In a great political realignment, prominent opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) members, among them the 2023 vice-presidential candidate Yusuf Buhari, and governorship candidate for Kano State, Bala Gwagwarawa, have officially decamped to the APC.
The mass defection, formalized at an event in Abuja on Tuesday, also included the entire SDP State Working Committee in Kano, 38 local government chairmen and secretaries, 13 state assembly candidates, and six House of Representatives candidates.
In response to the trend, Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau revealed that efforts to transform the SDP into a strong alternative to the APC in the 2027 polls had faltered. He called the defectors a giant loss for Nasir El-Rufai, the former Governor of Kaduna State, who had recently switched allegiance to the SDP as he sought to revive the party.
“It’s those who want to build the SDP into a credible party for 2027 who have failed. That task is DOA. Nigerians have disowned it. Even the so-called big wigs like Sule Lamido have defected from the party,” Barau claimed.
He also claimed further defections in the pipeline, stating further, “Had we delayed the meeting by just a day more, almost all SDP candidates nationwide would have joined us.”.
APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje welcomed the new entrants, assuring them of equal rights and privileges in the governing party. He described their move as a step from “darkness to light,” underscoring the APC’s ideology of transformational leadership under President Bola Tinubu.
Kabiru Gaya, ex-Governor of Kano State, also felt compelled to add his voice, affirming that the SDP was politically discredited even before the coming of El-Rufai.
“The SDP is dead. Its vice-presidential candidate is here, the Kano candidate is here, and all the big guns are now in the APC. I commend the Deputy Senate President for bringing these big guns of politicians into our party. It’s a huge victory for the APC,” Gaya declared.
