By Adesina Soyooye
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has been reduced to a laughing stock by the Lagos State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, over the defection of one of his sons, Abubakar Atiku Abubakar, popular as Abba, from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the APC.
Abba had ruffled political feathers when he not only defected to the APC, ordered all the coordinators of his political group to defect but pledged to work for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
He chose the National Assembly on Thursday for the venue of his defection. He was warmly received by the Deputy Senate President Barau.
But reacting to the defection, the APC Lagos Chapter, described the decision of Atiku’s son to reject the ADC and align with the APC as a major blow to his father’s political credibility.
Seye Oladejo, the Lagos Chapter’s Spokesperson, in a statement issued on Thursday titled, “You Can’t Trust Atiku More Than His Son,” said the younger Atiku’s defection to the APC has punctured the political credibility of his father.
Oladejo said the party noted “with unmistakable clarity the political earthquake” triggered by Atiku Abubakar’s son’s decision to abandon the “pretentious ADC contraption” and pitch his tent with the APC.
He continued: “This singular act has said more than a thousand press conferences ever could.
“When a man’s own son deserts his political judgment, repudiates his choices, and embraces an alternative path, Nigerians are entitled to ask what deeper indictment of credibility is required. If those closest to you are unconvinced by your political convictions, how do you expect an entire nation to suspend disbelief?”
He accused the ADC chieftain of decades of ideological inconsistency, and described his political career as “a restless odyssey defined by serial defections, transactional alliances, and an obsession with the Presidency.
“From the PDP to the AC, to APC, back to the PDP, and now to the ADC, his politics has been nothing more than a nomadic ambition in search of a party willing to mortgage its soul.”
Atiku’s son’s decision to join the APC, he said was “not a coincidence but a confession,” and described it as a generational rejection of “recycled politics, expired ambitions, and leadership without conviction.”
Oladejo further said that the defection represented an endorsement of the APC’s record of governance and the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Let it be said without equivocation: when credibility collapses at home, it cannot be rehabilitated in the marketplace of national politics.
Any leadership, he said, which cannot inspire loyalty within its immediate constituency cannot command confidence among Nigerians.
He welcomed Abubakar Atiku Abubakar’s decision and urged Nigerians to “read the political handwriting on the wall.”
“The era of political tourism, moral inconsistency, and ambition without ideology is gasping for relevance.
“If Atiku’s son has moved on, Nigeria certainly should”, Oladejo said.
