Senator Adams Oshiomhole has “dragged” former vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar over the question of the trending mass defection of politicians.
According to the Edo-born politician, the best person who can write a book on why people decamp from their political parties to another should be Atiku.
He pointed out that the former vice president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who contested for president in 2023, left his party while serving as vice president.
Oshiomhole was responding to the subject of widespread political defection to the APC in a media interview.
According to him, the Delta State governor’s decision to join the APC has surprised several Nigerians.
However, he said, “I’m speaking to you as somebody who has been governor, who knows that this is a possibility, that they can win the election without joining the APC, absolutely.
“I ran my election as opposition two times. In 2007, the PDP rigged me out. I went to court. I fought them, and I won.
“And in 2012 I went for a rerun, and I won. So I understand the meaning of opposition. The point is, if you are in a place, even the Nigerian constitution recognizes, if your party is in tatters, the time you should have spent on state matters, you are spending on party matters; rather [move].
“But let me remind you that those who started defection, the man who was the most popular one in the history of Nigeria, is His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, when, as a sitting Vice president of Nigeria, he decamped from PDP to ACN, which is now part of APC.
“Was he coerced by ACN that was then led by Bola Tinubu, a non-state person as of that time?
“So that we had to settle all this argument about whether there is cohesion or no cohesion, was Atiku Abubakar coerced by Tinubu to come and join ACN?
“I was governor in ACN, so I am familiar with the issue in the ACN. Atiku left Obasanjo in the PDP to come and pick up our ticket and run as president.
“Now, did we force him or coerce him to leave our party and return back to PDP to go and contest with, I believe, Jonathan, and when he lost, with Jonathan as president, did we have the instrument to coerce him to return to the APC to contest the primaries against general Buhari, who later became the president and now former president?
The APC chieftain also pointed out that the current President couldn’t have fixed Nigeria’s mismanaged economy in 24 months.
While stating that he was not out to blame anyone for Nigeria’s bad economy, Oshiomhole said the worst is over for Nigerians.
He also said that Nigerians across the country would begin to experience the benefits of some of the policy reforms implemented by the Tinubu-led administration. We are going to begin to witness improvement in the quality of the standard of living.
