Why Nigeria's one-time political giant may face extinction

Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, The PDP's presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo swept to power in 1999, ushering in the return to democracyByMansur AbubakarReporting fromAbujaOnce the undisputed giant of Nigerian politics, the Peoples Democratic Party now finds itself on the brink of extinction.A question hanging over the campaign for January's general election, which officially kicked off this week, is whether the PDP can survive.A factional struggle that has ended up in the courts over who exactly is in charge could end up rendering it irrelevant at the ballot box.It is a remarkable fall for the party, founded in 1998, which appeared impregnable after the end of military rule a year later - so much so that its chairman boasted in 2008 that it would govern for six decades.For 16 years, it controlled the presidency - in the shape of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and then Goodluck Jonathan - and the vast majority of the country's 36 states.But the 2015 federal election was a seismic shock.The PDP lost the presidential vote to Muhammadu Buhari and the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC) - a coalition of opposition parties and disgruntled former m...