Oshiomhole: Atiku should write book on defection — he’s the most popular defector in history

Adams Oshiomhole, senator representing Edo north, says former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar should write a book on why politicians defect from one party to another.

The former governor of Edo spoke on Tuesday when he featured on ‘Politics Today’, a programme aired on Channels Television.

Oshiomhole noted that Abubakar’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) while still serving as the vice-president remains one of the most discussed political shifts in Nigeria.

“But let me remind you that those who started defection — the most popular one in the history of Nigeria — is His Excellency Atiku Abubakar,” Oshiomhole said.

“When, as a sitting vice-president of Nigeria, he decamped from PDP to ACN — which is now part of APC — was he courted by no state at all?

“Was he (Abubakar) courted by ACN, which was then led by Bola Tinubu — Asiwaju Tinubu — a non-state president at the time?”

Oshiomhole challenged the idea that there is a lack of cohesion within the ruling APC, saying that the former vice-president’s actions showed how personal ambition drives political moves.

“Was Atiku Abubakar coerced by Tinubu to come and join us in ACN?” he asked.

“Did ACN coerce Atiku Abubakar to leave Obasanjo and PDP to pick our ticket and run as president?”

The Edo north senator also questioned whether Abubakar’s return to the PDP after his presidential defeat was forced by anyone in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Did we force him to leave our party and return to PDP to contest against Jonathan?” Oshiomhole asked.

“When he lost, did we coerce him — without being in government — to come back to APC and run against Buhari?

“I think the best person who can write a book on why people decamp should be the former vice-president Atiku Abubakar.

“It would be nice to ask him — as a sitting vice-president — you left your party, and you were courted by no state at all.”

Abubakar, who served as Nigeria’s vice-president from 1999 to 2007, has a chequered political history marked by defections.

He joined the PDP in 1998 and became vice-president in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo but left the party in 2006 for the Action Congress (AC) over internal disputes and the alleged third-term ambition of his principal.

In 2009, he returned to PDP and left again for APC in 2014. After three years in the ruling party, Abubakar dumped APC, citing failed reforms, and rejoined PDP days later, expressing renewed confidence in the party.