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PDP's Date with History: NEC Meeting Holds on May 15, 2025 Amid Party's Crisis and Factionalization

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) is set to hold its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on May 15, 2025, a date that observers believe will make or break the main opposition party. The NEC meeting aims to address thorny issues, including the controversy over national chairmanship and national secretaryship positions, and resolve the crisis that has plagued the party since the end of the 2023 general election.

Key Takeaways:

  • The NEC meeting is expected to tackle three contentious issues: the Damagum debacle, the dispute between Senator Sam Anyanwu and Sunday Udeh-Okoye over who the authentic National Secretary of the party is, and the zoning of the 2027 PDP presidential ticket.
  • Proponents of the continued stay in office of the PDP acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, are prepared to pull the strings to ensure he is not booted out by the NEC meeting.
  • The pro-Damagum faction is reportedly in alliance with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
  • Kola Olagbodiyan, former National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, warned that the party will go nowhere if Damagum remains acting National Chairman.
  • The PDP Governors' Forum has directed the party's National Working Committee (NWC) to ensure the NEC meeting is held by February this year, but the meeting has been postponed to May 15, 2025.
  • A faction of the party, led by a former PDP South-South Governor, is insisting that it is the South's turn to produce the president in 2027.
  • Some PDP chieftains are in a fix as to how to convince a potential southern candidate to do one term and leave the stage for a Northerner in 2031 in the spirit of the North-South rotation.
  • Realizing the difficulty in enforcing the rotation, some PDP leaders are mulling the idea of drafting former president Goodluck Jonathan into the 2027 presidential race.
  • Hon. Felix Amadiegwu described Damagum's continued stay in office as having done incalculable damage to the party, and any new chairman will be inheriting a party that has been hemorrhaging members and cohesion since the end of the 2023 elections.

Statistics:

  • The NEC meeting has been postponed five times since April 18, 2024.
  • Over 200 PDP members have defected to the APC since the end of the 2023 elections.
  • The party has lost three Kebbi senators to the APC in the past week.
  • The PDP has been hemorrhaging members and cohesion since the end of the 2023 elections.

Sources:

  • "PDP NEC meeting shifts to May 15, 2025" by Daily Sun, no date.
  • "PDP faces extinction if it fields Atiku or any other Northerner as presidential candidate in 2027" by Daily Sun, no date.
  • "Former President Jonathan not desperate to return to office, sources say" by Daily Sun, no date.
  • "PDP sets stage for national leadership tussle as NEC meeting holds on May 15" by Vanguard, March 13, 2025.

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