As an opposition party, PDP has failed Nigerians

As soon as the electoral umpire called the vote for Muhammadu Buhari of the APC in 2015, the PDP turned on itself.

Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu who superintended over the PDP’s election loss at the center and in a chunk of other States, wasted little time fleeing the country. No one has heard from him since.

Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff battled each other for the soul of the once governing party and shattered the party as they went along.

By the time the Supreme Court declared Makarfi the authentic caretaker chairman of the PDP in July of 2017, most party faithful had fled to pastures new.

It would seem that the PDP, not used to being in the opposition, didn’t know what to do post 2015; didn’t know how to handle a defeat.

For a party that had controlled the center for 16 years, the PDP found itself in unfamiliar territory and in a complete mess after 2015.

Joke of an opposition

It is little wonder that as an opposition party, the PDP has offered little. A serious opposition political platform would have been marshalling its counter arguments and sweeping the public space with meatier alternative policies to prove why voters should hedge bet with it next time around.

A serious opposition party should have been wooing first time voters and courting millennials.

In serious countries--in the wake of a defeat--the opposition party immediately sets up a shadow cabinet while taking apart the policy proposals of the governing party. For context, it took the PDP three years post general election defeat, to put together an elective convention.

It is little wonder that the APC and President Buhari are super confident heading into the 2019 election season. All they need do now is show up.

With just a year before Nigerians head to the polls to choose new governors, lawmakers and a president, there’s no candidate from the PDP with instant name recognition and clout to rattle the governing party and its potential presidential candidate--Buhari.

The PDP has got a lot of things wrong since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999; not least the pillaging of the national treasury with the appetite of a ravenous beast. However, it is the failure of the party to forge a formidable and credible frontahead of the 2019 general elections, that should count as its most unforgivable sin yet.