One Last Dance?

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, The Road to 2023. Buy the issue here.

Atiku Abubakar and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are in a similar position to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Having played a part in PDP’s earlier victories in 1999 and 2003, Atiku (as he’s commonly known) journeyed to different parties and returned, at different times, to PDP, a party he helped form. Atiku’s quest for the presidency, which began in 1993, is not yet over but his chances of achieving this are nearly up. It is fairly certain that the 2023 elections will be his last opportunity to become Nigeria’s president.

Likewise, PDP and its appeal as a major party, are also in question. PDP’s 16 years in control of government, which famously came to an end in 2015, seem like a distant memory following its last eight years in opposition. Infighting, from its initial schism after the 2015 defeat and, currently, questions over its zoning of roles to reflect equity in the party continue to dog PDP’s movement. Finally, even with a ruling party that has proven to be unpopular, PDP has failed to capture the support of Nigerians. It has equally failed to seize the wave of ‘change’ that the All-Progressives Congress (APC) held during APC’s successful 2015 campaign.

Hence, the journeys of PDP and Atiku, its two-time presidential flagbearer, are as interwoven as they are similar. And, in this likely last dance together, one wonders if Atiku and PDP are a match made in heaven, or a pairing doomed to fail.