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Two aides of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the coalition of opposition leaders led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday exchanged words over the defection of Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and running mate to Atiku in the 2023 presidential election, Ifeanyi Okowa, to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a post on his official X account, said the defection of the two bigwigs from the PDP to the APC showed that the coalition has collapsed. He also said that the defection showed that Atiku is a loser.
Recall that the Delta State governor, Oborevwori, his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and all members of the PDP in Delta State, on Wednesday, defected to the APC.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in Asaba, the Delta State capital, by Senator James Manager, shortly after a meeting that lasted over six hours at Government House, Asaba. “We cannot continue to be in a sinking boat,” he said.
The Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr Aniagwu Charles, officially confirmed the governor’s defection and the collective decision of Delta PDP leaders and stakeholders to join the APC.
He said, “There is a need for us to adjust our drinking patterns. And in adjusting that drinking pattern, we needed to make a decision that would further help to cement the development in our state, to build the court of law that has existed in our state, to advance further the cause of security and the welfare of our people, and, to a large extent, ensure that development in Delta is not truncated.”
Daily Trust reports that Atiku is part of a coalition of prominent opposition leaders,
including former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai; former governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, and many others, who have come together intending to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.
Onanuga, in the post, also said: “Atiku’s political future looks bleak. The coalition that he, El-Rufai, Babachir, and new member Baba-Ahmed are cobbling together has disintegrated”.
Similarly, Tunde Rahman, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Publicity and Special Duties, in a post on his X account said, “Things are really getting perilous and the future looks so bleak for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s coalition.”
The presidential aide said after the PDP governors washed their hands clean of any such coalition, the defunct CPC wing he was also counting on, has drummed support for President Tinubu.
However, efforts to get reaction from the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, proved abortive as messages sent to his spokesman, Paul Ibe, were not responded to.
We’re not distracted – Coalition
Reacting to the development, the coalition said it is neither perturbed nor distracted by the claims, adding that its vision, mission and ideals are alive.
The spokesman for the coalition and former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the APC, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, in an interview with newsmen yesterday in Abuja, accused the APC of plotting to foist a one-party state on Nigerians.
He said the ruling party’s “plot” to harvest governors of opposition parties to its fold was not in the interest of democracy, stressing the need for various choices in the 2027 general elections.
“On the side of the government and APC, they are jubilating. All that one can say is that look, the beauty of democracy is about competition. The whole initiative to begin to negotiate the coalition is to ensure that in 2027, Nigerians are presented with options.
“We have gone far, and what has happened in terms of some governors and some leaders moving into APC is not going to distract us at all. Not long from now, the full details of the coalition will be unveiled to Nigerians. And the structure and the strategy in terms of how the election will be contested will be clarified.
“The second thing that one will see is that I do hope leaders in the PDP will take this as an advantage and use it to not just do introspection, but also try to start working towards sanitising the country and rescue it in a way that it will correct its own mistakes.
“We are just hoping that leaders of PDP who genuinely are working to rescue the party are thinking in the direction that rescuing the party should mean rebuilding the party so that the culture of imposition is a thing of the past in PDP.
“If that happens, we will regard the new PDP that will be born as a partner in the project of the coalition to rescue the country,” he said.
Our fate in God’s hands – PDP
Also speaking, the acting national chairman of the PDP, Ambassador Umar Damagum, said the party’s fate is in the hands of God.
He spoke yesterday during the presentation of certificate of return to the party’s governorship candidate for Anambra State election, Ezenwafor Jude, at its national secretariat in Abuja.
Damagum maintained that the number of governors will not determine which party takes the day in the coming elections. He described the defection of Delta State governor and Okowa as “very sad and unfortunate,” particularly given the PDP’s “longstanding support” for Delta.
“If there is any state that should not have taken this path, it’s Delta,” Damagum said. “We gave them everything – support for the governor, and even the former governor, who was our vice-presidential candidate in 2023. We least expected this action from them,” he added.
Damagun, however, said the party was not caught off guard, expressing optimism that the PDP would immediately reclaim its structure in the state by setting up a caretaker committee.
“This is a party that has seen more than this and is still standing. Let me remind us all – Peter Obi had no governor behind him in 2023, but he still garnered millions of votes.
“The 2027 election is not about how many governors or so-called leaders a party has. It’s about President Tinubu and the condition of Nigerians. This election will be APC versus Nigerians,” he said.
We’ll reposition PDP – Saraki
Lending his voice, a former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, asked those willing to leave PDP to do so, saying he is ready to join forces with others to reposition the party.
Speaking on the defection of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and Ifeanyi Okowa in Delta, Saraki in a statement he posted on his Facebook page, he said, “My view is that those who want to leave the PDP should leave now and let the rest of us who want to stay concentrate on rebuilding the party and refocusing it to play the role of a viable opposition that will provide a better alternative for the good people of Nigeria.”
Saraki said, “A one-party state as being disingenuously designed by some people will not augur well for a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and highly diversified society like ours. It is even more dangerous when we eliminate alternatives and make people hopeless.
“Therefore, it is in the interest of Nigeria and the survival of our democracy for the opposition to be vibrant and strong enough with the capacity to replace the ruling party at any point. Thus, my charge to our party members is that the PDP is merely experiencing a rebirth.
“Those who want to leave the party should go and let those of us remaining have a clear view of who we are talking to and where their political loyalty lies. All we need is for those who want to stay back in PDP to show commitment and we can all work to rebuild the party.
“This development has vindicated the stance of people like me who have decided to remain silent and watch events unfold. I have seen that there was no sincerity with the supposed leaders of the opposition. One was not sure of the next person one was talking to.
“Our numerous party members should know that the PDP is better with fewer members who are loyal, sincere, determined, dedicated, and committed to its ideas, ideals, and progress than to have so many who will identify with us in the afternoon and be romancing the ruling party in the night,” Saraki said.
