With the All Progressives Congress (APC) congresses around the corner, pressing questions arise regarding the processes, guidelines, modalities, and possible sharing formula to be adopted. Now, the question begging for an answer is: what is the approved sharing formula by the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leadership between the new defectors and the old APC?
It is instructive to recall that, in recent times, several Nigerian governors have decamped from their respective parties to join the APC. Many of these defections were not motivated by ideological alignment or genuine commitment to the party. Rather, they appear driven by self-interest: a desire to remain politically relevant on the national stage, to shield themselves, their principals, and their associates from anti-graft scrutiny, to secure protection, and, above all, to strengthen their prospects for second-term bids as governors.
Not long ago, these same governors stood firmly behind their former presidential candidates in opposition to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the 2023 general elections. Their original political calculations did not favor them; yet, whether by fortune or misfortune, their candidates were defeated, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged victorious.
Their entry into the APC, therefore, may be viewed less as an act of allegiance and more as political capitulation. Like the biblical Israelites in Egypt, they may, sooner or later, seek freedom fully aware that they were never truly of the original APC fold. Indeed, it was this same coalition of disparate interests that contributed to the ruin, collapse and decimation of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), once acclaimed as Africa’s largest political party.
This brings us squarely to the subject: “Old APC Members on the brink: The Dangers of Handing Over APC Party Structure to New Defectors.” The danger is neither abstract nor exaggerated.
In states where these governors have joined the APC, a new and troubling dichotomy has emerged: the “New APC” versus the “Old APC.” This division, if not carefully and strategically managed, could spell disaster for the party in forthcoming general elections.
As the congresses begin, these new governors appear determined to assume full control of the party’s structure within their states often without due consideration for longstanding APC members who built and sustained the party’s presence on the ground before their arrival.
Furthermore, many of these governors still maintain close political associations with their former presidential candidates, some of whom have yet to join the APC and are presently aligning with other political platforms in pursuit of their ambitions.
This raises a critical question: can these new entrants be wholly trusted? The sheep in wolf’s clothing is not a creature of brute strength, but of calculated strategy. It does not become the wolf; it merely adopts the semblance of power for survival.
When the PDP mirrors the APC, it represents not transformation but calculation convenience rather than conviction, adaptation rather than authenticity. In such mimicry, distinctions blur. Philosophically, this is the tragedy of political imitation: when identity becomes costume, democracy risks degenerating into theatre. When every sheep dresses as a wolf, the forest, the political space, loses its ability to discern.
The longstanding APC members in these affected states were those who stood resolutely behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and worked tirelessly to secure his victory in the last general elections. Today, paradoxically, many of them find themselves on the verge of being edged out of the very party they once called home. To ignore them would not only be unjust it would be politically reckless.
Samuel Ekene Kerry, Member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Whispering through the microphone from Owerre Olubor, Ika North East LGA, Delta State.
