Presidential aide, Bayo Onanuga has criticized the recent defection of several prominent political figures to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), describing the group as a collection of disaffected politicians driven by personal ambition rather than national interest.
Reacting to the opposition’s portrayal of the defection as a significant political shift, Onanuga claimed that many of the individuals touted as former members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had long ceased to be active participants in the ruling party.
He cited former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, whose involvement with the APC, he said, effectively ended after losing the 2022 presidential primary to President Bola Tinubu. Former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami was also mentioned, with Onanuga stating that Malami had grown distant from the APC following Tinubu’s emergence and his own failed gubernatorial bid in Kebbi State.
Hadi Sirika, the former aviation minister now aligned with the ADC, was noted as currently facing trial for alleged contract splitting. Rauf Aregbesola, another former APC figure, was accused of anti-party activities during the Osun elections and had been expelled from the APC for what Onanuga called “unfitness” to remain in the party.
Other figures like Kashim Imam and former APC chairman Chief John Odigie Oyegun were dismissed as politically irrelevant. Onanuga said Imam left the APC after failing to secure the vice-presidential ticket, while Oyegun had shown little interest in the party in recent years and was described as a founding member of the current opposition coalition.
In a sharp rebuke, Onanuga warned Nigerians to be wary of political movements that he said lack a coherent ideology and are motivated primarily by opposition to President Tinubu.
“A political party with no clear agenda or ideology—whose members are united only by their hatred for President Tinubu—cannot be good for our country. It will only set us back by decades,” he said.
He concluded by calling the defectors “desperados,” accusing them of seeking power for selfish reasons and predicting that the new coalition would collapse under the weight of its members’ conflicting personal ambitions.
