In April this year, Sentry wrote on the dilemma of a former governor of a Southwest state whose body was in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) while his mind is with his friends in one of the opposition parties. While he is yet to declare a change in his membership of APC, authoritative sources in opposition political parties are laying claim to him being their associate.
Before the advent of the Tinubu administration in 2023, he was a known member of APC and had been part of the evolution of the party from Alliance for Democracy (AD) to Action Congress (AC) and to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before it finally berthed as APC after joining forces with a few other parties to form a coalition that ended the 16-year rule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
On the basis of this political association, he had functioned as the governor of a Southwest state and also served as a minister. In all those years, his loyalty to the ruling party was not in doubt. But that no longer seems to be the case since he exited office as minister even though he seems to have difficulty declaring his exit or openly embracing another party.
But while he continues to hide behind one finger with regard to where his soul belongs, his friends and associates in the opposition parties are not helping matters. First, a former governor and top member of one of the newly formed opposition parties declared that he and the former Southwest counterpart were the brains behind the coalition of political forces to form the new party in question.
While political observers were chewing on this revelation, a chieftain of another newly formed party has come out with a claim that the former Southwest governor is the coordinator of a seven-man group drawn across opposition parties with the sole motive of unseating President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.
His spokesmen have denied the claims of the ex-governor straddling two sides. They swear he remains committed to So who do we believe? Much as the former Southwest governor wants to keep his alleged new association a secret, his newfound political associates appear unwilling to play his hide-and-seek game with him. Time will tell if he’s a victim of name dropping or truly has been playing both sides.