Former spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Labour Party, LP, no longer exist as functional political platforms but only on paper.
He argued that the PDP and LP had lost relevance, with their leaders openly supporting other parties.
Speaking on Channels TV’s breakfast show on Friday, Okonkwo pointed to recent developments in the African Democratic Congress, ADC, as an example of a more functional political structure.
According to him, the coalition that birthed the ADC’s new leadership is not a merger but a full absorption into a single political party.
“You see what happened with ADC is a novel thing. It has not happened before in Nigeria, so I understand why people mistake a whole lot of things. This is the first time in Nigeria, the national executive of a political party, you know, resign and allowed a new executive party to take over on their own.
“So a coalition simply means alliance to work together for a purpose, chose the party to use as their party henceforth. So it’s not a merger. The coalition is now dissolved into a political party – it is not now like a coalition that political parties, are going to work together. No, they have now dissolved into a political party.
“Well, basically, strictly speaking, there is no more any party like PDP or LP. They are just existing papers because whoever is in PDP is either supporting APC or ADC.
“That’s what it is. If the leaders of PDP have come out openly to say they are supporting the presidential candidate of another political party, that’s the end of the party, two years before the time of the election.
“So strictly speaking, there is no party except on paper, and parties are meant to be for the people.”
