Former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, has blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for its own political troubles, declaring that President Bola Tinubu was practically handed the opposition party “on a silver platter” by its leaders.
Lamido, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and one of the PDP’s founding-era figures, said it was wrong to accuse Tinubu of deliberately destroying the opposition party through his alliance with former Rivers State Governor and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
In an interview with The Sun, Lamido dismissed the argument as a “lazy debate”, insisting that political opponents would naturally exploit every opportunity to defeat their rivals.
He said the real question should be why the PDP allowed itself to become vulnerable enough for Tinubu and Wike to exert such influence.
‘We Abandoned Our Own House’
According to Lamido, Tinubu did not create the PDP’s crisis; rather, the crisis was created by influential PDP politicians who abandoned the party when it needed them most.
He pointed to the movement of several former governors and other senior political figures into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), arguing that the PDP would have been much stronger if its leading figures had stayed behind to fight for the party.
Lamido maintained that if former presidents, vice presidents and governors had remained in the PDP, Tinubu and Wike would not have had the political space to challenge the party.
He therefore asked why the opposition should blame its political rival for taking advantage of a weakness created by the opposition itself.
For Lamido, the PDP effectively left its political house unlocked and then complained when an opponent walked in.
‘Who Is Tinubu If We Had Stayed?’
The former governor said the PDP’s present predicament could have been avoided if its leading members had remained united.
He argued that the political strength now associated with Tinubu was partly the result of the opposition’s own failure to organise and defend its territory.
Lamido said the situation was particularly frustrating because he had warned about Tinubu’s political capacity long before the current crisis.
He recalled that he had previously cautioned PDP members that Tinubu was a politician they would find extremely difficult to dislodge because of his political history, organisational ability and experience.
‘Tinubu Beat His Own Party’s Giants’
Lamido also recalled Tinubu’s emergence as the APC presidential candidate in 2022, when the former Lagos governor defeated several powerful contenders at the party’s presidential primary.
He noted that Tinubu secured the presidential ticket despite not enjoying the backing of then-President Muhammadu Buhari, arguing that the episode demonstrated his ability to build and mobilise political support.
Lamido said Tinubu had even warned some APC leaders who opposed his emergence that they would face the consequences of challenging him.
According to him, subsequent events showed that the warning was not an empty threat.
‘Don’t Blame Tinubu For Our Failure’
The former Jigawa governor’s central argument was that politics is a contest and every serious political opponent will seek to defeat the other side.
He questioned why the PDP expected Tinubu to sit back and allow the opposition to remain politically strong when the party itself had created divisions and lost many of its heavyweight politicians.
Lamido said the PDP should therefore stop presenting itself as a victim of Tinubu’s political manoeuvring and instead confront its own mistakes.
Tinubu May Not Know How Bad Things Are
Lamido also offered a striking assessment of the Nigerian economy, suggesting that President Tinubu may not be receiving an accurate picture of the situation in the country.
Rather than directly blaming the President for insisting that his administration’s policies are producing improvements, Lamido pointed at the officials surrounding him.
He said aides and government officials could be shielding the President from the realities confronting ordinary Nigerians because they benefit from the system and may be reluctant to deliver uncomfortable reports.
Lamido argued that a president largely depends on reports from officials heading government institutions and agencies, adding that if those reports consistently tell him that everything is fine, it would be difficult to blame him for believing the situation is improving.
He said the greater responsibility lies with those around the President who, in his view, lack the courage to tell him when things are going wrong.
2027: Lamido Says He Has A Plan
On the 2027 presidential election, Lamido disclosed that he had been involved in discussions among senior opposition figures about how to confront Tinubu politically.
He said several influential politicians were aware of his efforts and the proposals he made about a year ago on how the opposition could organise itself ahead of the next presidential election.
However, he declined to reveal the details, saying the time would come when he would make his role public.
Lamido warned that defeating Tinubu would not be a “child’s play”, stressing that the opposition must first understand the President’s political capacity before attempting to unseat him.
His comments come as opposition figures continue efforts to build a broad political coalition ahead of the 2027 elections, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and other opposition politicians involved in different realignment efforts.
