A senior figure in Nigeria’s main opposition party has predicted that politicians who recently defected to the ruling party will eventually return, amid growing concerns about political stability in Africa’s most populous nation.
Emmanuel Ogidi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), made the comments during a live television interview on Trust TV. His statement addresses a wave of high-profile defections, including several state governors, from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in recent months.
The most recent defector, according to media reports, was Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State. Ogidi specifically questioned the rationale behind such moves, arguing that a state governor, who should exercise significant autonomy, undermines that independence by aligning with the central government through party switching.
When asked about the circumstances of Fintiri’s departure, Ogidi described the governor as a “gentleman” who left without publicly disparaging the PDP. The elder statesman used the moment to critique Nigeria’s broader political environment. “With what is happening in the political space of Nigeria, the nation is no longer practising democracy,” Ogidi stated.
Despite his criticism of the current political climate, Ogidi expressed certainty about the future. “I believe some persons who decamped from PDP will return,” he said.
The mass defections underscore the intense pressure and fluid loyalties within Nigeria’s political system, often driven by regional alliances, federal influence, and the prospect of electoral advantage ahead of future polls. Ogidi’s remarks highlight internal PDP dissent over the exodus while framing it as a symptom of deeper institutional weaknesses. The trend raises questions about policy continuity, state-level governance, and the health of multi-party democracy in Nigeria, as the nation approaches the next general election cycle. Observers note that such reversals are not uncommon in Nigerian politics, where party realignments frequently occur in response to shifting power dynamics at the federal level.
