From Ruling Party to Opposition Party: The People’s Democratic Party in Nigeria’s 2015 General Elections

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to examine the factors that led to the defeat of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria’s 2015 general elections
after dominating Nigeria’s political landscape since the return to democracy
in 1999.
The methodology of the paper is qualitative and conceptual. The issues
were analysed under various themes. The data were gathered through the
secondary method of data collection such as textbooks, journal articles,
reports of election observer teams, party constitutions, workshop papers,
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) documents, the
Electoral Acts and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The analysis of the information gathered helped to dissect the circumstances
that were responsible for the electoral defeat of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) by the current ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the
2015 general elections.
The research discovered that some factors were responsible for the defeat
of the PDP in the 2015 general elections, chief among them is the abysmal
lack of internal party democracy in the party. The paper asserts that though
political parties are indispensable institutions in a democracy, for them
to make fundamental contributions to democracy, they must, among other
things, adhere to the tenets of internal party democracy in order to sustain
their electoral strength and make a profound contribution to democratic
growth.