Tambuwal Joins APC

His body language, for months, pointed at the direction that he was fed up with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. And when Nigeria’s Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, today formally announced his defection from PDP to the All Progressives Congress, APC, it confirmed everyone’s expectation.

Tambuwal addressed the plenary that he was defecting to the APC for political reasons, adding that he only responded to the yearning of his people in Sokoto State in taking the decision and what he called months of consultations he had embarked on.

He is expected to contest for the governorship of his native Sokoto State.

He added that nothing has changed in the House as all members would “work together for the benefit of the lower legislative chamber and greater good of the Nigerian people, implying that the Speaker may not vacate his position with the defection.”

Tambuwal, had long been unhappy with the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, under President Goodluck Jonathan.

At an event in Kaduna recently, Tambuwal’s official car was subjected to a security search by policemen. Tambuwal came down from the vehicle and trekked to the venue.

His departure from the PDP was inevitable after he was excluded from a meeting of PDP stakeholders in Sokoto state, presided over by the party’s Board of Trustees Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih. And before then, Tambuwal had demonstrated his closeness to APC leaders when his turbanning ceremony in Sokoto was jam-packed by the opposition leaders.

Last December the PDP was hit by a wave of defections by lawmakers to the APC as it gained momentum, but since then a number of powerful figures have swung the other way back to the president’s camp.

They include popular two-term ex-governor of Kano state Ibrahim Shakarau, and former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu, denying the APC a strong anti-graft platform. The February elections, which include parliamentary and local polls as well as presidential, are likely to be the most closely fought since the end of military rule in 1999.

Jonathan’s government has been beset by criticism over its inability to end an insurgency by Boko Haram Islamists and a raft of oil corruption scandals, but the president still appears to be in a strong position