Political strategist and Founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy, Professor Udenta Udenta, has dismissed suggestions that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is collapsing under the weight of defections, insisting that the party remains strong and politically vibrant despite what he called the cowardice of some of its governors.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Prof Udenta said his earlier analysis of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s potential return to politics was based purely on political variables and not on any insider information.
“When I spoke partially about the prospect of the former president, I didn’t speak as a spokesperson. He has not declared a political context in the election. Even his membership of the party is only for him to clarify the status of that membership,” he said.
He described the PDP as “vibrant with life,” maintaining that the party’s identity and influence were rooted in the people rather than in individual politicians who defect for selfish reasons.
“If you decide to use the PDP as a platform, the party is vibrant with life, even though there’s a shift in terms of that upper crust of the political elite, the governors, who for some reason decide to say, okay, we call it a day, we’re going to join APC where we think that their gluttony will power our own ambition,” he stated.
Udenta argued that such defections were driven by greed, adding that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) was consuming itself through excesses. “Because gluttony, of course, has consequences, flatlines, and obesity. That’s why the party is gouging itself at the end of the day from leaders which are gouged into their soul,” he said.
He was equally scathing in his assessment of governors leaving the PDP, calling them weak and unprincipled. “It’s an individual taking a walk out of the seat of chicken-headedness and gutlessness. Simply put, let’s call a spade a spade,” he said.
According to him, the defections do not reflect the will of the people but the selfish ambitions of a few political elites. “In Enugu State, I can bet you the masses of the state are inside of them, roiling, roiling with anger, because you don’t do basic consultations among the leaders, say you are taking a walk from a party that granted you a massive mandate,” he said.
The political analyst maintained that despite the exodus of some party figures, the PDP remained the most viable opposition force in the country. “The mandate is a mandate of the party, and the mandate of the party subsists with people who get the mandate, not individuals who are taking a walk, maybe out of cowardice, as many party leaders are now talking, maybe chicken-hearted, maybe godless,” he noted.
Prof Udenta identified the party’s upcoming convention as a defining moment for the PDP’s future. “The convention is a test case for me as an analyst. 16 November 2025 is the day of reckoning for PDP. If the shenanigans of political defection do not permeate the court system… and the party holds that convention successfully remains smaller, sure, mobile, compact, cohesive and coherent, the party will rebound aggressively,” he said.
He added that the current internal shifts could actually help strengthen the PDP in the long run by cleansing it of leaders whose loyalty was questionable. “It is even important that this burdensome load is shed now, that the grouping of the APC is further watered, with appetite to gobble up a few of these who do not even have any bearing and any anchorage on the people,” he said.
Prof Udenta maintained that the PDP’s resilience and ideological roots will sustain it through the coming political storms. “If the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, decided to pick up the ticket of the party, and the party grants him that choice, he will win the next election because people will rally around him, the banner,” he affirmed.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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