2027: Tinubu’s counter-attack scatters opposition
•Parties allege inducements, blackmail amid defection gale
•How Tinubu turned tide against opponents
There are strong indications that recent political moves by President Bola Tinubu are responsible for the defections of top opposition figures to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS noted that the APC and the President, who had been on the defensive against criticisms from the opposition and anti-Tinubu coalition groups, might have turned the tables around.
Insiders insisted that the change resulted from Tinubu’s recent moves.
However, while some sources and opposition figures claimed that the President deployed inducements and blackmail, his supporters said he provided good leadership, which made the party attractive to outsiders.
Masterstroke or mischief?
Feelers from the APC identified Governors Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Peter Mbah (Enugu), Aba Yusuf (Kano) and suspended Governor, Siminalayi Fubara (Rivers), as four new converts expected to join the party in the coming weeks.
“It is not a rumour. It is happening; those four governors – Eno, Mbah, Yusuf and Fubara — are on their way to joining the APC,” a source said.
Multiple sources at the ruling party secretariat in Abuja equally confirmed the development to DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS.
This comes barely three days after the defections of Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori; his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and all members of the PDP in the state.
Their change of allegiance was announced last Wednesday by Senator James Manager, shortly after a meeting that lasted over six hours at the Government House in Asaba.
Another source, however, didn’t rule out mischief and blackmail in the arrangement.
He cited President Tinubu’s covert meeting with Fubara in London as one of such.
The meeting, confirmed by an online media platform, The Africa Report, was held at the insistence of the embattled governor, who was suspended from office after a declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS could not confirm the details of the meeting, as presidential aides contacted said they were not part of the President’s latest trip.
A top source said, “It was at that meeting that we believed Fubara must have been coaxed into considering the idea of defection as part of the arrangement to return his mandate. We also have reasons to suspect that Governor Eno’s potential move to the APC is linked to his predecessor and godfather’s alleged corruption case with the EFCC.
“Kano’s case is already a done deal as Tinubu has started reconciling Ganduje and Kwankwaso. In the coming days, the news of Abba Yusuf’s defection will be made public because he will officially move to the APC with his mentor. We all know Kano is too big a state for Tinubu to ignore politically.”
Also, a chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Buba Galadima, claimed that a federal lawmaker under his party said President Tinubu gave him a N95bn ecological fund project.
He said, “At least if I don’t know anything, I know a serving lawmaker who declared that he was given N95bn, which is not in the budget, for an ecological project.”
Reacting, the National Secretary of the APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru, denied allegations of inducement and blackmail.
He said, “How can we induce a governor to come and join our political party? There is no factual basis for those allegations. It is in the figment of their imagination and possibly a product of hallucination. The truth is that even before decamping, if they check online, they will realise Governor Sherif has, on several occasions, shown his preference for Tinubu’s presidency.
“He has never hidden his admiration. So, when the stakeholders met, they felt that rather than just supporting Asiwaju in 2027, they should join his party so they could work together. Less than two weeks ago, we were in Agbor when the chairman of NDDC and the Delta Unity Group defected to the APC.
“The only senator of the PDP in Delta, Senator Ned Nwoko, also defected to the APC. So, anybody watching the development knows that it was only a matter of time before the leadership of that place moved. I hope you also know that former Governor James Ibori is a friend of Asiwaju, and they have been collaborating since Tinubu became president. So, would he not want his party to join up with Asiwaju Tinubu?”
Opposition in disarray
The PDP, Labour Party, and NNPP are currently grappling with internal crises compounded by defections to the APC, which has left their parties in disarray.
According to some politicians, the crises are being sponsored to weaken the opposition ahead of 2027.
The immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, had on March 11 alleged that the crises faced by opposition parties were being sponsored by “the government of the day.”
El-Rufai said the litigation, divisions, and factionalisation across opposition parties were all contrived by the ruling party to destabilise them.
PDP: A house divided
The PDP, the largest opposition party in the country, has been embroiled in controversies since the 2023 elections.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS noted that the crisis, largely between the camps of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has significantly weakened the party.
Wike, who worked against the PDP in the 2023 presidential election, has declared support for Tinubu’s 2027 bid.
Delta State Governor Oborevwori, his predecessor, Okowa, and many key members of the PDP also dumped the party for the APC last Wednesday.
Similarly, a member of the House of Representatives, Oluwole Oke, resigned from the PDP and joined the APC the same day.
Oke’s defection brings the number of opposition members in the National Assembly who had dumped their parties for the APC to 17 since the inauguration of the 10th Assembly.
On Saturday, members of the Rivers State caucus in the National Assembly declared support for Tinubu’s second term.
Commenting on the defections, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, said the defectors, especially the governors, were afraid that Tinubu might move against their elections.
He told DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS, “All of them are scared of Tinubu. They are afraid of what he will do to them, especially when he has the judiciary in his pocket. But we in the coalition don’t care about that.”
LP: One party, three chairmen
The Labour Party is also riddled with a leadership crisis, resulting in factionalisation and defections.
Currently, three individuals are laying claim to the leadership of the party.
Embattled National Chairman, Julius Abure; former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, leading a caretaker committee; and Lamidi Apapa are all claiming leadership of the party.
Amid the crisis, the LP lost key members to the APC.
They are Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi (Imo East Senatorial District), Esosa Iyawe (Oredo Federal Constituency, Edo State), Chinedu Okere (Owerri Municipal/Owerri North/Owerri West Federal Constituency), Mathew Donatus (Kaura Federal Constituency, Kaduna State), and Akiba Bassey (Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency, Cross River State).
NNPP: An undecided party
President Tinubu and the APC are said to be making moves to win over the NNPP leader and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS gathered that Kwankwaso and many NNPP leaders might join the ruling party.
The National Publicity Secretary of the NNPP, Ladipo Johnson, in an exclusive interview with one of our correspondents, confirmed that the party was considering its political options.
He said, “There are three cards on the table: either we remain in the NNPP and continue with those who joined us all the way, or we form some sort of coalition with Atiku and others, or we form an alliance with the ruling party. I am not saying any of these is the case now, but these are the three basic options that could happen.”
Meanwhile, the party has been losing some of its prominent members to the APC.
No fewer than four federal lawmakers of the NNPP, including Senator Kawu Sumaila (Kano South Senatorial District), Yusuf Galambi (Gwaram Federal Constituency, Jigawa State), Mohammed Isimbabi (Toto/Gadabuke Constituency, Nasarawa State), Musa Ibrahim (Doma South Constituency, Nasarawa State), and Kabiru Rurum (Rano/Bunkure/Kibiya Federal Constituency, Kano State), along with ex-Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, Sha’aban Sharada, have joined the APC.
The CPC bloc
Members of the defunct Congress for Progress Change, largely made up of loyalists of former President Muhammadu Buhari, were reported to have planned to dump the APC for another party.
However, weeks after the defection plan, a faction of the bloc, led by former Nasarawa State Governor, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, declared support for Tinubu, announcing that he and others on his side were not leaving the APC.
A recent report indicated that a leaked memo revealed that Al-Makura was being considered for the APC national chairmanship in exchange for helping to convince other CPC members to remain in the party.
Tinubu made party attractive —Presidency
Aides to the president attributed the influx into the APC fold to the president’s leadership, which they said stabilised the party.
They argued that the defections showed that the ruling party had become the safest political shelter ahead of 2027.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, on Saturday, said, “He is not masterminding anybody to leave their party. He has made the party attractive to others who are willing to join. What he has done is to make the right decisions, even though tough, some of them painfully initially.
“A beautiful woman will always attract suitors. So, if you have made your house good, people whose houses are tattered and whose houses have no roof will naturally come to you, where they can get shelter.
“If people say they want to come and take shelter, we won’t chase them away, and that is politics. In politics, you add to your number. You don’t remove your number. Politics is about getting more people on your side, not sending people away from your side.”
A second presidency source, who did not want to be identified, blamed the defections on the collapse of PDP cohesion, arguing there were no inducements from the Aso Rock Villa.
“The opposition is in tatters. They have no semblance of organisation, and for any politician, what he cares about is how to win his election, how to remain relevant, how to be in the scheme of things. I don’t think the President has met with any of them privately,” the aide said.
A third source recalled Tinubu’s 16 years leading the opposition, urging the opposition to fix their parties to forestall further defections.
“People should not forget that the President himself was the leader of the opposition for 16 years. He remained the only surviving governor of his party, Alliance for Democracy.
“He stayed there, strengthening the party, and he galvanised the opposition to form what is today the APC and made it so strong that they could unseat a ruling party. They defeated the sitting president, which was unprecedented in Nigerian history.
“So, if those who say they want to take power from him cannot organise themselves, do you blame him for that?” the source said.
