In 1999, PDP had 21 Govs, APP had 9 & AD 6 Govs. By 2003, PDP 28 governors, ANPP 7 Govs, while AD had just I Gov.The opposition politicians, particularly those in sinking PDP, crying foul, alleging there is a drift towards one-partism, think we are all seized by amnesia. Simply because some governors and top party chieftains are hopping on the APC train because of the sterling performance of President Tinubu and the gradual economic bounce back, these politicians give the impression our polity is doomed. Far from it!
If they have forgotten or have chosen to forget, we won’t forget. Let me remind them: after the election in 1999, at the birth of a new political dispensation, PDP garnered 21 governors, defunct APP got 9 and AD 6 governors.But by 2003, the rampaging PDP machine had snatched a total of 28 governors, ANPP 7 governors, while the AD had been left to just I governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who survived Obasanjo’s onslaught on the South-west.2007 was the era of President Obasanjo do-or-die politics. PDP kept its 28 governors and even went more bizarre and deadly, conducting a sham election everyone dubbed the worst in our history such that even the winner of the 2007 presidential poll, late President Yar’Adua, admitted it was massively rigged. PDP swore it would rule for 60 years.
However, like-minded politicians from the North and South of the country got together, formed an alliance that birthed APC, unseated PDP in 2015 and ended a 16-year disastrous PDP rule. So what has changed? Alignment and realignment are all parts of politics. This does not mean our politics is imperiled. What needs to happen is the opposition needs to get their acts together and behave like opposition parties. Chikena!
