Amid growing concerns over the wave of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Adams Oshiomhole has deflected questions about the trend, pointing instead to former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the most qualified person to explain Nigeria’s long history of political decamping.
Speaking on Channels Television, the former Edo State governor responded to questions about the recent political shifts, particularly the defection of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to the APC. Oshiomhole insisted that joining the APC is not the only route to political success, citing his own experience of winning elections while in the opposition.
“I’m speaking to you as somebody who has been governor, who knows that this is a possibility, that they can win election without joining the APC, absolutely,” Oshiomhole said. “In 2007, the PDP rigged me out. I went to court. I fought them and I won. And in 2012 I went for a rerun, and I won. So I understand the meaning of opposition.”
Turning his attention to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Oshiomhole said Atiku remains the most prominent defector in Nigerian political history and should be the authority on the matter.
“But let me remind you that those who started defection, the man the most popular one in the history of Nigeria, is His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, when as a sitting Vice President of Nigeria he decamped from PDP to ACN, which is now part of APC,” Oshiomhole remarked.
He questioned whether Atiku was coerced into leaving the PDP at the time, noting that the ACN was then led by Bola Tinubu, who held no official state power. “Was he coerced by ACN that were then led by Bola Tinubu, a non-state person as of that time?”
Oshiomhole added that Atiku’s numerous political shifts — from PDP to ACN, back to PDP, then to APC, and again to PDP — make him the best candidate to author a book on political defections in Nigeria.
“I think the best person who can write a book on why people decamp should be the former vice president. It will be nice to ask him, as a sitting vice president, you left your party.”
The remarks come as political observers continue to question the motivations behind the steady stream of defections to the APC, raising broader concerns about party ideology, internal democracy, and political stability in the country.
