Olawepo-Hashim Warns PDP Risks Collapse, Says Party Has Abandoned Its Founding Ideals

A former presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has raised alarm over what he described as the party’s steady drift from the values on which it was founded, warning that the deepening crisis in the opposition party poses a grave danger to Nigeria’s democracy.

Reacting to the outcome of the PDP’s controversial national convention held in Ibadan, Olawepo-Hashim faulted the organisers for allegedly ignoring subsisting court orders and proceeding with the convention despite multiple legal disputes.

He said the crisis, if not urgently resolved, could further destabilise the already weakened party and derail the democratic gains the nation has recorded since 1999.

According to him, the PDP’s founding fathers built a platform anchored on inclusion, federal balance and a broad national coalition—principles he insists have been jettisoned by the party’s current managers.

“The founding fathers of the PDP deliberately constructed a political platform capable of preventing further military incursion into governance, promoting national unity and deepening federalism,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

He recalled that the party’s inclusive structure gave it a commanding lead in the December 1998 local government elections, where it secured nearly two-thirds of the available seats—an outcome that helped stabilise the transition to civilian rule in 1999.

Olawepo-Hashim lamented that the present wave of fragmentation, conflicting court rulings and the exclusion of key stakeholders runs contrary to the party’s historical tradition of consensus-building.

“Inclusion, not exclusion, is the PDP tradition. We must return to dialogue, broaden consultations and unite all sides if we are to save the party—and save Nigeria’s democracy,” he added.

The former presidential aspirant urged party leaders to prioritise reconciliation over punitive decisions, cautioning that the expulsion of prominent figures would only worsen the PDP’s internal fractures.

The leadership tussle, which has triggered the defection of at least five governors elected on the party’s platform in 2023, has split the PDP into two factions—one led by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde and the other by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

Tensions escalated after the Makinde-led faction reportedly expelled Wike and some of his allies at the Ibadan convention. However, governors Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa and Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau have distanced themselves from the expulsions, even though they attended the convention.

The dispute has continued to widen the cracks within the opposition party, raising fresh concerns about its ability to function as a cohesive national political force ahead of the next electoral cycle.