but for only its presidential ticket.
Senator David Alechenu Mark was in the senate from 1999 till 2019 and was the President of the Senate for 8 years out of the 20 years under the umbrella of the PDP. He is no doubt a no-asset to the party that gave so much to him undeservedly today. He has been in the corridor of power in Nigeria since the early 90s under the military as either as Military Governor or Minister of Signals a.k.a Communication under the military and a front-line anti-June 12 IBB loyalist. The only thing most Nigerian can recall about him for all these opportunities was his popular tirade that “telephone is not for the common man in Nigeria”
Gregory Peter Obi, a two-term Governor of Anambra State under APGA, violated all oaths taken before man and God, abandoned his party shortly after office and moved to the PDP. Little known to national politics, in 2019 he was awarded the PDP Vice-presidential ticket with Atiku courtesy of Former President Jonathan. In 2023, he jumped the ship even before the primary to deal a fatal underbelly blow on the PDP from its Southeast stronghold. Today, he is neither in the Labour Party or the Coalition ADC according to his own claim. How such a confused individual will think of leading Nigeria remains an insult.
These elements and their ilk; the likes of Raufu Aregbesola, the man with highest number of jail-breaks as Minister of Interior in Nigeria’s history; Nasir El-rufai who superintended the greatest ethno-religious genocide in the history of Kaduna State; Abubakar Malami under whose watch as the Attorney-General of the Federation the Buhari regime lost the battle against graft to submission etc, in their hunger and desperation for power and access to the national treasury seek to register a party they called “All Democratic Alliance” (ADA) meaningless grammatically but meaning cutlass and a bad omen in Yoruba language. When they could not pursue ordinary party registration to a success, they went for a hijack like an infant terrorist group. Today, they are still hibernating in the ADC but surely there is no respite for a confused and disoriented characters in a functional democracy than the dustbin of history.
Nigerians are waiting for their campaigns against the gains we have made from our pains in the last two years of President Tinubu’s focused leadership, a pain they caused us by their own years of clueless hold to power.