Nigeria's PDP: Why one-time political giant may face extinction - BBC News

Once a giant of African politics, the PDP is in danger of being wiped out after January's elections.

Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, The PDP's presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo swept to power in 1999, ushering in the return to democracy

Once 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.