Nigeria, though practicing multi-party democracy, appears to be functioning as a de facto one-party state following ongoing gale of defections by politicians in the minority political parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress. Sunday Aborisade reports that the development which has hit the Senate portends danger for the nation’s parliament.
Since the All Progressives Congress (APC) assumed power in 2015, the party has consolidated control over the Executive, the National Assembly, and a majority of state governments.
Following the defection of Delta North Senator, Ned Nwoko, from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC, the number of senators on the platform of the PDP, had reduced to 33, while those of APC increased to 64. The figure will jump to 66 when the National Assembly resumes next week and two senators, KawuSumaila and Neda Imasuen formally defect to the APC on the floor of the Senate. Sumaila, representing Kano Central, had formally dumped the New Nigeria Peoples Party while Imasuen also resigned his membership of the Labour Party.
At the moment, the Labour Party (LP) has five senators; the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has two Senators while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has one Senator.
There are two vacant seats belonging to Anambra South caused by the death of Senator IfeanyiUbah last year and Edo Central caused by emergence of Senator Monday Okpebholo as Governor of Edo State from the election conducted in September last year by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC).
With the conclusion of the supplementary elections into the National Assembly across the country in 2023, the 10th Senate had full compliments of 109 senators
At inauguration of the 10th Senate in 2023, the APC emerged as the majority party in the Senate with 59 members.
This is because, after the 25 February 2023 election, the party had 55 senators-elect but gained additional four seats during the supplementary polls. It won in Plateau Central, Yobe South, Sokoto North and Sokoto East senatorial districts.
The next biggest party in the Red Chamber then was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had 36 senators.
Before the supplementary poll, the PDP had 33 senators but at the end of the exercise, PDP added three additional seats having won in Sokoto South, Zamfara Central and Kebbi North Senatorial districts.
However, the other five minor parties still maintain the number of seats won in February, 2023 as they did not win any seat during the supplementary elections.
While the Labour Party (LP) had the seats of eight senatorial districts, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) had two seats each. The Young Progressives Party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had one seat each.
With the composition of the membership of the 10th Senate finalised, the six opposition parties had altogether 50 senators-elect as against APC’s 59.
It was therefore expected that they would play a major role in the battle for leadership positions in the upper legislative chamber during its inauguration on 13 June 2023 as was the case in the eight Senate, the process was heavily monetized with the highest bidder having its way.
The development in the red chamber since the inception of the 10th National Assembly had been so scary to lovers of genuine democracy and it had been predicted that the situation would worsen in the next few months.
This is because it is currently being speculated that at least four other governors from the opposition political parties may soon defect to the ruling APC with all their state’s political structures as recently demonstrated recently by the Governor of Delta State, Hon Sheriff Oborevwori.
It was gathered at the weekend that plans were underway for Governors UmoEno (Akwa Ibom), Peter Mbah (Enugu), Aba Yusuf (Kano) and suspended Governor, SiminalayiFubara (Rivers) to join the ruling APC in the next few weeks.
A chieftain of the APC who spoke on condition of anonymity in Abuja had said, “The planned defection of the four Governors is no longer in realm of rumours. It’s already a done deal.
“The four Governors are already on their way to our party. In the next few weeks, you’ll all see them coming out to announce their defection to the entire world.
“You know that the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori; his predecessor, IfeanyiOkowa, and all members of the PDP in the state, started this new gale of defection of opposition figures to the ruling APC.”
Oborevwori, Okowa and other Peoples Democratic Party chieftains in Delta State, through Senator James Manager, announced their defection laat week shortly after a meeting that lasted over six hours at the Government House in Asaba.
However, opposition politicians have alleged that mischief and blackmail were being used by the ruling party to coerce opposition Governors and others to dump their political parties and join the APC.
President Bola Tinubu’s covert meeting with the suspended Rivers State Governor, SiminalayiFubara in London is being cited as one example of such an arrangement.
The London meeting between Tinubu and Fubara, it was learnt, was held at the insistence of the embattled governor, who was suspended from office after a declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers.
Although the details of the meeting have yet to be made public, a reliable source claimed that it was during the meeting that Fubara was presented the option of defection to the ruling APC to retrieve his mandate as Rivers State Governor.
In the case of the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Eno, his plan to defect to the APC had been linked to the plight of his predecessor and godfather regarding an alleged corruption case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Regarding Kano Governor Yusuf’s case, his defection was said to be a matter of a very short time.
It was reliably gathered that President Tinubu is almost done with reconciling the two political gladiators in the state – the APC National Chairman, Umar Ganduje and his estranged predecessor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, with a view to getting the 2023 presidential flagbearer of the New Nigeria Peoples Party to return to the APC.
Yusuf is expected to therefore move to the APC with his godfather, Kwankwaso, in the next few weeks, according to sources.
Getting Kwankwaso and his loyalists back into the APC, it was learnt, has become imperative for Tinubu, as he continues to strengthen his chances for a re-election in 2027.
Tinubu, it was learnt, cannot afford to allow Kano State with its high votes to remain in the hands of the opposition.
The alarming gale of defections to the APC had further thrown the opposition camp in disarray.
At the moment, the PDP, Labour Party, and NNPP are battling with internal crises compounded by their members’ movement to the APC.
Some opposition politicians have alleged that the crises in the opposition political parties are being sponsored by the ruling party to weaken their parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
In March, 2025, former Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, alleged that the crises bedeviling the opposition parties were being sponsored by the APC-led Federal Government.
According to him, the litigations, divisions and factionalisation currently going on in the various opposition parties are all the handiwork of the ruling party targeted at destabilising them.
Minority Leader in the Senate, Senator Abba Moro, cried foul when Senator Nwoko defeated to the APC on the floor of the Red Chamber.
Moro had argued that there was neither factionalisation nor division in the PDP to warrant Nwoko’s defection.
His Point of Order on that day, led to a drama as the Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, and the Senate Leader disproved Moro’s claim.
Moro had said, “I want to say at this point that the PDP is a law-abiding organization, and so, the Court of Appeal made a pronouncement on the secretaryship of the party.
“And the party is adhering to that Court of Appeal decision until it is otherwise upturned.”
Responding, Senate President GodswillAkpabio said, “What does the Supreme Court say?”
Moro then answered, “The Court of Appeal had ruled that Senator Samuel Anyanwu is the Secretary of the party until the Supreme Court decides otherwise. And the party as a law-abiding organisation is…”
Akpabio then queried: “What about your governors? What did your governors say? Your governors recognise my noisy leader.
We are going to set up this ad hoc committee to look into your party affairs. Did your governors recogniseAnyanwu as the Secretary of the party?”
Moro answered, “The party is an organization; the governors have a forum, and so, as members of the party, they are entitled to their opinion. But as a party, we recognise the pronouncements of the court and we abide by the rulings of the court.”
Akpabio then jokingly said: “I will not set up the ad hoc committee now because of the party running between the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. You see that there is a motion that we should set up an ad hoc committee to look into the crisis in the PDP, but I don’t want to do that.”
In his contribution, Senate Leader, Bamidele said, “I am rising on a constitutional Point of Order. My conditional Point of Order is in view of Section 232 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
As a matter of fact, relevant to my own submission will be the entire Chapter 7 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“While I want to thank the Minority Leader for the grandstanding that he has done on the floor today, which was expected of him as a Minority Leader anyway, I want him to know that the PDP Secretary has already taken note of his action here, and I congratulate him on that.
“However, this is a matter that rests squarely on the Constitution, the right of every legislator to cross-carpet. The Constitution defines the circumstances that can happen.
“And our own rules also take legislative note of that constitutional principle. The Minority Leader himself defeated himself by reading the proviso to Section 68, subsection G.
“The proviso, whether or not there is division in the PDP, is a matter of fact that will not be tried on the floor of this Senate.
“Mr. President, even the blind knows that there are sharp divisions in the PDP as of today. (Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom) Wike is leading one faction and the other faction is being led by (Bauchi State) Governor Bala Mohammed.”
Keen watchers of the development in the nation’s apex legislative institution have argued that the increase in the number of the ruling party members in the Senate was not healthy for the country’s democracy as it had weakened the voice of the opposition in both chambers of the National Assembly.
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