As the next general election approaches, intending political offices’ contenders across board are already in the mood with different strategies to guarantee them victory at the polls. While some are solidifying their political party bases with aspirations to win the support of party colleagues in their ambitions, others are defecting to parties considered to offer greater chances of victory. Amidst, all these, the people of Nigeria are complaining of insecurity-induced hunger, unemployment, poor state of roads, high costs of living amongst others.
Meanwhile the political parties under whose platforms Nigerians’ desired leadership are supposed to emerge from are battling with discouraging challenges that are causing night mares to the nation’s electorate.
In 2015, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP which prided itself as the largest political party in the sub Saharan Africa region and boasted that it would be in the helms of affairs in the country’s governance lost the presidential election to Major General Muhammadu Buhari who took over the mantle of leadership and superintended over Nigeria for 8 years (2015 – 2023), having won on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Using the same platform, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the presidential election of 2023.
Since 2015, PDP has been acting as a major opposition party. The Labour Party joined in the role after its strong showing in the election that brought APC to power again in 2023. The fourth strongest political party, the NNPP which won the governorship election in one state (Kano), just like the LP that won in only Abia joined PDP as the voices of opposition.
However, while the APC is currently waxing stronger, with many strong politicians like the former governor of Delta State, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa defecting to it, the other parties are struggling to recover their bearing with a view to wrestling power from the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The PDP’s plight is so pathetic that the party cannot present an acceptable National Secretary to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC which is using this to disallow the party from convening its 100th national convention that was originally slated to hold on the 30th of June, 2025. And the party faces the risk of not being able to present certified candidates with the backing of INEC-accepted principal officers. To make matters worse, the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike who presently acts more on the side of President Tinubu’s APC is having complete grip of one of the factions of the party while the other is led by Governor Seyi Makinde who played vital roles in Tinubu’s emergence as the current President of Nigeria.
In the case of the Labour Party, four factions are currently laying claims to its leadership. These are each, led by Julius Abure, Lasisi Apapa, Nenadi Usman and Joe Ajaero. With this Scenario, it becomes difficult to predict the possibility of Mr. Peter Obi who rattled the political class with what has since been recorded in the nation’s history as a political tsunami during last election wherein his name alone secured victories for many legislators in the country today.
For the NNPP, the man who brought the party to limelight, and its former presidential candidate, Dr. Rabiu Kwakwanso is presently struggling to retain his membership of the party. Apart from this, most of the people that helped to ensure victory for the party in Kano state, including, Kwakwanso himself and the present governor are seriously romancing with the ruling APC. Additionally, rumours are rife that Tinubu is considering running with Kwakwanso as his running mate in 2027.
Quite unfortunately also is the fact the SDP which has been acting as a rallying point for coalition proponents such as Mallam Nasir El-Rufai recently sliced into its own share of the political brouhaha in the country following the suspension of its Chairman, Alhaji Shehu Gabam on the 23rd of June, 2025.
As if this is not enough, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, also a strong voice in the coalition movement was stripped of his title of Waziri Adamawa by the Adamawa state government which hinged its action on a purported new revelation that the former vice president of Nigeria is not from Adamawa state which has always been his biggest catchment area in politics.
A strong politician in Delta State, Dr. Festus Okubo, recently described the coalition against Tinubu as a coalition to hell. He averred that the people behind the coalition are being spiritually put together for corporate humiliation in line with the natural justice system invisibly in operation on earth.
On the whole, even if President Tinubu is indirectly being positioned to win again by the tattered political parties, it behooves all of them to do all they can to ensure that the 2027 presidential election turns out, at least , to be an interesting one with their strong showings.
