Politics
There is hunger, insecurity in the land but Tinubu has done well in Infrastructural Dev-Hon Ikwechegh
Hon Alexander Mascot Ikwechegh, Deputy Chairman House of Representatives committee on Poverty Alleviation, represents Aba North and South Federal Constituency of Abia State, has lamented that the harsh economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has inflicted hunger and insecurity in the country, adding that his frastructural development has scored him higher than his predecessors in office.
In this interview with IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Hon Ikwechegh who was making an indepth analysis of two years of President Tinubu’s administration said the developmental strides of the FCT Minister, Barr.Nyesom Wike and Minister of Works, Dave Umahi in Infrastructural development have raised the score card of Tinubu’s administration.
He speaks on, insecurity, state of the economy and other issues of national importance.
Excerpts:
Hon, the APC-led federal government will be two years in office in the next few days. What is your assessment of this government?
Well, as you all know, when this government took over, dollar was at seven something.
Today, dollar is at 1,620 Naira. So, if that’s an achievement, you tell me. We know what fuel was selling for in the past.
We know what it’s selling for now. I mean, I appreciate the removal of subsidy. I just feel that something could have been created to cushion the effect that that removal would have cost Nigerians.
Anybody who says there’s no hunger in the land, will be telling a big lie. People are suffering. People are struggling.
To eat is a problem. To feed families is a problem. But in terms of infrastructure, the government is really doing well.
I would give it to them. You can see how Abuja looks. This is where we are all stationed.
So, I’ll start by talking about Abuja. The minister for FCT has done absolutely well. Some people argue that he’s overbearing, but I think he has brought a lot of value to this government.
He is not a sycophant. Another problem that we have in this country is psychofancy. You know, ineptitude on the part of individuals that have been appointed to assist whoever it is in the helm of affairs.
It has literally become a non-psychofancy. But it seems the FCT minister is doing well. Abuja is rapidly developing.
Yesterday, he brought his budget. He came here to the parliament to defend his budget. Like I’ve always complained, that most agencies and ministries that come here for appropriation, they always tend to have high recurrence expenditure and then low capital expenditure.
So, it has been a problem because when you spend on recurrence, these are invisible projects that you do not see. And we’re still where we are. We should be investing on capital, on infrastructure, on education, power, security.
These are the things that help to propel development. So, when you keep talking about salary, keep talking about fuel, keep talking about generator money, keep talking about servicing of this, servicing of that, at the end of the day, impress estacodes, traveling abroad for this and that while the country remains in a derelict state. That puts us in a very precarious situation.
And if you check the poverty index, you can see that we aren’t doing so well. But in terms of what the FCT… The truth is that if you’re working, you don’t need to advertise that you’re working. You don’t need to praise yourself.
People will praise you. No matter what they say about Wike, Wike is working. No matter what they say about the governor of Abia state, the governor of Abia state is working.
No matter what you want to say about the governor of Enugu state, the man is working. The man is on fire. So, the truth is when these things are contagious, when you are working, people will see that you’re working.
You don’t… You wouldn’t require a soothsayer. It doesn’t require deep intuition to extrapolate what somebody’s doing. Okay? So for me, the APC has done well in some areas they haven’t done well in some areas.
Then again, the president is far more experienced than me politically. And I don’t believe any president will want to fail naturally. But sometimes the king must have council of men that surrounds him.
The ability of that king to identify within his council, the ones that are not protecting or representing the image of that king or carrying out that overall objective of that kingdom, you know, judiciously and credibly. Then the king should be able to find a way to sideline that individual that isn’t doing well within his council. We have seen the level of insecurity that has confronted us in Borno State.
The governor of Borno, Babagana Zulu, has complained bitterly about the security situation in the state. The number of lives that were lost when the state confronted Boko Haram aggressively and fiercely a couple of years ago and recaptured most of the already occupied local government areas within Borno State and sort of restored peace. And they moved people to IDPs and been trying to train them, feed them, cater for them and all that.
This has been a serious problem, a serious conundrum for not only the federal government but for the state government. Now, having these people relaunch to hijack the state once again is worrisome, is sad, because when you check the collateral damage that we endured or incurred just a couple of years ago while the fight was really fierce and then now knowing that these people are coming back and we have remained, our security structure has been, permit me for a lack of a better word to use this word, complicit, has now hijacked again most of the local governments. It’s really sad and it’s painful.
And this is something that is literally happening in almost every section of the country. In the Southeast, it’s not entirely safe, Anambara, Ebonyi and Imo State. These are places that you can’t really move around freely.
It has affected business activities in the region. It’s bad. Every Monday, we still don’t go to work.
People don’t go work, children don’t go to school. Banks don’t work.
What do you think is the solution to the insecurity in the Southeast?
We all believe is the release of Nnamdi Kanu.This is another very huge problem within the Southeast, which is where I come from. Then if you go to the South-South, you just recently heard of the Northerners that were massacred in the Edo region. So, I think this is, we need to really pay attention to some of these challenges.
The NSA needs to pay attention to these challenges. The president is not a military man. The president is not a security personnel.
But the president should be able to exert his authority by having these people go out there and do the job that they have been assigned to do. If you are not capable of doing it, then you can resign. You can resign because people are dying every day.
And it’s as if it’s an open secret. Nobody wants to talk about it. But this is happening.
And these are Nigerians. The primary responsibility of the government is to ensure that there is protection of lives and property. Government is actually a transactional engagement where the citizens are supposed to be loyal to the government, loyal to the constitution, loyal to the rules that have been enshrined in the constitution for people to go by, while government is supposed to provide infrastructure, provide security, provide basic amenities so that life can be made easy for our citizens.
Hon, looking at the aggravating state of insecurity in the country, don’t you think that it has gotten to a point where the country should seek external assistance?
Well, the country has the capacity to tackle some of the security challenges. It’s just a strong political will. I can beat my chest because I am here.
Before I got here, I was a businessman. You see, in business, we don’t really care how we look. We don’t care how we are perceived.
We roll up our sleeves and we get to work. That’s what we do in business. If you don’t roll up your sleeves and try to reach optimal expectations, try to ensure that you’re sincere with the people that you’re doing business with, try to make sure that you under promise and over deliver.
Okay? You will not earn money. You will not make money because the competition is always fierce. In part of the punitive measure or consequences that come with not rolling off your sleeves is that you won’t make money.
And when you don’t make money, you won’t compete. When you don’t compete, you’re out of the market. You are irrelevant.
Now, in politics, people seem to be complacent. People have responsibilities to carry out and they just don’t carry it out. They are rather more concerned with making good speeches, sounding believable, and not actually getting the actual job done.
Not getting the actual job for which you have been elected or appointed done. Look at us here talking about Wike. Look at us here talking about the Minister for Interior.
We’re also here talking about the Minister for Works. These are people that are making the president look good. The Minister for Interior, the Minister for Works, the Minister for FCT.
These are the Minister for Health. These are the people making the ministries look good. We have a Minister for Education.
Our children are still sitting on the floor learning. I never experienced that in the 80s. We have an IG of police.
We have people in the military. We have people in the Navy. Yet, people are busy doing bunkering every day and stealing our oil.
Do we blame Tinubu for that? Are we supposed to blame Tinubu for the ineptitude of the people in the Navy not doing their job to make sure that there isn’t oil theft? Are we supposed to blame the president for the fact that our boys in the Sambisa Forest fighting are not receiving what they are supposed to receive as allowance? To be able to fight insurgency the way they ought to? Are we supposed to blame the president because their firepower is not as sophisticated as that of the Boko Haram? But we can blame the president for not coming out to inspire these people. For not visiting Borno to truly show that he’s committed to fight insurgency. We can blame the president for not visiting our hospitals but the national hospital.
Look at our national hospital in Abuja. There are hospitals in Uyo that are finer, more sophisticated, more effective than that one in, is it Maitama or Asokoro? Where it is. We can blame the president in some areas.
We can fault him in some areas but we can’t fault him in every area. However, this is only two years in the administration and it is only right that we give him some time. I think, I would say the government has performed averagely well.
But in terms of really strengthening our economy, a lot of work needs to be done. It still shocks me. I mean, this thing is not rocket science.
If we have power, constant electricity, manufacturing would just naturally pick up. In 2025, I don’t understand why we’re still talking about power. Can’t we, if we were to get foreigners to come and look, then let’s bring the Chinese.
They know what to do here and we’ll have electricity. 24-7. Okay? Why are we not doing these things? So, I think the APC government has a lot cut out for them.
I think it’s too early to begin to play politics. Naturally, if you’re doing well, channel the energy. That’s political energy.Channeling towards governance. Let us work for the people. The people will say, no, this man is working.
We want him to come back. We want him to keep performing. He’s already doing the work.
He’s on a path. If you go to Abia state now, nobody is arguing about electricity running for, people are saying it should do 24 years. Why? Because he’s working.
You don’t need to overstretch yourself politically if you’re performing. Part of the reasons why subconsciously you think you have to exert your authority politically is because you know somewhere, somehow, there is deficiency in delivery.
Hon there is this worrisome trend in the nation’s political space at the moment and that is the drifting of the country towards a one-party state.
You can see what the opposition members are doing. They are flocking to the ruling party. Is it healthy for our democracy?
Well, it’s a tricky situation. First of all, PDP is a party that I know very well.
PDP is a party that can be considered to be a formidable opposition party with structures everywhere in the country that should have been able to rival APC. But remember that APC was formed out of PDP. So, most of them have a preponderance of PDP members who eventually moved into APC.
Right now, APC is in power. PDP is not. But the problem is that APC is still PDP.
So, you have a lot of moles in the PDP, okay? These people are literally sabotaging the PDP because they are PDP and APC. You can see that Wike is also PDP and APC. We actually don’t know where he belongs to.
His state is a PDP state. He’s an FCT minister. He attends PDP governance forum engagements.
In fact, PDP stakeholders meetings he attends. He also attends APC, maybe quietly, but he also attends. So, it’s a confusing situation for the opposition.
And they’ve not been able, like I said, people don’t want to do the work. People just want to come out looking as if they are doing the work. So, I’ve ruled out PDP from the number of parties that is considered to be opposition.
My party is a party that tends to, that’s the All Progressive Grand Alliance, (APGA). It’s a party that tends to always identify with the center. Okay, that’s the APGA.
When Obi was there, Obi was the governor of Anambra State, but he was identifying with Goodluck Jonathan. He was working with Goodluck Jonathan. When Obiano was there, Obiano was the governor of Anambra, but he was working with General Muhammadu Buhari.
Today, our governor has said, that’s, sorry, our only APGA governor, Solu Solutions, Charles chukwuma Soludo has reiterated on the fact that all progressives need to come together, embrace the concept of progressivism. He made it absolutely clear that the APGA is more or less, you know, a subsection of the APC. So that is it.
However, that position of the governor of Anambra State is also his own personal opinion or position. Some of us, we have a few things that we believe that the president needs to, you know, do for us. He needs to listen to us.
Like, you know, the release of Nnamdi Kano will really help, especially to bring peace in the Southeast. A lot of people have died. A lot of people have died.
When Nnamdi Kanu was free, people were not being killed the way they are being killed in the Southeast. Just that alone should at least compel the president to release this man. Do you understand where I’m coming from? Because our parents are dying.Our brothers are dying. Our sisters are dying. They are being killed every day because there are people that now engage in illegality, violence, terrorism, and all what not, in the guise of this IPOB business.
So, we want the president to listen to our cry and help us to release this man. In terms of infrastructure, I still say that the president has done well. He seems to understand that without infrastructure, this country cannot move forward.
So, I like to be as objective as possible. The president inherited a country that wasn’t working. To some degree, things have gotten worse.
Things have gotten better. In terms of infrastructure, we’re doing better. In terms of cost of items in the market, we haven’t done so well.
And it doesn’t seem as if there’s an end in sight to be able to economically and technically tackle some of these problems that will eventually warrant a Nigerian walking into the market and being able to cook a pot of soup with five or ten thousand like it used to be in those days. Corruption appears to be one of the greatest challenges of this era. I did speak of Labour.
Labour Party is another very formidable opposition party that the entire Nigerian citizenry would have really loved to embrace. However, the internal problem of Labour has caused Labour to lose about 80% of its legislators here in the National Assembly. They’ve lost a few of their senators here in the National Assembly.
It has demoralized most of the members and Nigerians that are considered to be obedient followers. So, I don’t know if this has been orchestrated by anyone, but all I can tell you is that that problem is something that needs to be resolved if we will have opposition. For democracy to truly work, there has to be opposition.
Opposition is not a bad thing. Opposition tends to remind the ruling party of areas they are not doing well. For instance, I’m here telling you the President has done well here, the President hasn’t done well here.
I want the president to succeed. I admire the man. I think he’s highly educated.
Forget about the stories that they are telling you about the Chicago Certificate or whatnot. I think he’s a very intelligent man. I think we need to study how he does his own politics because the man is truly a politician.
I want him to succeed. I’ve admired him for years, for decades. I want him to succeed, but the areas where he’s not doing well, I’m not a psychophant.
We’ve talked about psychophancy here. The areas where he’s not doing well, we have to tell him, Daddy, you’re not doing well here. If this is my own channel of having that information conveyed to him, then I should do it.
But I admire his courage. I admire his pertinacity. I admire his audacity.
I believe he has grit. Very audacious. And I respect him.
I respect him highly, immensely. But I also know that he’s just one man. Competence is what helps people to succeed.
You can be a winner, but if you have a bunch of losers around you, the tendency of you not reaching full potential remains there. But if you have a bunch of winners around you, then you’ll be able to succeed. And that is where meritocracy comes in.
Meritocracy is a very huge problem in our country, where people are giving political positions based on preponderant considerations rather than meritocracy. Okay? You bring the best surgeon and put him in a court room and tell him to defend a criminal. The criminal will go to jail, probably be hanged.
You bring the best doctor, the best lawyer, and put him in the theater and tell him to perform surgery on a patient. Definitely that person will die. But if you take the doctor and put him in the theater and take the lawyer and put him in the court room, they will perform well.
That is why we’re saying, if you have a particular responsibility that should be appropriated to somebody who has the knowledge, who has the experience, who has the stamina to do the job, give him the job regardless of where he’s from. He can be an Anambra man, he can be a Niger Delta man, he can be a TV man. Give him the job.
Let us not say, oh, I’m going to use people from a particular region and surround all the juicy positions so that other people will not have access or not know what we’re doing or I can’t trust other people. All you need to do is just show leadership. If you show leadership, even your enemy will be happy to work with you knowing that this man is going somewhere.
There’s a direction. It’s contagious. People like good things.
Naturally, human beings like good things. When you walk into a place that is clean, you respect yourself. You walk into a place that is unkempt, you throw your own fishes.
Our economy has been on downward trend over the years. What do you think should be done to resuscitate it?
Let me tell you what I think should be done to resuscitate the economy. No matter how you look at it, it’s simple rocket science.
And I don’t know why nobody’s seen it. My brother, we have about 200 and something million people as it has been popularly announced, but I think we are more than 200 and something people. I think we’re about 300 and something million people.
And the things we consume here, literally 70% of what we consume here is imported. There’s pressure on the dollar. There’s pressure on the dollar because the man in Aba wants to buy dollars and import goods from China.
The man in Onitsha, the man in Kano, the man in Borno, the man in Lagos. Everybody’s buying dollar to bring in goods into this country because almost everything we consume here is imported. But imagine if everything that we are consuming here, at least 70, 80% are produced here.
Not only that it will be produced cheap because we have cheap labor here. Not only that we have the energy, we have the capacity to do it because we have a preponderance of young people living in this country. The young demographic is actually huge in number.
So you have the energy, you have the intellect, you have the capacity, but what you don’t have is electricity. If you solve the problem of electricity, there’ll be small, small factories in every backyard. One person creating this, one person creating that.
Go to Aba and see what these people are building. You think you’re in Italy. Onitsha the same thing, Kano.
How are we encouraging manufacturers? Why can’t we produce electricity here? Then importation will drop drastically. Exportation will shoot up drastically. Monies will start coming in and monies will stop going out.
Simple mathematics. But the reason why dollar is so high is because there is pressure on the dollar. You know the rules of economics.
The more the demand, the higher the supply.
So, by the time we are able to establish consistent 24 hours, uninterrupted electricity, then subsidise it; that’s where you need subsidy. We don’t need to subsidise fuel and people will start going for electricals. There is electricity everywhere, then businesses will start moving and there will be employment because when you come out from school, there is factory everywhere. And remember all these things have different facets. You have the production department; you have the sales department, you have the marketing department, you have the people that consume, you have the transportation and all kinds of different segments that come into play, and everybody will have access to money, and you won’t have this problem of when you wake up in the morning you see more than a hundred text messages everyday from both people from your village and primary school calling you to give them money. They will go to work; they won’t need to bother you and people will live longer. Why are we not seeing it? What is the problem? This is our problem.
So, forget about coming to tell people to vote for you. Just do the work. Show people that you are even interested in doing the work. If I were the President of Nigeria, don’t get me wrong, the President is a brilliant guy, I know that it’s not easy; why are the ministers of health not interested in visiting our various hospitals to see how well we are doing? Why is the education man not visiting our schools to ascertain the way things are? I remember when I was younger during the military days, Ike Nwachukwu would come to our school and shake our hands. It used to inspire us. I saw Babangida in 1986, and I said I would want to be like this man, and I kept that picture, that imagery of him in my head. He was a young clean Head of State. I kept it in my head. Eventually, my father’s younger brother, Lieutenant Commander Amadi Ikwechegh, became the Governor of our State, old Imo State. I kept it in my head and said I wiuld be like this man, and today am hear. How are we inspiring the young ones. We have forgotten what leadership is all about.
Leadership is actionable; it’s not just sitting on the table. You take actionable steps; you move around to see what is happening. I remember in those days, most of our Presidents, governors, military administrators, including my father’s younger brother, will show up to our schools 7 O’clock, 8 O’clock in the morning unannounced. They will find out the headmasters and headmistresses that are coming to school early and keeping the schools clean. They take all the appropriate steps to make sure that everybody sits up, as punitive measures are immediately dishes out. Are we doing it today? So, let us go back to the drawing board. The advisers of Mr President should advise him correctly and leave paycophancy.
I like Wike a whole lot because he is a high performer. What we need are high performing politicians, people that understand what the job is all about. The time is to six O’clock and am still here preparing bills and motions that we will push out there, for Nigerians to know that we are ready to work for them. It’s not about driving nice vehicles, blowing siren and wearing white and white. We have to make sacrifices. That is why we are here.
By Our Correspondent
The national leadership of the Social Democratic Party received with great shock, the passing of Otunba Abdulganiyu Olalekan Zubairu, popularly called Ganzy, which occurred on Saturday November 15, 2025.
In a statement by National Publicity Secretary of the party, Araba Rufus Aiyenigba,Otunba Ganzy, who was the Ekiti-Irepodun-Isin-Oke Ero Federal Constituency, House of Representatives candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, was a popular grassroots mobilizer and political figure in the politics of Kwara State.
According to the statement,”The SDP condoles his family, friends, associates, and the people of Kwara-South and the State in general.
“His services and commitment to making life meaningful for his people will continue to be remembered.
“The Party prays for the repose of his soul and for Allah to grant him Aljannahtul Firdaus and console the family.”
By David Owei.
Ahead of the 2027 general elections in Nigeria , the Uwheru Ward APC chapter in Ughelli North Local area of Delta state have not only endorsed president Ahmed Tinubu for Presidency, but equally declared that there is no vacancy in Government house Asaba, as Rt Hon Sherrif Oborevwori,s second tenure was assured.
Consequently, other elective positions for Delta Central Senator, Senator Ede Dafinone, Rt Hon Waive, and Delta House of Assembly Constituency 1 and 2 were done deal.
This decision was unanimously taken at the visitation meeting of the APC Ward chapter of Uwheru at the country home of chief Simeon Ohwofa, the National Leader of the APC Ward in Uwheru, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta state.”They reaffirmed we Endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as our sole candidate, and declared that there is no vacancy in Government House Asaba ,as chief Sherrif Oborevwori has no opposition”
In related development, the people also passed a vote of confidence on chief Simeon Ohwofa as the authentic Leader of Uwheru Ward APC and anybody parading himself should discountenanced
In his opening remarks, the Leader of Uwheru Ward APC, chief Simeon Ohwofa expressed his appreciation for tumultuous crowd that graced the epoch making occasion and urged them not to relent, but be steadfast , enjoining them to be patient as the only essence of politics is to deliver dividends of democracy, which he is poised to achieve and pleaded for unity of purpose within the party in Uwheru Ward APC.
Also speaking the member representing Ughelli North Constituency 2,Hon Spencer Ohwofa had urged party faithful to continue to support the APC as the only party that is committed to the delevering of dividend of democracy, imploring everybody to increase the party membership by peaceful means and avoid confrontation.
In his speech, the man of the moment, the capacity chairman of APC in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Mr Samuel Evwighono reiterated the fact that when APC was in opposition it delivered successfully during the last election and called on all to repeat the feat, and they must ensure that the people take online registration seriously for all the units to be delivered this time around . He decried poor turn out in registration in some units.
According to him, he didn’t emerge as chairman by his power, but by divine miracle, noting that there were distraction, those not present didn’t win their units. ” We backed the former senate president, Senator Omo – Agege, we opposed Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and delivered we delivered the Constituency for him then and he lost in his Constituency . When you were in power you couldn’t deliver your Constituency, is it now that you are out of power that you can deliver your Constituency. I can say without apology in politics it is turn by turn”
Earlier in his welcome address , the chairman APC Uwheru Ward chapter, Mr Efemena Gideon urged the party supporters to shun rumour mongering and also confirm stories from party leaders first , instead of spreading falsehood.
He alleged that some persons accused him of embezzling one million naira released to him to organize this visitation meeting of stakeholders, hence some persons asked most people not to attend this meeting, questioning , how must he invite people with empty hand. He called members to have change of heart for harmonious relationship within the party in the ward,despite this distraction who is who in Uwheru Ward APC are in attendance in their numbers.
Other APC Uwheru Ward chapter stakeholders such as chief Macpherson Igbedi, Chief Ikomoni and chief Samson Agbemre admnished party supporters to avoid distraction and focus on how to deliver President Ahmed Tinubu, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, all the elective positions of Ughelli Constituency 1 & 2,the House of Representatives and the senator, Delta central come 2027.
Highpoint of the occasion was the motion moved by chief Samson Agbemre and was supported by Hon Spencer Ohwofa, member respresenting Ughelli North Constituency 2 , that in view of the unwavering performance of president Ahmed Tinubu as the president of the federal republic of Nigeria, he should be endorsed as the sole candidate and samething applies to Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori for second tenure and and was affirmed by the mamoth crowd.
Our correspondent reported that the Uwheru Ward APC also received many defectors from the people’s Democratic Party among them were chief Gabriel Umukoro, who told the crowd that he has seized to be associated with any other party and he and his follower ship have bid bye bye to the people’s Democratic party and they were welcomed resoundingly .
Other very personalities that were present include chief Isaac Akror, Bar Obah Okpubie, Hon Jim Omokoro, Chief Isaac Ogbe, Chief Ogarivi Ucho, Chief Peter Idiasa, Mr Akponohwiroro Ukpemeku and Mr Appeal, amongst others.
By Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko
With the exit of the Khaki boys from the political governance in 1999, like-minded politicians from as far back as the second Republic led by Chiefs Alex Ekwueme who was Vice President to Shehu Shagari in the late 70s to early 80s, Solomon Lar of the famed Nigerian Peoples party formed by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the blessed memory, set up the Peoples Democratic Party.
Although other political parties such as the Alliance for Democracy that grew out of Afenifere the Yoruba socio-cultural group, All Nigeria Party, were in existence and in control of few states in Nigeria without any open attempt by the ruling party to poach them, but the PDP won the election of 1999 and set up the federal government not until 2015 when the amalgamation of the All Peoples Party, Action Congress of Nigeria amongst other smaller splinter groups morphed into the All Progressives Congress and won the election thus defeating the powerful PDP. PDP was in power for nearly 20 years.
Since the PDP lost the Presidency which it held as the incumbent in 2015, the fortune of that hitherto mega political party has continued to dwindle with several loses at both National Assembly and states wide elections mainly through fraudulent elections and bribes induced courts judgments affirming winners.
In the year 2023, the former powerful politically connected overlord of Lagos state cum South West of Nigeria who was Alliance For Democracy’s governor in Lagos state in the beginning of the transition programme from military to civilian from 1999, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, won the much contested and widely controversial presidential poll and set up the Federal Government headed by the All Progressives Congress.
Since then, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made it his central focus to destabilise almost all the other opposition parties such as the former ruling party of the PDP and the party that produced the candidacy of Peter Obi that gave Tinubu a big fight for his money in the 2023 presidential election, the Labour party. Tinubu seems to have succeeded and he has openly celebrated it by admitting that he is happy that PDP and Labour party elected office holders are shamelessly crowding into his All Progressives Congress.
Tinubu has in 2025 largely succeeded in muzzling the two leading opposition parties that gave his party the All Progressives Congress a tough electoral battle in 2023.
The All Progressives Congress of Tinubu has penetrated the Labour Party that produced Peter Obi in 2023 that defeated Tinubu in Lagos and Abuja in the 2023 presidential poll, and even when the Supreme Court ruled that Julius Abure was no longer the Chairman of the party, Tinubu’s administration has yet to instruct the police to enforce the decision of the Supreme Court because it is a project that the president so much loved that is to see all the main opposition parties crumble.
Tinubu also appointed the former Rivers state’s governor Nyesom Wike as his FCT minister even when Wike still hangs on precariously as a member of the PDP. Valued is known to be one of the most generous funders of the national Secretariat of the PDP right from when he was Rivers state governor.
Wike’s confusing political identity is the main reason the PDP is in turmoil and this crisis has blossomed with the expulsion by the NEC of the PDP funded by the Oyo state governor of Wike and many others of his supporters who were hitherto holding prominent national positions within the PDP including Senator Anyanwu who was the National Secretary.
The PDP held a national convention in Ibadan and elected Alhaji Tanimu Turaki a senior advocate of Nigeria as National Chairman but the Wike’s self styled factional splinter group rushed to its friendly Federal High Courtroom of Justice Omotosho to obtain a kangaroo interim injunction stopping the Ibadan convention but those who are funding the other wing of PDP who are mostly the few remaining governors of PDP, beat the Wike’s faction to their game by rushing to an Ibadan High Court with concurrent jurisdiction as the federal High Court to obtain an injunction that principally legalises the Ibadan convention but INEC being an appendage of Tinubu’s government decided to respect the kangaroo Abuja court’s exparte order against the Ibadan convention and boycotted the convention which in any case proceeded to elect new national officers.
To understand how confused the President has thrown the PDP into using Wike to sabotage the internal workings of the PDP, most governors elected on the banner of PDP have been ‘induced’ with N250 billion each by the President to abandon PDP and they have enlisted in the APC and over 70% of the elected PDP governors have abandoned their original party platform in preference for the bribes offered to them allegedly by the presidency under nebulous projects budget line not captured in any of the national budget but the secret was blown open by the exclusive story of SaharaReporters which the government hasn’t disputed.
Now PDP is in disarray with many of those who would run the coming staggered elections unsure of whether PDP can legally present candidates for those elections coming up next year.
The National Deputy Vice Chairman, Southwest, of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Kamorudeen Ajisafe has explained the above confusion when he disclosed that Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, is faced with the dilemma of a political platform to contest for the 2026 governorship poll in the State.
Speaking on a private radio programme tagged ‘Frank Talk’, which was monitored on Monday by Vanguard, the party chieftain disclosed that the present crisis in the party would not allow it present a candidate for next year poll.
He said the party suffered similar faith in Ekiti State due to Senator Samuel Anyanwu rebellion against the party, hence, the need for Governor Adeleke to find a platform to exercise his right to retain power.
His words, “Let me tell you that if anything happens in Osun, it has to do with looking for a platform to contest, I am telling you. Where is the platform to contest now? If you are a very good party man will you be happy loosing someone like Taraba State Governor? Osun state, like you rightly said he is planning, I dont know about planning, I am sensitive for the need for a political platform to contest.
“The problem we have in Osun is quite different from what we have in Taraba. Election in Taraba and some other states is 2027, our own in Osun is 2026, the primary for any political party trying to present a candidate for the 2026 gubernatorial election is December 15. That is the position of INEC, what do we do, how are we going to manage that? After December 15, INEC by the constitution, will not recognise any emergence of candidate from any political primary again.
“If you are a consultant what would you advice, will you advise that I stay in a party, where I would not be able to exercise my right of returning to office, just advice me what you want Adeleke to do now, he has not told the world but ask.
“It is absolutely known to the whole world that there is no way that the PDP would be able to nominate a candidate for the 2026 governorship election. If you block your road or gate for me to enter and the occupant of another platform magnanimously allows me to pass freely, would I be crying that you lock your gate? What do you expect somebody like Adeleke should do, I am talking frankly on the radio that people can hear me, that is the fight we have with Wike and Anyawu”.
However, feelers in the state showed that the governor would soon move to either Accord Party or APGA to contest for the August 8 election
Many party sources said that the Governor have reached out to chieftain of accord on modalities for the governor to move to the party, while others said the Accord Party arrangement has not been concluded as the governor does not want to take chances with opportunities to pick ticket where viably available.
Sam Amadi Blames PDP’s Collapse On ‘Love Of Wike’s Money’
Former NERC Chairman Sam Amadi has clearly said that the PDP destroyed itself through its reliance on Wike’s wealth
Former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi, has declared that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), destroyed itself as a result of dependence on the financial influence of the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike.
Amadi, who stated this while commenting on the defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC), reiterated that the PDP destroyed itself with the “love of Wike’s money”.
Amadi, who took to his X handle said, he did not in any way blame Mbah for taking the steps to join the APC and dump PDP. This was as he claimed that the APC remained the best organised and sensible political party in the country, but with a “bad” presidential candidate.
Amadi also said Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), on the other hand, remained the best person to save Nigeria, adding however, that the big question was the platform he needed to use.
According to Amadi, “I do not blame Peter Mbah for dumping @OfficialPDPNig for the @OfficialAPCNg. APC is the best organised and sensible party.
“But it has a bad presidential candidate. @PeterObi is the best guy to save Nigeria now. But which party now?.”
Sadly, the controversy over the just ended convention to elect national officers of the PDP deepened the crisis in the party.
The Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has adjourned ruling on a preliminary objection challenging its jurisdiction in a suit filed by a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the party’s national convention.
The convention had held on Saturday, 15 November, and Sunday, 16 November 2025 in Ibadan.
The suit was filed by a member of the PDP, Mr. Folahan Adelabi.
At the hearing last Friday, counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), O. Adeyemi, argued that INEC, being a Federal Government agency, was only subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court.
He urged the court to strike out the case for lack of jurisdiction.
However, counsel to the claimant, Musibau Adetumbi, SAN, opposed the objection, stating that the argument infringed on the claimant’s fundamental rights.
He said the 1999 Constitution guaranteed the right to lawful assembly and convention.
Quoting Section 251 of the Constitution, Adetumbi contended that INEC did not fall within the category of agencies that place the case exclusively before the Federal High Court.
He asked the court to dismiss the objection and proceed with the substantive suit.
After listening to both sides, the presiding judge, Justice Ladiran Akintola, adjourned the ruling to December 8, 2025.
He also reaffirmed that the interim order earlier granted, which restrained the defendants from disrupting or interfering with preparations for the PDP national convention, remained in force.
Besides, the leadership tussle that has led to the suspension and counter-suspension of chieftains of the party. The national convention proceeded and elected new executives. And then PDP expelled Wike, Fayose, Anyanwu, others over-anti party activities.
The motion for their expulsion, which was unanimously supported by the members of the party at the ongoing PDP National Convention in Ibadan, was moved by one of the founding fathers of the party, Chief Bode George.
It was seconded by Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed.
Others expelled are the party’s National Legal Adviser, Adeyemi Ajibade (SAN), Umar Bature, AbdulRahman Mohammed, Mao Chuambuwa, George Turner, Austin Nwachukwu, Abraham Ammah and Dan Orbih.
But the recalcitrant PDP Faction Loyal To Minister Wike Holds Emergency Meeting In Abuja After Expulsion From Party.
According to the notice, the meetings will take place at the NEC Hall of the PDP National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja.
A faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has slated an emergency meeting of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Executive Committee (NEC) for Tuesday, November 18, 2025, as the opposition party grapples with one of its most severe internal crises in years.
The announcement was made through a notice issued on Monday by the factional National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and shared on X by Lere Olayinka, media aide to Wike.
According to the notice, the meetings will take place at the NEC Hall of the PDP National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja.
The BoT meeting is scheduled for 11:00 a.m., while the NEC session will begin at 2:00 p.m.
The PDP leadership elected at the Ibadan convention has also scheduled a parallel meeting at the sane headquarters. Today, as residents went about going to their offices, it was noticed that security is very tight in all the facilities owned by the PDP in Zone 6 Wuse and Maitama.
To understand much deeper, I believe that the PDP crisis had deepened over the past two years fuelled by internal disputes dating back to the 2023 general elections.
Wike’s longstanding rift with the national leadership first became public during the presidential primaries, where he accused the party of breaching rotational arrangements and favouring northern candidates.
The dispute widened after the election, with Wike forming strategic alliances outside the party and later accepting a ministerial appointment in the All Progressives Congress, led federal government, a move many PDP stakeholders condemned as a blatant act of disloyalty.
As a student of politics, this writer believes that if today President Tinubu withdraws his open support for the destabilisation and sabotaging of opposition political parties, the internal crises that have almost collapsed opposition politics in Nigeria would be arrested but it is too late in the day going by the desperation of the current president to win a second term in 2027 by all means and the President does not want any of his political rivals that made the 2023 Presidebtial election so tough like Atiku Abubakar a former Vice President or Peter Obi of the Labour Party to have viable platforms to run against him in 2027.
This is the root of all the crises in the major opposition parties including the newly set up coalition party of All Democratic Congress where Atiku Abubakar and many other leaders of the opposition have congregated lately since their former party has been hijacked by the Wike’s money that control many of the National officials and governors.
The poaching of PDP governors by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is one fundamental root of the weakening of political opposition in Nigeria. But President Tinubu is playing with fire by seeking to impose a one party government in Nigeria. It won’t work. This is why: defections may expose APC to implosion, Ndume warns. This writer agrees totally with the outspoken Senator Ndume.
The news in today’s news copy is that the former Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has raised the alarm over the growing wave of defections by governors and federal lawmakers from opposition parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), warning that the party risks internal collapse if the trend continues unchecked.
Ndume, who represents Borno South in the Senate, spoke on Sunday night at the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Annual Award Lecture held at the NICON Luxury Hotel, Abuja, where he received the honour of Most Outstanding Legislator and Advocate of National Unity.
The lawmaker dismissed many defectors as political lightweights with little value to add to the ruling party, insisting that the APC is becoming “overloaded” with “mostly empty cargo.”
A statistical check shows that defections have intensified over the last year, leaving the opposition badly weakened.
No fewer than five governors, including those of Delta, Bayelsa, Enugu, and Taraba (whose official defection is scheduled for Tuesday), have left their parties for the APC. The defection of the Plateau State governor is also anticipated.
In the Senate, 13 opposition lawmakers have crossed over to the APC, including Ezenwa Onyewuchi, Kawu Sumaila, Ned Nwoko, Adamu Aliero, Yahaya Abdullahi, Garba Musa Maidoki, Francis Fadahunsi, Olubiyi Fadeyi, Aniekan Bassey, Samson Ekong, Sama’ila Dahuwa Samaila, Agom Jarigbe and Kelvin Chukwu.
The House of Representatives has seen even larger shifts. From 175 members at the inauguration in June 2023, the APC now holds 249 seats as of November 2025, surpassing the two-thirds benchmark of 240. These defections are unconstitutional but because the political opposition parties are weak, they couldn’t challenge the illegality in the courts of law at least to get the national assembly members sacked from their seats for cross carpeting illegally.
The new configuration leaves the PDP with 69 members, Labour Party with 19, NNPP with 13, APGA with five, ADC with one, SDP with two, and YPP with one. At the start of the 10th National Assembly, the opposition’s combined 182 members outnumbered the APC’s 175.
Ndume said the influx poses a structural threat to the ruling party. “I have warned that the APC is becoming overloaded. And when you overload a ship, especially with mostly empty cargo, it risks capsizing,” he said.
He denied that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu or the party leadership has been courting defectors, describing the situation instead as political sheltering. This side of his argued is a redherring and untrue because evidence is clear that the APC and president Bola Ahmed Tinubu openly support the defections because of the 2027 re-election agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ndume argued that: “When your brother is displaced by a crisis in his party and he knocks on your door, will you shut him out or welcome him? That is what is happening,” he said.
He lamented that many defectors become inactive despite being given leadership privileges in their states. “It is like an ordinary church member, or even a pastor, leaving one church to join another and immediately wanting to become the pastor in charge. Or someone converting into Islam and insisting on becoming the Imam. Naturally, this creates problems,” he added, reiterating his view that the government is populated by “kakistocrats and kleptocrats.”
Ndume, known for his frank criticism of the administration despite being a frontline APC lawmaker.
He, however, faulted the competence of several ministers and presidential aides.
“We suffer from a lack of leadership, not because the president is not leading, but because one person cannot be the captain, the player, the goalkeeper, and the striker all at once,” he said.
Our last appeal here is to the consciences of PDP and other opposition members and governors: we urge you not to be political and ideological prostitutes by jumping like hungry frogs from PDP to APC because of the love of money and bribes from the kitchen cabinet of the desperate president Tinubu who wants to win 2027 by every means even outside the books.
*EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO is the founder of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA and was NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF NIGERIA.
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