Obi, Kwankwaso’s defections to NDC linked more to Igbo Presidency than Tinubu’s interest, as Shehu Atiku, Uche Diala, others react

By OUR REPORTERS, Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Katsina

“if there is any havoc it can cause, that will only be to divide the South against Tinubu and his APC, definitely not the North against Atiku and the ADC,” according to one of the reactions.

As debates over Igbo presidency agenda plus other undercurrent tendencies and intentions that pushed Kano, North West Nigeria-born Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to follow Peter Gregory Obi into what looks like a split in opposition coalition’s African Democratic Congress (ADC) by their defections to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), some watchers of political events as 2027 general elections are fast approaching have been speaking on the development.

Among them are Dr. Uche Diala and Shehu Abubakar, son of Atiku Abubakar who was recently seen as supporting Bola Ahmed Tinubu but has now reportedly reacted to the Obi and Kwankwaso’s joint move.

Shehu’s reaction was coming amidst information making waves across certain quarters that especially in the North that Kwankwaso was taking advantage of Igbo sentiment to present the ADC as a Fulani party to South East voters while positioning himself as a lover of Igbo with the hope that such political style will make Igbo give their bulk votes to a joint ticket involving Peter Obi as presidential candidate and himself as vice presidential candidate.

The Obi/Kwankwaso’s move has rather created division among Nigerians both within the South East and outside the region who believe that promoting an Igbo Agenda 2027 has posed a great danger to the chances of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the South East as it is capable of rendering useless the collective efforts of Igbo governors who defected to APC to give the votes of the region to the Yoruba president.

Among them are people who view the Obi/Kwankwaso block of ADC as no more or less than a zero figure that neither adds values to nor causes substraction from anything in the political permutations. They, however, said “if there is any havoc it can cause, that will only be to divide the South against Tinubu and his APC, definitely not the North against Atiku and the ADC,” according to one of the reactions.

Many members of the Tinubu’s government, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their supporters had earlier celebrated across the social media platforms as they thought the Obi and Kwankwaso pulling out to join the NDC would be to the decimation of the ADC.

But, according to the turn of event as observed by Our Reporter, it is said that the ruling APC’s jubilation – especially in the pre- and post-Supreme Court ruling of Thursday April 30, 2026 – has now been cut short.

This, according to a source in Kano, “is because the ADC had been fully footed and was spreading like wild fire in harmattan season across the North and parts of the South despite unguarded utterances of the Obedient people saying “It is either Obi or nobody” and long before Kwankwaso dumped his New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Asked to share his thought about the expected impact of the defections of Obi and Kwankwaso in the North and Kano coming 2027, the source who insisted on anonymity, said, “North for Obi, no matter the stature of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, that cannot fly,” he said but added that, “Yes, talking about number that Kwankwaso commands in Kano, I can say, ‘well, what the ticket can win in Kano is governorship because I know Kwankwaso to be somebody of Aminu Kano’s political ideology of pursuing local power control not a national political power pursuing person.’

“That I can assure you is what is going on because Kwankwaso only always uses national appearance to defend his control base in Kano, which the APC took away from him with Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf defection from the NNPP. Tinubu’s people had celebrated the Obi and Kwankwaso pulling out of ADC as a move in their favour but, let me tell you, and you can take it from me to anywhere that this is nothing but fir the interest of Kwankwaso and him alone, not for Tinubu and the worst loser will be Ibi because he will not win a single political base thus time as the North is moving in bulk for ADC.”

Another respondent who reacted was Shehu Atiku. In a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account, he reportedly expressed disappointment over the development, describing the defection as akin to stepping off a moving train.

The ADC had been widely regarded as a coalition platform for the politicians and their supporters prior to the shift.

Despite his criticism, Shehu extended his well wishes to Obi, Kwankwaso, and others involved in the realignment.

In his posted reaction titled “Mr. Peter Ob’s needless explanation”, Dr. Uche Diala, an opposition ADC member, said in details:

“I read the submission by HE Mr. Peter Obi in which he essentially stated his reasons for leaving the ADC.

“First, I recognise and respect Mr. Obi’s inalienable right to freedom of association and dissociation, including his freedom to disassociate with the ADC – the same way he freely chose to associate with it. So, this is not me condemning or taking issues with his decision.

“As a matter of fact, I associate and identity with most of the sentiments he expressed in his submission, including his desires and wishes for a new Nigeria. Those are actually the same reasons why some of us have remained resolutely engaged inspite of series of disappointments, and personal risks and discomfort.

“However, I take issue with some of his assertions.   Any leader of the coalition and by extension the ADC could equally allege the same things and use them as excuses to leave.

“As a matter of fact, I know one of the leaders who has more reasons to feel disenchanted and disappointed than Mr Peter Obi. He is Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Having being a key actor, from the very conception of the Coalition movement idea to its metamorphosis into the ADC, unarguably, no other person has suffered more attacks, injustice, and betrayal – both from within and outside – than El-Rufai.

“Aside from his prolonged and ongoing unjustifiable incarceration by the powers that be, which every honest person knows is on account of his association with the Coalition and the ADC, as well as the consequential role he has played in it all, Mallam El-Rufai has also suffered some reasonable degrees of discomfort in the hands of the party.

“While the party made effort to bend over backwards to accommodate Mr. Obi and his team, I doubt that the same gesture was extended to Mallam El-Rufai and some of the other leaders – definitely not to the same degree.

“For instance, the ceeding of the powerful position of National Organising Secretary of the party to the obidient camp was done intentionally to give Mr. Obi a sense of belonging. I am also aware that members of the obidient camp were included as key members of key committees of the party. Same was not accorded to the El-Rufai camp. Indeed, list of names that he (El-Rufai) submitted for inclusion in committees were mostly left unattended.

“Furthermore, recently, when the list of membership of National Convention Planning Committees was published, names of people from the El-Rufai camp were conspicuously missing while names from the obidient camp featured prominently. It took calling the attention of the leadership for that to be addressed to some extent.

“It is equally worth mentioning that since Mallam El-Rufai was taken into custody on the 16th of February 2026 after he willfully responded to an invitation by the EFCC, and held in custody since then, the party has not paid considerable attention to his plight, in spite of his pivotal role in the party and in spite of the fact that the issues raised against him by the authorities are not issues that would make anyone distance themselves from him. Even non ADC members acknowledge that El-Rufai’s case is purely a case of political persecution.

“Yet, in spite of all that, neither Mallam El-Rufai nor his team/camp has complained or sought to leave the party on account of those. They have remained loyal to the party. In fact, in the heat of the shenanigans orchestrated against the party, Mallam’s last communication to me and directive to his team from detention was emphatic – “we remain with the ADC”.

“While I respectfully acknowledge Mr. Obi’s right to leave the party, even for the reasons he stated,  I dare to say that part of leadership and of being a democrat is one’s ability and willingness to subject oneself to democratic contests and processes – especially intra-party contests and processes – which are fundamental and foundational.

“When one engages, associates or participates with a rigid or fixed mindset and with an aggravated sense of entitlement, it calls to question one’s humility, sincerity and ability to be a team player – politics is a team sport.

“It equally bears pointing out that from the get-go, the coalition and by extension, the ADC made it clear that its presidential ticket won’t be zoned. Any leader or anyone who has been nursing the ambition or having the expectation that that would change, is either unrealistic or insincere. The coalition leaders, including Mr. Peter Obi himself, equally made commitments to support any one who emerges from a free and transparent primaries. The primaries are yet to be held.

“Maybe Mr. Obi’s move is a pre-emptive one to beat the rules which precludes any person who has participated in the Primaries of a political party from taking part in the primaries of another party. I can understand that and that is why I would have preferred that Mr. Obi make his move quietly and leave out the explanations because any of the other leaders could equally make the same excuses.

“In addition, the attempt to destabilise the ADC that he referenced is one that commited leaders of the party and the opposition should rather unite and fight together and not to jump ship. Who even says that the same things done to the Labour Party and currently being done to the ADC won’t be visited upon the NDC or whatever other party he chooses to runs to? Such a decision, in my view, ought to be a collective one, if it becomes absolutely necessary and inevitable.

“All that said, I wish Mr. Obi luck. More importantly, I wish Nigeria and Nigerians good luck in our collective quest to rid ourselves of the current debilitating situation that we have found ourselves in,” said Uche Diala.