Defections: ADC, APC, PDP Trade Blames

Erizia Rubyjeana, Melissa Enoch and Faridah Abdulkadiri

Nigeria’s major political parties are locked in a war of words as fresh defections reshape the political landscape ahead of 2027.

From accusations of opposition failure to claims of false narratives and nepotistic governance, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are each pushing back, insisting the blame lies elsewhere.

Speaking in separate interviews on ARISE News Channel yesterday, spokespersons for the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi; APC, Felix Morka, and PDP, Ini Ememobong, all defended their respective parties.

Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, dismissed claims by the PDP and the ADC that his party was pushing Nigeria towards a one-party state, insisting that the governing party was actively strengthening democratic practice across the country.

Morka added, “The All Progressives Congress is very busy doing exactly what a political party is expected to do in a democracy. We’re not doing anything unusual, that shouldn’t be of concern to any Nigerian.”

He maintained that the APC’s conduct has remained consistent with democratic norms, adding that “We do nothing untoward when it comes to democratic consolidation. As a matter of fact, we are doing more than is expected of a political party to deepen democracy.”

Responding to allegations from opposition spokespersons, Morka emphasised that the party operates transparently and welcomes political participation from all Nigerians.

“Now, we keep our doors open because that’s what democracy is all about. The freedom of choice of citizens to enter and exit from a political association like the APC, and for that matter, like the ADC and the PDP,” he said.

He criticised the opposition parties for failing to address internal crises, arguing that their instability is the primary reason for the exit of their members.

According to him, “You all on this panel, you got it right when you stressed to them that the problem really is internal to them. It is their own failure to govern themselves effectively that’s creating the atmosphere and the panic for their members to exit their party.”

For his part, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Abdullahi, said the ruling APC was deliberately creating a false narrative that the 2027 general election had already been won, insisting that Nigerians still have a credible alternative.

Abdullahi said the notion that the 2027 election was already decided was exactly the mindset the ruling party wants to create. “2027 election appeared to have been won and lost. That’s exactly the mindset of inevitability that the ruling party would like to create, to create a situation where everyone will think that there’s nothing we can do and no matter what we do they are going to win anyway,” he added.

Abdullahi dismissed concerns about ADC’s lack of governors, emphasising that many politicians join the ruling party out of convenience rather than conviction.

“It takes conviction. It takes character. It takes courage. It takes belief in the nation itself for you to join the opposition party even while you are a sitting governor. That’s what this individual lacks. It’s easy for them to go and join the ruling party. We are not bothered about that.”

He stressed that the party’s strength comes from grassroots support and the willingness of Nigerians to seek a genuine alternative.

Abdullahi criticised the APC’s strategy to weaken opposition parties while presenting itself as a defender of democracy abroad.

In his interview, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Ememobong, sharply criticised what he describes as an increasingly “nepotistic” governance culture in Nigeria, arguing that the rush by state governors to “connect to the centre” undermines the nation’s democracy and development.

Ememobong explained, “When you look at the reason for which most of the governors have said, they said, ‘let’s connect to the centre.’ It presupposes that there are benefits that the system, the central system, is not running an egalitarian system.

“It’s running a nepotistic system where governance favours are dispensed on the basis of political partisanship. And that calls to question whether that is how we should run it.”

According to him, the narrative implies that states outside the ruling party are deliberately deprived of development opportunities.

“A political party, primarily being a vehicle for the assessment of power, becomes the ideology through which people who aspire to those offices should execute the mandates of the office.

“But you now see the situation where people just come to the public space and say, look, we are connecting to the centre so that we can take benefits back home.

“The unsaid thing is that it means if you do not connect to the centre, you don’t take things home. That is clearly undemocratic. That is clearly anti-development,” he said.

Ememobong argued that a proper federation should not function in a way that punishes political diversity or opposition. He said the current system incentivises partisanship over principle, and political survival over governance responsibility.

While speaking, he also suggested that the current wave of defections and political repositioning reveals a deeper moral crisis.

“In 1998 when we started politics, we didn’t have governors, we didn’t have senators, but we built all of this. And that is why we are going back now to say that where did we get it wrong?

“Remember also that even from 1999 to 2007, there were all these pressures like this, but you found people who were able to stand their ground and to exert that, look, we belong to a political party. We can’t shift grounds like that. But maybe it speaks to the morality of the people we handed power to. It speaks to their inability to stand for what they believe in,” he said.