By Justice Chidi
Let’s not pretend. We all know the truth even if no one wants to say it. The PDP is in a political coma with no sign of waking up soon.
The once sparkling and mighty umbrella now barely covers a thing. Call it what you want, but the engine of the PDP as a party has knocked.
For anyone who has watched Nigerian politics evolve over the last decade, PDP’s slow-motion implosion has been neither sudden nor surprising.
Ndigbo, a region that stood firm with the PDP through thick and thin, have received nothing more than polite applauses and political table-droppings.
Since 1999, the Southeast has been a loyal foot soldier in the PDP’s long march.
We’ve mobilised votes. We’ve delivered delegates. We’ve defended the party even when others flirted with oppositions.
And yet, when it’s time to share the spoils; when presidential tickets are being handed out behind closed doors, the same party turned its back, offering the Southeast empty and hollow slogans.
How do you explain a 24-year loyalty without a single serious nod toward an Igbo presidency? They talked about and glamorised zoning, but the compass always pointed elsewhere.
In 2019, the party returned to the familiar northern ticket. Ndigbo swallowed hard, put on their cap of endurance, and voted a Northern candidate.
In 2023, despite mounting calls for equity and justice, the PDP still found a way to swerve the Southeast.
They fed zoning to the dogs, and the rest is history. And it became obvious that zoning was an effective principle in the party only when it doesn’t favour Ndigbo.
The PDP treated Ndigbo like the proverbial best man who was good in organising the wedding party but was never considered good enough for the groom’s suit.
Ndigbo may have had some ministerial appointments and senate presidency, but never the full weight of national leadership.
Even such gestures often felt like consolation prizes handed out to maintain an illusion of balance.
Now, the mask has slipped. The myth of inclusion has worn thin and pale. And Ndigbo are asking hard questions: What exactly are we still loyal to? A party that counts on our votes but not our voices? A structure that promises equity in principle but practices exclusion in secret? Maybe the time has come to stop waiting at a door that was never meant to open.
It is, therefore, not surprising that recently, when Governor Peter Mbah left the PDP for the APC, senator Shehu Sani captured the symbolic significance as he intoned “the last flag of the PDP has been lowered.”
The question we should be asking isn’t “why did Governor Mbah leave?” but rather, “who would have stayed back in the PDP?”
