2027: The Making Of A Political Behemoth

Party leaders in Delta State, under the aegis of the Concerned Leaders of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Delta State chapter, had on Friday, January 3, 2025, written to the state governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, to confirm or deny his widely reported plan to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The PDP lead­ers, who demanded prompt clar­ification from him, warned that delay in response could be con­sidered as confirmation of the reports. The Delta PDP Leaders, in a statement signed by three of them, Theophilus Ekiyor, Ochu­ko Oghenekome and Ezekiel Chukwudi, said they were com­pelled to write him regarding the very disturbing rumour of his plans to defect to the APC in order to secure his governorship seat ahead of the 2027 general elections.

But Governor Obor­evwori dismissed the rumour at that time. However, on Wednes­day, he and his predecessor, If­eanyi Okowa, along with other party members in the state, offi­cially defected to the APC. The announcement was delivered in Asaba by Senator James Manag­er following a marathon meeting that lasted over six hours at the Government House.



Manager said: “All PDP members in the state, including the governor, former Governor Okowa, the Speaker, the state party chair­man, all the local government chairmen have agreed to move to the APC. We cannot continue to be in a sinking boat.” Reports claim that over 300 PDP members have defected to the APC between February 2024 and February 2025, citing inter­nal conflicts within the party at both the state and national levels as the main reason for their de­parture.

The NNPP and Labour Party have experienced similar wave of defections to the APC while the defectors tendered internal disputes and related is­sues as their reasons for moving out. In addition to the recent de­fections, several prominent figures had earlier joined the APC. These include former Ka­duna State Governor, Muktar Ramalan Yero; Senators Shehu Sani, Suleiman Hunkuyi, and Sylvanus Ngele; former Senate President Pius Anyim; ex-Edo Deputy Governor Philip Shai­bu; House of Representatives member Suleiman Gumi; and PDP founding member Shuaibu Oyedokun.

Others are Senator Ned Nwoko (Delta North), and others. MORE GOVERNORS EXPECTED In a rather triumphal man­ner, National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, soon after proclaimed that more governors would join the ruling party. Speaking at his residence in Abuja when he received for­mer members of the New Nige­ria Peoples Party (NNPP) from Kano State into the APC, he said 2027 was a done deal.

Among the former NNPP chieftains were Senator Kawu Sumaila and the immediate past Secretary to Kano State Govern­ment, Dr. Abdullahi Baffa Bichi. Ganduje said: “In APC, we believe in our President, Asiwa­ju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

We be­lieve in his economic reforms, we believe in his Renewed Hope Agenda and part of the political renewed hope agenda is trying to canvass for more followers into the party. We started by demo­cratically electing governors, es­pecially in Edo State, who was in PDP, we contested, we succeeded in winning the election, the state is now in APC. “Now, there is another chan­nel that has been opened through advocacy, through dialogue, through convincing some high­ly and even elected governors to come into the party.

And you can see what has happened now. “The Governor of Delta State is now in APC, including his cab­inet, including all the members of the state assembly and House of Representatives, and the tim­ber and caliber of PDP, now in APC, even including the for­mer vice-presidential candidate coming into our party. So, you can see that we are expanding.

I don’t want to reveal our secret but what I’m telling you is that for APC, 2027 is a done deal.” Asked by journalists to con­firm the speculation that more governors would soon join the party, he said: “Yes, more gover­nors are coming into the APC, I assure you. And, in places where we have election, APC insha’Al­lah will win those elections.

” 2027 FOR NIGERIANS Disturbed by the develop­ment, the PDP, which is the ma­jor opposition party in the coun­try, said on Thursday, that the next general election would be not just a contest among parties but also a referendum by Nigeri­ans. “This election in 2027 is not about how many governors you have or how many leaders. It’s about Tinubu and Nigerians,” Damagum stated, while no be­tween political leadership and the harsh realities faced by citi­zens under the current adminis­tration.

He described Nigeria as a country where daily survival has become a challenge for ordi­nary people and urged voters to see the polls as an opportunity to hold the government account­able. Reflecting on the defections in Delta State, the PDP leader expressed disappointment at the turn of events, noting the support Delta State had received from the party in recent years, He said: “It’s very sad and unfor­tunate because, to me, if there’s any state that should think that way, it is not Delta, because the party is very magnanimous. I thank God that in their message, they didn’t say that the party did anything wrong to them other than good.

” Damagum said the decision to switch allegiance might have been personal, but its emotion­al weight would linger in the hearts of the party’s loyalists. “It’s a decision taken by them, but the pains will be in us, not be­cause of anything, but because we have given Delta State all our support, from the emergence of the governor to his predeces­sor, who also doubled as our vice-presidential candidate,” he said. “I think we’ve done it all for them in Delta State.

We least expected this action from them. All the same, this is a party that has seen more than that, but it’s still standing.” NO GRUDGES AGAINST ANYONE Similarly, former Vice Presi­dent, Atiku Abubakar, said the much-anticipated 2027 presiden­tial election would not be about political parties but a contest be­tween Nigerians and President Bola Tinubu-led administration.

This was the view he expressed in a statement on Friday. Atiku noted that the “freedom of asso­ciation and expression are not optional in a democracy,” stat­ing that “they are fundamental rights”. According to him, “Alongside these stand the pillars of a just and functional democratic soci­ety: the people, the rule of law, credible elections, and account­ability.

Undermine any of these, and democracy itself begins to crumble. As someone who holds fast to these values, I bear no grudges against anyone for ex­ercising their right to political alignment. Defections, alliances, and realignments are part and parcel of democratic politics.

We’ve seen them before, and we’ll see them again.” But former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, expressed shock over the defection to the APC of former governor, Okowa. “It is unbecoming and shocking for the running mate to the stan­dard bearer of a leading par­ty to abandon ship to join the ruling party,” Saraki said.

He noted that Okowa’s action was unprecedented, and advised that that nobody should try to justify such an act with the talk of being put under pressure. The former governor of Kwara State said that it was simply a sign of how low Nige­ria had sunk as a polity, adding that the country was experienc­ing a collapse of leadership values. “These developments in the polity are the reasons I have always canvassed the idea that we should emphasize building and strengthening our institutions and not individu­als,” he said.

Saraki, nevertheless, main­tained that even with the defec­tions, if the party had only ten governors in its fold, it could still be in a good position to win the 2027 polls. It is a popular belief among opinion leaders that the defec­tions are not only being fuelled by the angling for electoral ad­vantage in 2027 but also fear of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission – a usable tool of the government in pow­er. I At any rate, it looks like the making of another anti-demo­cratic hulk in the form of a rul­ing party has only just begun.

Political commentators say, by this development, Nigerian pol­iticians are yet again destroying rather than growing democratic practice in the country, and that the consequences would be re­grettable..