Former Jigawa State Governor and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sule Lamido, has warned that Nigeria risks slipping into authoritarianism if the PDP ceases to exist as a viable opposition.
Lamido issued the warning on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm, where he emphasized the crucial role the PDP plays in sustaining Nigeria’s democracy.
“If the PDP collapses, Nigeria will collapse. Where there is no opposition, then there will be an emperor.
When the party collapses, then you have an emperor all over Nigeria, and all emperors are destroyed by their greed,” he said.
He argued that the PDP is deeply woven into Nigeria’s political fabric over the last 25 years, stating that the collapse of the party would equate to the erasure of the country’s democratic history.
“The PDP is Nigeria’s history in the last 25 years. Therefore, look at the bigger picture. If the party collapses, it is Nigeria’s history which collapses,” Lamido stressed.
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs credited the PDP with laying the groundwork for Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, asserting that without that foundation, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari would not have emerged as a democratically elected president under the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.
He further noted that President Bola Tinubu, who succeeded Buhari in 2023, also benefited from the democratic structure the PDP built in the Fourth Republic.
Lamido maintained that Tinubu needs a strong PDP to serve as a counterbalance to executive power.
“More than anybody, Tinubu needs PDP to be chasing him, to be on his toes. But when it collapses, nobody will be chasing him; he will be chasing himself,” he said.
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