The Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Print Media, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, has clarified that the recent defections of two opposition governors to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were not forced but rather driven by the President’s long-standing political relationships.

In 2025, two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State and Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, defected to the APC.

With these moves, the ruling party now controls 23 states, while the PDP holds 10 states. The Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) each govern one state.

Addressing concerns that the defections may have been engineered through coercion, Abdulaziz insisted that the governors’ decisions were voluntary and rooted in mutual political trust.

He said, “As a person, he is a consensus-builder; he believes in talking to people. His doors are quite open. I can’t remember Nigeria having a president as approachable as President Tinubu because his network of friends and associates has remained largely intact since he’s been in office, and he maintains friends. That gives a hands-on regarding what’s happening in the country.

“A lot of people who are decamping, some politicians will come out and say the Federal Government is coercing members of the opposition into the APC fold. I can tell you it’s not true because I believe that politics is like a give and take.

“But in this case, most of these people, especially governors and high-ranking politicians who are joining the APC on account of the president’s approachable politics and engaging relationship that he has (with them).”