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Dele Momodu, a former presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has reacted to the gale of defections from his party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Momodu, a veteran journalist and publisher of Ovation International, also advised President Bola Tinubu not to place blind trust in defecting politicians.
Rather, he urged the President to uphold the core values of democracy and allow political freedom to flourish in Nigeria.
The PDP chieftain made these known while speaking on the ongoing influx of PDP members into the APC, most notably in Delta State.
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On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his deputy, Monday Onyeme, and former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, along with commissioners and strong PDP stakeholders, decamped to the APC.
However, Momodu said he's not surprised by the wave of political realignment spreading across the country, adding that he would only be surprised if the President believed the defectors thought he was doing fantastically well.
“I’m not surprised about it—it’s been under serious harassment in recent times; it’s nothing new. What would surprise me is if President Bola Tinubu truly believes people are joining the APC because they love him or because he is doing fantastically well,” he said on Channels Television's Politics Today on Wednesday.
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Momodu advises Tinubu
The PDP stalwart advised the President not to muscle the opposition or try to force a second term through coercion or other undemocratic means.
“My advice to Asiwaju is that he should not trust these politicians. Right now, everyone can see that he is determined to get a second term. God gave him the first term, not through coercion. I don’t know why he now believes he must secure a second term through it.
“My advice to him is simple: uphold our democratic tenets. Do not turn Nigeria into a democratic dictatorship. No matter what happens, you were a pro-democracy man before becoming president. Please, allow democracy to breathe in Nigeria. If you don’t, I can bet my life that later in life it will be deeply regrettable,” he said.
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Momodu expressed doubts over the genuineness of the APC decampees, arguing that the trend reflects a political survival rather than genuine allegiance.
“What people are doing now is a game of survival. Gone are the days when we used to boast that going to prison made one a martyr.
“We once admired the likes of Nelson Mandela, MKO Abiola, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, for enduring detention in the name of principle. These days, nobody wants to go to detention,” he noted.