Defection trail of ex-party chairmen
The unpredictable and dynamic nature of politics has seen many heads of political parties in Nigeria not only defecting to other parties but campaigning against the former parties they led. Analysts attribute this trend to the manner they were elected and removed from office which they say compels them to move so as to reposition […]
pdp, lp, apc
The unpredictable and dynamic nature of politics has seen many heads of political parties in Nigeria not only defecting to other parties but campaigning against the former parties they led.
Analysts attribute this trend to the manner they were elected and removed from office which they say compels them to move so as to reposition and remain relevantt in politics. They insist the trend is occasioned by political interests and the desire to fulfil political ambitions.
Hence many former chairmen of some political parties in the country majorly, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the leading opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have turned against their parties after defecting to other parties.
Weekend Trust reports that while some defected from the opposition where they were national chairmen to the ruling party, some had left the ruling party to the opposition at different times since 1999, and have become serious opponents to their former parties.
Former national chairmen who dumped the parties after faithfully defending its interests and campaigning to voters for votes from 1999 include;
John Odigie-Oyegun
Oyegun, former governor of Edo State, became the first substantive national chairman of the APC after its registration in 2013.
He succeeded Bisi Akande following negotiations and horse-trading among the various contending forces in the party.
His nomination was subsequently ratified by delegates at the first national convention of the party held at the Eagles Square in June, 2014 in Abuja.
Oyegun’s candidature was promoted by the national leader of the APC and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now Nigeria’s president.
He served f a term and couldn’t stand the heat withdrawing his second term ambition, marking the abrupt end of his tenure.
Recently, Oyegun joined the opposition coalition to challenge the APC and possibly stop Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
He was one of those who adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as opposition coalition party for the 2027 polls and is said to be working underground with other notable politicians to unseat Tinubu in the next presidential election.
In July, Oyegun, after receiving his ADC membership card in Edo State, blamed the socio-economic and security challenges bedevilling the country on the APC style of leadership. “This country has never been this divided. The hunger, the starvation—it’s not just an economic issue. It’s a failure of leadership, and APC cannot escape that blame.”
Adamu Mua’zu
Former governor of Bauchi State, Mu’azu assumed office as PDP national chairman in January 2014 and resigned on May 20, 2015, after the party was defeated at the 2015 presidential election under his watch. PDP governors and other stakeholders had reportedly mounted pressure on Mu’azu who was left with no option than to throw in the towel for leading the party to a humiliating defeat.
Mu’azu later defected to the APC in January 2019 where he was formally received into the APC with Isah Yuguda; also, a former governor of Bauchi State among many others.
They were received by then APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, now senator (APC, Edo North). Since then, Mu’azu has been opposed to his former party.
Uche Secondus
Interestingly, Secondus was the deputy national chairman of the PDP, who took over the party’s leadership in an acting capacity following Mu’azu’s resignation in May, 2015.He was supposed to run the party for three months and organise a national convention for a substantive chairman to emerge. But like Sheriff, Secondus sat tight, refusing to leave office until he was ousted by an Abuja High Court which ruled that his tenure had elapsed. He later contested the chairmanship of the party and won during its national convention held at the Eagle Square in Abuja in 2017.
However recently, Secondus was seen with other opposition coalition members who adopted the ADC as a platform to challenge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027 though he is not known to have officially left the PDP.
Ali Modu Sheriff
Senator Sheriff is former governor of Borno State and ex-national chairman of the PDP.
Sheriff’s emergence as chairman was greeted with criticisms and crisis within the PDP, considering that his name was not among the nominees sent by the North-East Caucus to the National Working Committee (NWC) for consideration.
He was appointed in February, 2016, to complete Mu’azu’s tenure. He, too, was expected to serve for three months but chose to sit tight, a development that plunged the party into more turbulence.
His tenure as PDP chairman was characterised by intense crisis that led to the setting up of a national caretaker committee led by former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.
Sheriff had refused to vacate office, resulting in several litigations. Sheriff and Makarfi had consistently laid claims to the party’s leadershipp with each of them claiming legitimacy until the supreme court ruled in favour of the Makarfi-led caretaker committee.
The leadership crisis had caused severe damage to the party, resulting in the loss of the Edo and Ondo States’ governorship elections. Also, the party’s national secretariat in Abuja had been under lock and key for weeks in May, 2016, when it was sealed by the police.
Sheriff later defected to the APC in 2018, and joined the party’s chairmanship race. He subsequently announced his decision to quit the contest following the zoning of the slot to the North-Central.
“The party has taken a position that the position of its national chairman should go to the North -Central, meaning it is exclusively zoned to contestants of the zone.
“The President is the leader of the party and he has taken a position. I have always told you that I will contest if the position is zoned to my zone,” he said.
Weekend Trust reports that Sheriff had in July said no amount of scheming and manoeuvring by the opposition including his former party, the PDP could derail or stop Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
Sheriff said Tinubu can only be stopped if there would be no election in 2027 or if he decides not to contest the poll.
Barnabas Gemade
Senator Gemade took over from Solomon Lar in 1999 as PDP national chairman. The Benue State born politician, was later made to throw in the towel when he was no longer in the good books of then President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2001.
He later dumped the PDP for the APC in 2014. From the APC, he joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) where he emerged the party’s senatorial candidate for the Benue North East senatorial district in the 2019 election, he was hhowever, defeated by former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam of the PDP who polled 148, 645 votes higher than his 32, 534 votes. Gemade came a distant third after Mrs Mimi Adzape-Orubibi of the APC who came second with total votes of 81, 603. Following this, Gemade returned to the APC in 2020.
In an interview with newsmen at the time, Gemade justified his defections, saying, “You move in politics based on the interests that present themselves.”
He said, “When I left the PDP in 2014, it was because the party had put a framework in place to stop me from getting my second term as senator representing my senatorial zone.
“And I said well. If you have arsenals flying to shoot you down and you foolishly decide to stay there to be shot, then you are not a clever person. That’s why I left APC. And I left in good time enough to win my election. And as you know, the incumbent governor of the state at that time contested against me and lost the election.”
In the APC, Gemade has been participating in the party’s activities. Recently, Northern Nigeria APC Concerned Stakeholders endorsed him for the party’s national chairmanship.
This followed the exit of Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as APC chairman. But President Tinubu had picked Professor Nentawe Yilwatda to fill the vacancy.
Audu Ogbe
Chief Audu Ogbe who passed on recently is remembered as a very vocal chairman of the PDP. He fell out with former president Olusegun Obasanjo and resigned as national chairman of the PDP. He became one of the founding leaders of APC and a strong supporter of Buhari for president. He was appointed minister of agriculture when Buhari won the presidency. He served up till 2019 as minister and remained active in politics before his death.
Tunde Adeniran & Ibrahim Mantu
Meanwhile, at the heat of the PDP leadership crisis between Makarfi and Sheriff, a former deputy Senate president, Ibrahim Mantu, and Prof Tunde Adeniran, emerged as co-chairmen of the party at a factional national convention.
The convention was held in Abuja, on May 21, 2016, same day the Port Harcourt convention was held.
In 2018, Prof Adeniran, former Minister of Education and one-time Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, announced his defection to the SDP.
In 2019, he replaced Olu Falae, as SDP national chairman. His appointment was confirmed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.
He had told our correspondent that he left the PDP because “We are being guided by a definite philosophy called orientation. We are social democrats; we believe in the welfare and wellbeing of the people. We believe that there are certain irreducible minimums an average Nigerian is entitled to.”
Defecting leaders overheating polity – Expert
Weighing in on the matter, a political analyst, Aminu Yakudima, said politicians who occupied the highest position of leadership in their parties and later defect only to criticise their former parties were overheating the polity.
He said it is morally wrong for someone who had the opportunity to lead a political party to later turn against it because of personal interest.
Yakudima, however, said the trend has continued because of diverse political interests and the need to remain relevant and consolidate in the political sphere.
“This must not be allowed to continue because they are overheating the polity. They are doing it for their political consideration and personal interest,” he said.
“How can former national chairman of a political party cross to the other side of the political divide and heavily criticise his former party that made him? It’s wrong!
“This is not good for democracy; it’s a threat to democracy and we must not encourage it,” he added.