LAGOS, Nigeria (FN) — Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has launched a blistering attack on former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, accusing him of “political selective amnesia” and branding him the “undisputed master defector” in Nigerian politics.
The rebuke came in response to Obi’s recent remarks dismissing the wave of defections from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC across the Southeast and South-South, claiming “nobody can capture the South-East with defections.”
But the APC’s Lagos State chapter fired back, calling Obi’s comments hypocritical and desperate. “Obi’s statement is long on drama but short on logic — a desperate attempt to stay politically relevant in a fast-evolving Nigeria that has moved on from empty populism,” said party spokesman Seye Oladejo.
Oladejo accused Obi of lacking the moral authority to criticize defections, citing his own political trajectory from the All-Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the PDP and then to the Labour Party. “If there were a trophy for political cross-carpeting, Obi would be its unchallenged winner,” he said.
The APC also claimed that Obi’s influence in the Southeast is waning, and that the region’s alignment with the ruling party reflects a shift toward “national mainstream inclusion” rather than coercion. “The South-East is not his fiefdom,” Oladejo added. “Divisive and religious politics no longer have a place in a country that is finally embracing unity and progress under the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
Obi, who galvanized youth support in the 2023 elections, has yet to respond to the accusations. But analysts say the escalating rhetoric signals a deepening political rift ahead of the 2027 elections, with both sides vying for control of Nigeria’s volatile southeastern bloc.
