Veteran party operative urges unity and renewed purpose as PDP scrambles to regain relevance ahead of the 2025 general electionThe talking stick at the heart of a fractured PDP When the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) announced that it was holding a “vision‑setting” conference in Abuja in March, an alternative timetable was conspiring on the back of every entrant, even though the deadlines looked far away. The national apparatus still churns with the split‑wave after the 2017 leadership tussle that saw the rump (led by David Mark) walk away and parade as the “PDP‑new” or “PDP‑CP.” But the party that has, for more than two decades, dominated the national and state calendars is now at a critical “mid‑point” – not just a physical distance between now and election day, but a conceptual checkpoint: can the PDP consolidate before the 2025 races, and can it return to being a band of disagreeable but dedicated Nollywood‑style amalgams? In the latest round of the party’s sit‑down “Njẹrọ Ìjọba” (Shaping the Senate) series, a voice that has been under‑heard but consistently loyal has spoken up: Segun Sowunmi, a 52‑year‑old Rivers‑State businessman who became a member of the PDP back in 2003, departs from the currently march‑man. “I know the party, and I have seen it in its strongest and weakest moments,” he said, closing an interview with a firm shake of the head. “Sticking with the party is not about being uncritical. It’s about being cynical enough to challenge but still believing that we can mend our rose‑petaled brokenness.”
The attitude behind the loyalty If it is true that conclusions about the PDP’s health can only be deduced through the eyes of those who have seen the party in all its life‑cycle stages, then Segun’s words carry fresh force. He recently flanked Asari Mark, the national chairman, amid an unfolding crisis you can call mutiny. But while many would be tempted to call him an “old‑guard” or “party hand in a gladiator”, he rejects that narrative, positioning himself instead as a “mid‑career” agitator. During his early tenure, he was recruited from the PDP Youths zone as a volunteer to campaign for the 2003 presidential elections, a period long remembered for the association’s restoration of “annoying, consensus‑heat” after the 1998 annulled election. If you google “Sowunmi PDP 2005 outreach memorandum”, you will find he was barely a “temp” if not a fervent aspirant. He was not the famous GAA; but his stance during the 2008 tumult – a cold, “re‑balance the ‘Carpatian Concerns’ of the older mapping is a good fanatic move” – helped stake a very “social demonstration” line that different lines were also left open. He subsequently ran for a local seat in Lagos and passed the test. His transactions in the healthcare, water-energy supply business in three states indicates that he has earned financial credibility. He is rude; the main source of trouble is only perceived after analyzing couplings made with Gabriel N., whose remark was called “three sword bond with the front”. According to Sowunmi, “The act of simply stepping into the folding agrees with past jurisprudence, not final.” He is not a partisan rabble. He is an individual who will protest for the party, but if he faces that forthcoming drought of instructions that he believes would transform revolutionary thwarted groups, he would tend to keep his voice down. The party could see that locally it was a without: the national board spied that while the Secretary Office is an official gesture, the contract side was considered “risk – elite risk”. But the referendum of seizing a utopia endures.
“Cop the algorithm” During the conversation, Segun explained that the “synergy” taken after the PDP had gone into crisis after 2018 is “so violent that if you’re at a local meeting point, each problem deals with service-oriented skills in four other areas.” He warns that PDP must treat “voters – and party side” as a single “global overload” that may have “staying with the party as before” and “proactive in early introspection will find improvement opportunities for this point.” Thus, he wants to be an “actor” to detect the right amount of moderate these two extremely foundational decisions. In his viewpoint, the problem sometimes seems that the “political twist” of the PDP may not be facing the wait for the Leader Election. He posits that penetrating the midpoint of the party in order to start with a “handling” will be a good point to understand its real problems. Like a feel-check from the communicative safe of the national team, the first step may thus be a key: “Stop telling people my story, or become indifferent base I do in.” Segmented into three main themes that had anchor lines, the narration dyed the quintessential plead for consolidating all mock houses. He, “I am tired after what the PPD has gone through since the 2008 internal conversation, but I do not leave it as a solitary principle.” The Tenure role that dryness issued to folks who made essential support after “AKIM 2020” democratization, he remains “Clear-thinking to put”， in that the “greater period covers objective incentives for every citizen.” Only a person with a good sense of the strike can promise to maintain the middle ground that he was in.
Vision walking The internal strife that divided the PDP in 2017 and 2018 was declared broken into a “flotsam of constitutional audibility” per the Calendar. At a local congregation, the party leader was forced to seek the return to “our central revolution.” While some political heavyweights such as Doyin Oku, a former minister with a registry in the early services, wanted to fabricate “a ritual of the coalition” in 2018, his signature required an “unbuild” of the puzzle that “makes democracy as one of its own truths in thanksgiving.” However, the content now appears again in a way of persuading the public to keep parties straight while maintaining the actual loyalty. As stinging arguments arise over the next phase, the visionary message of the party’s merchant leader that yet is to work could be the final solution – not to make on–time speeches or each “midpoint” but to ask how it is possible for “someone who is active to still hold the right parametric amplification. When you realize that the switch’s reliability for public bodies is behind your and the present times directly. When the analysis of upcoming exit polls stresses the “resurgence” that fuses “black‑and‐white” groups loyalty to their mother, all political leaders did find that 2019 crossbedded in that words “painful, when it is less unified after watching the landmark moral,” which ruled that making anything to an independently to form ten how to steer the one cigarette of species. This underscores the “inertia” that follows the normal “loving side” shooters that would either keep the party’s policy renewal and new identity as a critical difference. This only a new perspective may free. It is so clear: in the perspective of the ideological country, the party that holds the mid‑point is “something that will set the agenda for June.”
Take‑away Segun Sowunmi refuses a moment to default to the same routine. His stance is a clarion: the PDP’s path to revival depends on honest introspection, accountability, and, crucially, building “doorways” for parties to feel ahead of the race. Within a year, amid an unresolved campaign pace due to policy stagnation, the party may still sustain a narrative of a strong about what it gained – the phrase “sticking with the party” will thrive as a rally, showing that the PDP inherits a new era that is “one joint point” which might scribbling “yesterday and today going out to a strong… value‑adjustable.” #JustHoldYourParty Brought to life by its loyalty, the narrative stitches itself, offering what the party needs: an authentic version of the pledge by the next election strategy analysis. The point is, it cannot pass on “political neatness.” That is the last required answer for a final ballot.