Amid the news that the former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Ayo Fayose, is allegedly considering a defection to the All Progressive Congress; I have made a list of some of the most shocking defections and why Nigerians won't be surprised if the news becomes a reality, and the Ekiti State PDP leader joins the APC.
Although Fayose has, through his media aide, Lere Olayinka denies the claim and said he would never consider joining the APC, but never say never, this is Nigeria. When it comes to politics, we've seen worst of defections.
This won't be the first of many shocking and surprising defection if the likes of Fani Kayode could defect, the likes of Akpabio, why will that of Fayose be any difference?
1. Samuel Ortom: APC never expected this to happen; in fact, they described it as "somewhat surprising." The APC chairman thought he has resolved the issue and has addressed the grievances of the Benue State governor. Alas, Ortom defected to the PDP and won his governorship re-election. If not for those youths that blocked his meeting that was scheduled to hold in Abuja, maybe, just maybe Ortom would still be in the APC. And the defection favors him, and he won his re-election bid.
2. Rabiu Kwankwaso: This defection generated much debate, shock in the APC camp, and jubilation in the PDP camp, they thought with the defection, it is over for Buhari in Kano. Who wouldn’t have thought so, judging by the number of votes the former governor was able to canvas for Buhari in 2015, while he was governor. He defected because of his fall out with Umar Ganduje. Although he didn’t contest for any election, the defection did not favor his supporters, because every candidate he supported lost his/her election.
3. Godswill Akpabio: I still can’t believe this either, he would’ve thought Akpabio would defect? Although a lot of PDP supporters were saying, Akpabio defected to avoid being investigated for embezzlement, among other allegations. But I the main reason why Akpabio defected was that he didn’t win his bid to return to the senate under the PDP. Well, it worked in his favor, because even though he lost the senatorial seat, he was made minister for Niger Delta affairs.
4. Aminu Tambuwal: People would have thought the defection would be the end of Tambuwal in Sokoto State, but he won, and he is still winning. Just like Samuel Ortom, Tambuwal has won two governorship elections under two different political parties. Tambuwal defected because of the issues he had with Aliyu Wamakko. And we are still for Wamakko’s vow to end Tambuwal’s political career to materialized.
5. Atiku Abubakar: I think he is the king of all defectors, and it would be disrespectful to talk about any category of defectors without mentioning him. He has defected for so many reasons, and the most shocking of all would be the one before the 2007 general election when he was the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Who could imagine that vice president would defect? Atiku did it, and he is the only one to have ever since. He has defected how many times since then, 3? Although people will accuse of Atiku of being self-centered and desperately wanting power, however, if you’ve read the story of this man from 1999, then you’ll understand he is betrayed man, he just wanted to realize his dream of becoming president
I understand you would also have your own to add, probably some are even more shocking than the ones I have listed above. Kindly put them in the comment.
