Senator Adams Oshiomhole has described former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the most popular defector in Nigeria’s political history.
Speaking during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday, Oshiomhole cited Atiku’s repeated party switches as evidence of his political experience enough, he said, to write a book on reasons for party defection.
“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 said.
“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?”
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Oshiomhole, a former APC national chairman, dismissed claims that the ruling party lacks internal unity.
Instead, he suggested Atiku’s frequent defection is motivated by personal ambition rather than political ideology.
“Was Atiku Abubakar coerced by Tinubu to come and join us in ACN?” he asked. “Did ACN coerce Atiku Abubakar to leave Obasanjo and PDP to pick our ticket and run as president?”
Recall that Atiku, who served as Nigeria’s vice president from 1999 to 2007, joined the PDP in 1998 but defected to the Action Congress (AC) in 2006 following disagreements with then-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He rejoined the PDP in 2009, moved to the APC in 2014, and returned to the PDP again in 2017.
Oshiomhole also questioned whether Atiku’s movements between parties were ever influenced by pressure from the APC.
“Did we force him to leave our party and return to PDP to contest against Jonathan?” he asked. “When he lost, did we coerce him, without being in government, to come back to APC and run against Buhari?”
He concluded by saying: “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.”
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