A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Ladan Salihu, has criticised the growing wave of defections by state governors to the ruling party, saying many now treat Bola Tinubu as a “tin god” capable of securing their political future.
Salihu made the remarks on Monday, the 16th of March, 2026, during The Morning Show on Arise Television, where he questioned the motivation behind the movement of some governors from the parties that originally brought them to power.
He said the defections appear to be driven by the belief that aligning with the president could guarantee continued political relevance and future electoral victories.
Salihu argued that Nigeria’s political history shows that a large number of governors backing a ruling party does not automatically translate to electoral success.
He pointed to past elections where similar political alignments failed to prevent defeat at the polls.
The ADC chieftain also expressed concern that governors who won elections on the platform of other parties are now abandoning those same structures to join the ruling party.
He suggested that such decisions may be guided by calculations ahead of future contests rather than loyalty to the voters who elected them.
Salihu said: “Let me say this, the history does not lie, and we have a kind of political precedence when it comes to people defecting, or actors or dramatist personas detecting from one party and run into another party that they felt it was for them to catch the golden fleece, it crashed right before our eyes.
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“And you remember, at a point the PDP had about 28 governors or thereabout, and that did not stop the PDP from losing election to the APC.
“I often wonder, why should a governor, or governors, you know, rush out of their parties where they won convincingly to be in power, to a ruling party.
“And the answer is simple: governors tend to forget. Politicians of repute when they win an election and the second stanza of an election is beckoning, they forget the Almighty God that first gave them the power to be there. So they forgot that they were empowered by God to be there.
“They have now adopted President Bola Tinubu as their own tin god. They believe that he can give them power.
“They believe that he can give them a platform to win elections they believe that they don’t need the God you and I serve. I’m shocked and flabbergasted by the kind of the politics we play.”