Anenih Says Atiku Left PDP After 2023, Not in 2025

Former Minister of Women Affairs and prominent PDP figure, Josephine Anenih, has claimed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar quietly left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) shortly after the 2023 presidential election—not in June 2025, as widely reported.

Anenih, who also served as the party’s national woman leader, made the assertion during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.

“If you ask me, I would say he didn’t exit yesterday; he had exited after the last election, because after the last election, maybe he held a conference once or something, and that was it,” she said.

Anenih argued that Atiku had long distanced himself from party activities, despite efforts by PDP members to bring him back into the fold.

“He has not attended any meeting. We have even reached out to him. Even the women of the Board of Trustees went to him and we told him that the party is drifting because there is no leadership and we look at you as our ‘baba,’ as our leader and we expected you to take action, to be in the forefront, to give direction,” she added.

Despite the turbulence within the PDP, Anenih insisted that the party will not collapse under the watch of its founding members. She noted that the PDP was built from the grassroots and remains resilient.

“In 1998, we didn’t have all those people, and those of us who were there — grassroots people. We managed to put the PDP together, and we won. As Chief Bode George said, anybody can go, anybody can come.”

She vowed that the party would endure: “But for those of us who believe in the PDP, we will do our best, and we know that the PDP can never die on our watch. Maybe when we are dead, the PDP can die, but it won’t die before us.”

Atiku’s resignation became public through a letter dated July 14, 2025, addressed to the chairman of the PDP in his Jada 1 Ward, Adamawa State. In the letter, he cited “irreconcilable differences” as his reason for exiting the party.

He also expressed discontent with the direction the PDP had taken in recent years, claiming it no longer aligned with the ideals it once stood for.

His departure sparked varied reactions across the political spectrum.

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, reacted during an event in Akure, saying: “Well, politics is a game of interest. I don’t think that will make any dent on PDP as a party. PDP is an institution. You have freedom of entrance and exit, but I think anyone who will hold PDP down, it’s better for such individuals to go.”

In a separate response, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to criticize the timing of Atiku’s exit.

“Your Excellency, whilst I acknowledge that it is within your constitutional right to change political parties at any time you may wish, releasing your letter of resignation from the PDP during this week of the mourning of our immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, is clearly an attempt to draw the spotlight away from such a solemn occasion and direct it on yourself. With the greatest respect to you, this clearly demonstrates that your obsession with your perennial Presidential ambition knows no sympathy or empathy,” Keyamo wrote.

Atiku has since aligned with a coalition of opposition leaders who have adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as their platform ahead of the 2027 general elections.