Former Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, has warned that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is collapsing under the weight of its own leadership failures, describing the opposition party as “decaying from the head.”
Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday, Fayose said the PDP’s internal crisis can only be resolved if the party confronts its leadership issues head-on.
“When fish decays from the body, you can salvage it. But when it decays from the head, you cannot. Right now, the PDP has decayed from the head,” he declared.
Fayose, who has often spoken frankly about the party’s troubles, said he had consistently warned that the PDP was heading for deeper crisis.
“I have never deceived Nigerians about the state of the PDP, and I’ve made it clear that although I will never leave the party, I cannot deny that it is in serious trouble,” he said.
He noted that his earlier prediction about governors defecting from the party had already come to pass.
“Three weeks ago when I was here, I said three PDP governors would leave. Governor Diri of Bayelsa has left, he was even chairman of the PDP campaign screening committee. The governor of Enugu has left and the governor of Taraba, who was handed over to the APC national chairman by the president, has also left,” Fayose explained.
According to him, more defections are imminent. “Another governor from Plateau will soon leave. And after him, yet another one will go. When I return here, I will remind you,” he added.
The PDP is currently facing a major internal split ahead of its national convention, scheduled for November 15–16 in Ibadan, Oyo State. The party is divided into two factions, one loyal to acting national chairman Umar Damagum and the other aligned with Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Fayose is a known supporter of the Wike camp.
The party’s crisis has also played out in the courts. On October 31, the Federal High Court in Abuja halted the convention, ruling that the PDP failed to conduct valid state congresses as required by the 1999 Constitution, INEC guidelines, and the party’s own constitution.
However, in a conflicting ruling on November 4, the Oyo State High Court ordered the party and Damagum to proceed with the convention after hearing an ex parte application filed by Folahan Malomo Adelabi.
As the PDP battles both internal and legal challenges, Fayose’s comments reflect growing anxiety over the future of the once-dominant opposition party.
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