A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Ladan Salihu, has criticised governors defecting to the ruling party, saying many of them now see President Bola Tinubu as a “tin god” who can secure their political future.
Salihu made the remark on Monday while speaking during The Morning Show on Arise Television.
Salihu claimed some governors now believe Tinubu can guarantee them political survival and electoral victory, rather than relying on the support that first brought them to office.
According to him, Nigerian political history shows that mass defections by governors do not always guarantee electoral victory.
Salihu questioned why some governors would abandon the parties under which they were elected to join the ruling party, suggesting that such moves were driven by political calculations ahead of future elections.
Salihu said: “Let me say this, the history does not lie, and we have a kind of political precedence when it comes to people defecting, or actors or dramatist personas detecting from one party and run into another party that they felt it was for them to catch the golden fleece, it crashed right before our eyes.
“And you remember, at a point the PDP had about 28 governors or thereabout, and that did not stop the PDP from losing election to the APC.
“I often wonder, why should a governor, or governors, you know, rush out of their parties where they won convincingly to be in power, to a ruling party.
“And the answer is simple: governors tend to forget. Politicians of repute when they win an election and the second stanza of an election is beckoning, they forget the Almighty God that first gave them the power to be there. So they forgot that they were empowered by God to be there.
“They have now adopted President Bola Tinubu as their own tin god. They believe that he can give them power.
“They believe that he can give them a platform to win elections they believe that they don’t need the God you and I serve. I’m shocked and flabbergasted by the kind of the politics we play.”