A prominent PDP chieftain, Segun Showunmi, has stated that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will need to convince the People’s Democratic Party of the merits of potentially merging with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), given the PDP’s significantly stronger political position.
In a TVC interview from 2:37, Segun Showunmi explained that recent statements from PDP governors were meant to establish clear boundaries for any coalition discussions. “And so I think what the governors have done is not necessarily to say that conversation can’t happen the way it’s happening, but it’s to make everybody in the country clear about the fact that no one is going to hoodwink the PDP into an arrangement that they’re not clear about,” he said.
He raised fundamental questions about the practical implications of such a merger. “Do they have to deregister their parties, and are they going to empty a big party into a smaller one? PDP have about 13 governors, minus the one that is suspended now; they have enough senators. They have enough House of Representative members,” he pointed out.
He questioned the logic of PDP elected officials potentially abandoning their established party structure. “Are those ones supposed to now suddenly start moving into a party that has absolutely nothing to offer in terms of existing leadership structure that people have won? They don’t have any government,” Showunmi stated.
The PDP chieftain clarified that despite the public appearances by the governor to refute the merger claims, there isn’t genuine internal conflict over the matter. “So, I think that in what they said in that communique, maybe something might have suggested that there is a quarrel or a disagreement. No, there is none. It’s a conversation that is still ongoing.”
He concluded by emphasizing that Atiku would still need to present his vision to party leadership. “I’m sure at some point in time, Atiku, who is driving or trying to say opposition should come together, we still have to go and meet the party and try to explain to them, this is how I envisage it.”
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