Follow Us on Google
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
One area in which the All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to have scored a significant political point this year is in attracting prominent political figures, particularly legislators and incumbent state governors from opposition parties, into its fold in the lead-up to the 2027 general elections.
Many political pundits seem to be in sync with the claims that the leaders of the ruling party from the presidency to the party’s national leadership, were swift in setting up machineries to attract many National Assembly members and sitting state governors, particularly from the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), into its fold.
The defection into the APC has been overwhelming that many Nigerians have started expressing concerns and pressing the panic button of the APC, possibly harbouring a grand plot to turn the country into a one-party state.
With Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Enugu, Bayelsa, and Rivers states governors already defected to the APC, and their Taraba counterpart waiting to join formally, political analysts predict that the Adamawa governor too may join the bandwagon soonest.
And to complete the comprehensive annual haul and harvest of important politicians into its fold, the ruling party has equally done well in either securing an outright victory after outsmarting the opposition parties and or consolidating its hold in some states like Edo, Ondo, Kogi, and Imo, after the conduct of the off-cycle governorship elections held since the conclusion of the 2023 general elections.
Clearly, the exodus of many important politicians from the opposition parties into the ruling party has really helped the APC to assume a commanding dominance in controlling close to 28 states.
The style and modus operandi of their defections look similar.
Historically, what is actually playing out in the political turf today was retrospectively a replica of the same style during almost all the previous republics, where the ruling party wittily or unwittingly muscles and intimidates the opposition parties’ members, forcing them to empty into its fold, to create and build a large empire of members and achieve a larger-than-life domineering political influence.
Recall that in the second republic, it was perhaps a straight battle between the leadership of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), engaging themselves in an endless push and pull to attract important politicians into their folds.
The situation was almost the same in the successive republics, including the PDP era, when it also subtly intimidated many important politicians into joining it, yielding massive positive results in controlling of over 26 states.
Curiously, one after the other, the defected governors had always disingenuously told Nigerians that they had found comfort under the protective nest of the ruling party’s fold, even when in reality their main mission is to secure their political future through their re-election.
To strengthen this line of thought, most of the defecting governors and perhaps the legislators by extension, are mostly first-termers in office, desperate to consolidate their hold on the second-term tickets during the 2027 general elections.
From governors Peter Mbah of Enugu, Umo Eno of Akwa-Ibom, Sim Fubara of Rivers, Sheriff Francis Orohwedor Oborevwori of Delta and Agbu Kefas of Taraba states, it is safe to draw a conclusion that their joining the APC was majorly propelled by the clear uncertainty of the threat against retaining their second-term tickets.
But, despite the hostile criticisms and the unending debate over the real motive behind the defections and the alleged attempt by the APC leaders to turn the country into a one-party state, the national leadership of the party has stoutly and resolutely dismissed the insinuations and possibilities.
For instance, in the words of the APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, the claims were just assumptions and an attempt to gaslight the ruling party from harvesting more members ahead of the forthcoming 2027 presidential election.
“The issue of turning Nigeria into a one-party state is absurd for a country that has more than 18 other political parties, and seven additional political associations seeking registration with provisional approval to move to the next stage of the registration process to possible participation in elections,” Senator Ajibola told the Daily Sun in a chat recently.
“For us, the narrative of a one-party state is incongruous. The allegation is also a way of trying to gaslight the APC against our continuous mobilisation of members. As a political party, I have said it repeatedly that we cannot be gas-lighted. The job of a political party is to get into its fold as many politicians and people in the country as possible.
“So, if our party is growing in leaps and bounds, people cannot gaslight us into talking about a one-party state. No one can gaslight us, and we will not allow ourselves to be gas-lighted. Our job as a political party is to continue to grow our party. I have said that APC is like Jehovah’s Witnesses, which, according to that sect, will continue to propagate and, of course, mobilise Nigerians to give us their votes,” he argued further.
And strengthening the defence mechanisms of the ruling party against the insinuations of the plot to turn the country into a one-party state, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, argued that if there was no such claim when the PDP governed the country with almost 29 states, why should anybody accuse the APC of plotting to do so.
Morka told the Daily Sun that “I don’t know how they get to that impression or suggestion that Nigeria is sliding into a one-party state. What has happened to warrant such a conclusion? PDP governed this country for years with upwards of 28 or 29 or 30 state governors but give me a headline where anybody seriously expressed fear that the country was sliding into a one-party state.
“Why was there no fear then, and how come it didn’t happen? If it didn’t happen, then why should the fact that people are joining the APC willingly become the basis to express the fear that the country is turning into a one-party state? If we have passed that path previously, where the PDP, at that time, governed Nigeria with those numbers of governors without any hysteria about a one-party state, why now?” Morka queried.
But, for many political watchers, if it were that easy as the two national officers pontificated or want Nigerians to believe, what has become a conundrum is why it become impossible for the ruling party to willingly and seamlessly receive the duo of Plateau and Osun state governors into its fold despite indicating interests physically and secretly severally.
There is no iota of doubt that some governors like Peter Mbah of Enugu and Oborevwori of Delta states faced mountainous hurdles from the founding members of the party in their states before defecting to the APC, but it has apparently become an extreme tug of war for the duo of Caleb Mustwang of Plateau and his Osun State counterpart, Ademola Adeleke, to seamlessly defect into the ruling party.
Recall that while Governors Mbah and Oborevwori wrestled the erstwhile Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji and former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, respectively, submissively to the ground before making their triumphant entry into the ruling party, it seems to have become a very hard nut to crack for the duo of Governors Adeleke and Caleb to make any appreciable progress.
Other News
The battle for the Enugu and Delta state governors to join the APC was so fierce until it consumed both of them through Nnaji resigning his ministerial position and the cowing of Omo-Agege and his faction into submission before partial sanity could be restored in the state chapters of the ruling party.
Interestingly, the battle for the soul of the party in both states had lasted that long because the gladiators not only coincidentally contested against the incumbent but may still be nursing a desperate ambition to wrest the tickets from them in the forthcoming 2027 governorship election.
The difficulty in the duo of Caleb and Adeleke joining the APC, according to many political watchers, was not unconnected with the alleged strong forces at the national leadership of the party and the presidency, stoutly frustrating and mounting serious roadblocks to resist their defections.
While fingers pointed at the National Chairman of the APC, Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, as the one-man riot squad and force thwarting the defection of Governor Caleb, it was also alleged that a member of federal executive and certain persons at the presidency stood solidly to frustrate the defection of Adeleke, despite his repeated promises to work for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu, which ultimately forced him to finally opt for the Acord Party (AP).
To confirm that the series of unsuccessful efforts the two affected governors made to defect to APC showed that it was no longer an open secret, there have also been endless crossfire from both loyal supporters in the form of sponsored protests and press conferences where accusations and counteraccusations were levied and denied on the level of the involvement of certain persons to truncate the defections.
While the plans by the governor of Osun State to defect to the APC may have been foreclosed following his opting for the Accord Party, the plans by the governor of Plateau State to join the ruling party, has continued to hang in the balance and even assumed an intense subject of debate.
Since his confirmation that he was facing pressure from political figures to defect from the PDP to the APC, there has been no holds barred in the crossfire from the gladiators from the state chapters of the parties, particularly those attacking the APC national boss, Yilwatda for stopping Governor Mutfwang from defecting to the APC despite having several meetings with President Tinubu.
Speaking at an event at the banquet hall of the Government House in Jos, Governor Mutfwang had admitted that; “I was facing pressure from political figures to defect from the PDP to the APC. I want to, however, say that only God and the electorate who voted me into office can determine my political direction.
“I told them that only two people can authorise me to change my party — one is the God of heaven, and the other is you, the people who will ask me to go anywhere,” the governor noted.
And ever since then, it was either Plateau APC rejecting his speculated defection through sponsored protests and press statements, or his loyalists accusing Yilwatda of planting insurmountable hurdles to stop his defection.
Only recently, while warning Yilwatda against jeopardising Tinubu’s 2027 chances, a support group rejected any speculation or potential move by Governor Mutfwang to join their party from the PDP.
The group gave the warning at a stakeholders’ meeting which had in attendance the crème de la crème of APC chieftains, comprising the National Chairman, Professor Yilwatda, former governors, Senator Simon Bako Lalong, and Joshua Dariye, erstwhile Deputy Speaker Idris Wase, former Minister, Dame Pauline Tallen, Managing Director/CEO of the North Central Development Commission, Dr. Cyril Yiltsen Tsenyil, serving and former lawmakers, and hundreds of party faithful.
While announcing the resolution to stop the governor from joining the APC, Yilwatda, who contested the 2023 governorship election against Mutfwang, had invited former Deputy National Secretary of the APC, Festus Fuanter, to officially move a motion on the issue.
However, in a swift reaction to the resolution, the Director of Press and Public Affairs to Governor Mutfwang, Gyang Bere, not only denied any plan by his principal to join the APC, he also stressed that he has the capacity to win the 2027 election without switching parties.
Surprisingly, a support group within the ruling party, Renewed Hope Advocates of Nigeria (RHAN), equally accused Yilwatda of allowing his “personal hatred for Governor Mutfwang to endanger President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election prospects.”
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Prince Miaphen, the group expressed “deep concern, wondering why the same President and the APC national leadership were busy reaching out to opposition governors across the federation, Nentawe could instead work to frustrate the governor’s planned defection to the APC.
Describing the decision as “reckless, self-serving, and politically suicidal, Miaphen, who decried the outcome of the stakeholders’ meeting, noted: “At a stakeholders’ meeting recently held in Jos — presided over by the National Chairman himself — a motion was not only moved but unanimously adopted to bar the incumbent Governor, Mutfwang, from joining the APC.
“The same meeting that enthusiastically endorsed President Tinubu’s second term bid paradoxically decided to block a sitting governor who could have been one of his strongest electoral assets in the North-Central region. The decision exposes the growing disconnect between the Plateau APC leadership and the president’s national vision. Any political strategy that alienates Plateau’s sitting governor is both short-sighted and dangerous to the party’s national interest.”
In what looked like a U-turn, Prof. Yilwatda, had recently dismissed claims that he is preventing Governor Mutfwang from joining the party, describing the allegations as baseless, misleading, and deliberately crafted to undermine his longstanding commitment to broad-based political inclusion.
Describing the allegation that he refused to open the APC membership register to block the governor and other intending defectors as “pure fiction,” he noted that since assuming office in July 2025, he has been one of the most vocal champions of expansion and openness within the APC.
He explained that under his leadership, the party has registered more than 500,000 new members nationwide through a combined ward-based and digital mobilisation process that has strengthened grassroots visibility and accessibility.
He added that the idea that he would deliberately restrict high-profile entrants runs completely contrary to both his record and his philosophy.
He noted further that his actions—supervising defection ceremonies, deploying mobilisation teams nationwide, and expanding the digital register—speak louder than any propaganda, saying that “The APC notes that this allegation is the latest in a series of sponsored attacks targeting the National Chairman’s integrity and strategic leadership ahead of the 2027 general elections. These coordinated attempts to sow mistrust are being pushed by fringe elements with questionable ties to the party.
“They intend to create the false impression of internal division and obstruct the Chairman’s ongoing reforms. Prof. Yilwatda is not blocking anyone; the doors of the APC remain open, active, and welcoming,” he announced.
