TheFall of The PDP andThe Cyclical Theory: A Historian's Revisitation

As I keep witnessing changes in the political lifespan of the Peoples Democraic Party (PDP) in Nigeria today I can't stop smiling inside me. I have heard of the statement 'history repeats itself' but I think I have never seen it practically as I do in Ibn Khaldun's "Cyclical Theory" its just like what one historian calls scissors and paste history.

When I was an Undergraduate with my colleagues we sit dormant under the nose of our learned professor while he took us as usual back to the 15th century, he was engaging us in a book written during this period by a renowned historian, political scientist, and sociologist Ibn Khaldun titled In Arabic "The Muqaddimah" that is the Introduction. Prof explains to us the cyclical theory demonstrated by Ibn Khaldun and he said the theory was about the raise and fall of kingdoms in history. One thing was important in the rise and fall of kingdoms in history and that is the role played by corruption in bringing about the end of well established kingdoms or governments.

 After some explanations Prof to test our understanding of the Cyclical Theory mandated us to put the theory to test in the Nigerian context. He will say 'Put Ibn khalddun Cyclical Theory to the Nigerian context'. An Interesting  topic indeed but no matter how extensive and analytical we want to be, we always meet at one point and that is the Fourth Republic, 1999, to be precised.


Why? Because the theory expected us to study and analyze the change in government in Nigeria from the first Republic to date(1999) I.e the Fourth Republic, and this in other words is a continues movement to and fro between the military regimes and the civilian governments in Nigeria and the reasons that brought about these changes- corruption.

I in particular was never certisfied with our analysis not because they were wrong or not on the right track but because they kept moving between one military regime to the other or one military regime to another civilian regime. I needed a rise of a civilian government and its fall to be immediately succeeded by a rise of another civilian regime albeit not within the same structure (the PDP).

Its a good news that that change I sought for in does golden days finally comes while I still breath on the surface of this earth.

To me, the wave of change brought about by the APC through the 2015 election is a good news which I respect a lot it is a good news to the academic stage to those coming behind us as undergraduate students and of course to those of us with the intention of going back to sit under the tutorship of prof once again and listen to him as he further analyse this beyond the lifespan of the PDP.

All thanks to God, Nigerians and the APC that brought about the demise of the PDP and to the PDP, in ensuring that my dream becomes a part of history.

S.K. Adams
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