By Hagxy Don
The political climate within the All Progressives Congress (APC) is heating up, and National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje has issued a stark warning: anyone who leaves the party will fade into political irrelevance. But is this a reality or just a scare tactic?
Ganduje’s message, delivered through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Enlightenment, Oliver Okpala, specifically targeted founding members rumored to be considering defection. Names like Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir el-Rufai, and Kayode Fayemi have surfaced in whispers of discontent, with many of them feeling sidelined under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. But if they walk away, do they have a future in Nigerian politics?
Okpala didn’t mince words. He insisted that APC remains the dominant force across the country and that defectors would quickly find themselves politically stranded. “The APC is the platform that brought them prominence. Leaving it now is political suicide,” he stated.
So, what’s driving these rumblings of discontent? Insiders point to growing frustration among some founding members who feel excluded from the party’s decision-making process and recent ministerial appointments. Many of them played crucial roles in APC’s rise to power in 2015, yet today, they find themselves on the sidelines as new power blocs emerge.
Ganduje’s warning also comes in the wake of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, where his leadership received a strong vote of confidence. This move signals the party’s determination to consolidate power and silence any internal opposition before the 2027 general elections.
But the real question remains: Can these aggrieved party founders thrive outside the APC? History has shown that political realignments can shape Nigeria’s leadership, just as it did in 2013 when a coalition of discontented PDP governors crossed over to the newly formed APC, leading to the unprecedented defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. At the time, these defectors were dismissed as inconsequential, but they ultimately altered the course of Nigerian politics.
Now, with internal frictions growing within the APC, could history be preparing to repeat itself? Will the party’s founding members find the courage to challenge the status quo, or will Ganduje’s warning force them into silence? The coming months will determine whether these leaders still have the influence to shake the political landscape—or if they will, as Ganduje predicts, fade into irrelevance.