Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rests on a solidified democratic foundation since 1998 built by reputable democrats determined to chase the military out of power. They were not committed to unhealthy competition with the other two registered parties; Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Peoples Party (APP).
Their primary objective was not just to win elections by all means so to say, but to chase the military out of political power to their constitutional responsibility as custodians of national security.
Despite the odds of its trying period, which began in 2015, PDP is still the most feared and most respected political party in Nigeria. It is the target of attacks from all other parties on the surface. It has suffered, endured, and resisted several cases of intimidation, betrayals, threats of annihilation, factionalization, and hallucinations from outside opponents and within. It still remains the booming bakery that baked other parties to prominence with some now in control of power but shamelessly biting the very fingers that baked it. PDP is a party that has survived in the worst of times.
Today, Nyeson Wike, supposedly a PDP support beneficiary, is leading the battle against the survival of the party, serving as an internal APC mole out of frustration and lust for power.
Wike is not alone in the destructive project. Some Abuja judges are standing ever ready to issue restraining orders that can be pulled out from the pockets of warring party powers, issuing like weapons, political meetings descend into ludicrous gatherings where the real decision-makers are not the party leaders but the judges themselves, casting a shadow over democratic processes and reducing the once-esteemed party to a puppet show of Court rulings and legal machinations.
Today, we are witnessing the escalation of sponsored crisis and psychiatric theatre attempting to disfigure Nigeria’s bedrock of democracy (PDP), where the real party apparatchik is not leading- it is the judiciary that leads from compromised judgments.
In Nigeria today, political strategy has been replaced with a mad scramble to the Courtroom. The active players aren’t the policy-makers or leaders, but are those lawyers with folded Court orders hidden in their inner pockets like Court bailiffs ready to spring them at the slightest sign of conflict. Why should we then bother with governance when politicized restraining orders from compromised Abuja judges can decide the fate of an entire political structure? That was the compromise judgment that robbed the victories of Plateau State PDP State and National Lawmakers in 2023.
Why not we save ourselves all the charade and just roll out the red carpet for those judges with vast interest at every PDP gathering? After all, they’re the real puppet masters pulling the strings behind the scenes to the disadvantage of the party they are desperate to destroy.
We have read judgments from Justices James Omotosho, Peter Lifu, Inyang Ekwo and Emeka Nweti all of the Federal High Court Abuja Division. These are not common judges but de facto overlords destroying PDP for the bidding of a renowned APC mole in the PDP.
Those judges deserve thrones at the table, complete with crowns and gavels, ready to slam down verdicts on internal PDP squabbles before the coffee cools!
But then, where does Justice John Tsoho fit into the circus? He is the president of the Federal High Court and the hidden grand master, casually assigning cases to those judges on funny matters like a talent scout for a political comedy show, amidst a sea of other Federal High Court judges who are probably rolling their eyes. Who today needs party leadership when the judiciary is moonlighting as party touts? At this rate, we should just rename the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the “Judicial Comedy Club” destroying democracy at will.
In the ongoing political drama, most parties have finally had their fill of judiciary-sponsored psychodrama. In an unprecedented move, some legal practitioners had publicly questioned the various delivered judgments of those mentioned FHC judges who seem to have hands in every major political dispute. One wonders if those judges have a secret side hustle as political consultants to APC, because their rulings aren’t just questionable; they are direct affronts to the very idea of judicial neutrality.
In fact, those legal practitioners’ demands make perfect sense: if those judges are so desperate to shape APC’s future despite its shortcomings and insincerity, let them openly be bold to do so. Let them hurriedly set up a camp right at the party’s national secretariat to serve as a decision-making branch.
If they do that, they can then start handing out gavel-shaped party membership cards while they are at it. After all, with the way things are going, who needs democratic governance when we can just have a “Judicial Party” instead? And who would be blamed? The APC off course should be blamed being clueless and insincere right from the start in desperation for stay in power beyond welcome.
PDP’s internal affairs has become a psychotic playground of political sabotage, where Court orders fly faster than reason, and where supposed leaders like Ambassador Iliya Damagum preside over a farcical merry-ground of suspensions, reinstatements, and shadow games. The acting PDP national chairman was himself appointed after the Court ordered the removal of Senator Iyorchia Ayu.
Now, Damagum’s leadership is under siege, his decisions perpetually countered by rival factions within, supported by Abuja judges and an APC mole.
At the centre of this psychotic disorder is Wike, the Federal Capital Territory Minister, who reportedly is more aligned to APC than the PDP he claims to belong.
For instance, in Rivers State where Wike loves to be seen as an Emperor on a conquered territory, his PDP faction celebrated the Court rulings that secured him a grip over local government council executives, leaving the party’s leadership scrambling for mere relevance. What remains of the PDP is a party spiraling out of control, trapped in endless legal battles fuelled by personal vendettas and external influence.
And where does such a situation leads to? Of course, to the doors of the waiting judiciary—–the Abuja judges who seem to be ever-present in every political mess, handing down decisions that protect more of personal interests than upholding justice. Names of particular judges have become household in political circles, infamous for their rulings that keep the PDP’s internal crises festering like an open wound. Their presence has turned the judiciary into a willing accomplice in the chaos, one that feeds off the party’s dysfunction while ensuring the perpetuation of corruption and personal gain.
But here is the real tragedy: Nigerians are keenly watching in horror and bewilderment as the PDP is steadily losing steam under the weight of opposition’s psychotic behavior, while the judiciary enables it.
Voices of reason are drowned out by the ongoing judicial madness. Some minds in a sea of dysfunction have consistently spoken out against the abuse of Court orders and the judiciary’s shameful interference in political party affairs. Several democrats had taken it to the media, decrying the manipulation of the judiciary for personal and political gain, asking repeatedly, “When will the National Judicial Council (NJC) step in and restore sanity?” But instead of action, all pleas and outcries are not listened to. Maybe a revolution will provide the desired remedy in due course.
The truth is painful: some Abuja judges are not just complicit——they are pivotal actors in the tragic play as if they are the only ones that can interpret the law. And while democrats fight for a semblance of integrity, the judiciary closes ranks, protecting its corrupt members. The leadership of NJC, compromised or fearful, turns blind at the most needed time to act. It is a shameful reality that those judges, who should ordinarily be the guardians of justice, are presiding and encouraging the painful death of the democracy.
From all the drama plays, who then suffers the most from the courtroom psychosis other than the people? Ordinary Nigerians, watching from the sidelines, are only left to shake their heads in sorrow as personal interests, political supremacy and deep-seated corruption steadily destroys the fabric of the nascent democracy sustained over the years by the PDP.
While PDP battles the odds with expertise, the judiciary stands as its silent albatross, the people are left with the option of either to suffer the consequences innocently, or defect to the ruling party APC for series of punishments and denial of rights to freedom of speech and association.
It is the majority of Nigerians that are left without proper and effective governance, left to endure rising unemployment, decaying infrastructure, and a political system that cares more about who gets the next Court order than who can serve the people with all sincerity. They watch helplessly as gluttonous politicians dance to the tune of the judiciary, their voices silenced under the weight of Court rulings designed to maintain power for the few greedy ones at the expense of many.
As the painful drama unfolds, Nigerians are forced to confront the brutal reality: democracy, once the hope for a brighter future, is now a weapon in the hands of those who seek to destroy it.
And as Abuja judges continue to shape the destiny of a broken political system, the Nigerian people are left with little more than their own despair——a despair born not just from failed leadership, but from the betrayal of the very institutions meant to protect them.
In the end, PDP’s psychosis spiral will pass, the Court orders will fade, and the power struggles will shift. But the scars on Nigeria’s democratic soul will remain. A constant reminder of a judiciary that failed to serve the people, and a political party, APC, that lost its way to a one-party system.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
