PDP's Power Decline: From Dominance to Dwindling in 2025

Sun Sep 06 2026 01:20:15 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

The once-dominant Peoples Democratic Party crumbles as defections, court battles, and leadership splits threaten its future.

Once Nigeria's political giant, the PDP has found itself on the brink of extinction after its 2015 electoral defeat. A surge of defections and factional battles in 2025 have eroded its state strongholds and internal unity. Court rulings now favor a rival faction that excludes the party's former top leaders from its ballot slate. Yet a handful of loyalists believe a strategic reset could revive the party before 2032.

PDP's Power Decline: From Dominance to Dwindling in 2025

Olusegun Obasanjo standing before crowds

The Peoples Democratic Party, once Nigeria’s unchallenged political titan, is now splintering from within. Its 2015 loss to Buhari’s APC marked the start of a decade-long decline, but the last year has pushed it closer to disappearance.

Defections of state governors—Delta, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Bayelsa and Rivers—have literally emptied its roster of governorship seats, leaving it with zero states at the most recent polls. The party’s charismatic legacy clutching eight states in 2024 has collapsed into a shadow of its former self.

The ruthless court battle over who commands the PDP has only amplified chaos. In November 2025, a faction that legally outranks the original leadership declared a national convention in Ibadan that expelled Nyesom Wike. Wike, a founding figure who now sits in the executive council of President Tinubu’s ruling APC, continues to wield a rival faction that remains legally recognised by the Electoral Commission.

Facing a fractured membership and a ballot devoid of its own top players, the PDP struggles for relevance. Yet some core members remain hopeful: politician Aminu Adamu, an anti-Wike voice, believes systemic reforms could resurrect the party by 2032.

Analyst Deji Olarenwaju suggests a strategic alliance with the African Democratic Congress or Peter Obi’s Nigeria Democratic Congress as a lifeline, given the PDP’s current lack of electoral viability. The party’s future hangs in the balance of legal disputes and a political landscape that has moved on.