During a Tuesday interview on Channels Television’s “Politics Today,” Senator Adams Oshiomhole characterized former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the most recognizable figure in Nigerian political history to switch parties repeatedly. Oshiomhole, citing Atiku’s history of party changes, suggested Abubakar possesses the experience to author a comprehensive work on the topic of political defections.
“But let me remind you that those who started defection, the most popular one in the history of Nigeria is His Excellency Atiku Abubakar,” he stated. He then posed a series of pointed questions: “When, as a sitting vice-president of Nigeria, he decamped from PDP to ACN, which is now part of APC, was he courted by no state at all? Was he (Abubakar) courted by ACN, which was then led by Bola Tinubu – Asiwaju Tinubu – a non-state president at the time?”
The former APC national chairman refuted claims of internal disunity within the ruling party. Instead, he attributed Atiku’s shifting allegiances to personal ambition, not ideological conviction. He continued his line of questioning: “Was Atiku Abubakar coerced by Tinubu to come and join us in ACN? Did ACN coerce Atiku Abubakar to leave Obasanjo and PDP to pick our ticket and run as president?”
Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s vice president from 1999 to 2007, joined the PDP in 1998. However, disagreements with President Olusegun Obasanjo led to his 2006 defection to the Action Congress (AC). He rejoined the PDP in 2009, switched to the APC in 2014, and returned to the PDP in 2017.
Oshiomhole further challenged the notion that Atiku’s decisions were influenced by the APC. He asked: “Did we force him to leave our party and return to PDP to contest against Jonathan? When he lost, did we coerce him, without being in government, to come back to APC and run against Buhari?”
Oshiomhole concluded: “I think the best person who can write a book on why people decamp should be the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar. It would be nice to ask him, as a sitting vice president, you left your party and you were courted by no state at all.”
