Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has downplayed his past with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting he was never truly part of the opposition party, even while he flew its flag.
Speaking with journalists at the All Progressives Congress (APC) national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, December 18, Fubara portrayed his recent defection as both a political homecoming and a personal statement against how he was treated during Rivers State’s bruising power struggle.
“If I have to be honest, was I really a member of the PDP? I wasn’t. Whatever I suffered during the political crisis, about 90 per cent of it was imposed on me by the party.
“I was just there in name. During the crisis, I wasn’t part of any group. I was on the balcony, not inside the house,” he said.
Fubara’s remarks cast his time in the PDP as a period of isolation and imposition, rather than loyalty and belonging.
His move to the APC, he suggested, is less a defection and more a shift to where he believes his political instincts have always been.
He described his entry into the ruling party as an easy, almost inevitable step, anchored in his appreciation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s intervention during the Rivers crisis.
“My joining the All Progressives Congress is to say thank you to Mr President and to join hands with other progressives to develop my state and Nigeria at large. It wasn’t a difficult decision; it was easy,” he said.
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The governor argued that his ideology had long aligned with “progressive” politics, despite his old party card.
Fubara’s switch comes after a long-running confrontation with his predecessor, former governor Nyesom Wike, over control of the PDP structure in Rivers State. The intense infighting drew Aso Rock directly into the fray.
At the height of the showdown, President Tinubu stepped in and suspended both Fubara and the Rivers State House of Assembly for six months, a move presented as a drastic but necessary measure to stabilise the state.
Fubara was reinstated in September and formally defected to the APC on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at a time when several members of the Rivers State House of Assembly had already crossed over to the ruling party.
The wave of defections has reshaped the political landscape of the oil-rich state ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Now inside the APC, Fubara says his focus is to offer direction and heal internal rifts in the party’s state chapter.
“Now that I am a member, I will ensure that I bring everybody together for more unity and progress of the party in the state. There is now a direction, and there is nothing to worry about,” he said.