At sunrise in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hauwa Musa, a widow and long-time PDP ward organiser, unlocked a small party office she had supported with her own savings for nearly a decade. She once coordinated meetings, fed volunteers, and escorted elderly voters on election day. By late 2025, that office had gone silent. Phones no longer rang, meetings were cancelled, and the chairman she supported had defected to the APC.

“When he left, everything changed. Nobody called us together to explain. You just wake up and realise the work you were doing no longer exists,” Musa said.

Across Nigeria, similar stories played out. Governors, legislators, and party officials gradually abandoned the PDP, seeking alignment with the ruling APC’s “Renewed Hope” agenda. By the end of 2025, the PDP had shrunk from 13 governors to just five or six, losing its dominance in key southern states.

The exodus included Delta Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, Ifeanyi Okowa, Akwa Ibom’s Umo Eno, and, later, Rivers’ Siminalayi Fubara and Taraba’s Agbu Kefas. Even Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke left the party, opting to run under the Accord Party. At the grassroots, officials like Musa found themselves politically adrift.

In the National Assembly, the shift was equally stark: Senate defections expanded APC numbers to nearly 78 seats, while dozens of House members followed suit. Monitoring groups estimated that over 140 PDP officials nationwide had defected by mid-2025.

The implosion turned personal for some leaders. Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde accused former ally and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike of undermining the PDP. Wike denied the claim, insisting no such agreement to “hold PDP down” ever took place.

Amid the turmoil, opposition figures like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar called for urgent action. Through the ADC, he urged leaders to unite and resist what he described as APC attempts to dominate the political landscape.

For grassroots organisers like Musa, 2025 became a year of quiet withdrawal, not legal absorption. The PDP exists on paper, but in practice, its people and structures quietly faded away.