Tinubu political survival
A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Dr Ladan Salihu, has accused some state governors of treating President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a political saviour in the race for relevance ahead of the 2027 general election, warning that defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress do not automatically guarantee electoral victory. Salihu made the remark on Monday during an appearance on The Morning Show on Arise Television, where he criticised what he described as a dangerous obsession with power and political convenience.
Salihu’s intervention comes at a time when Nigeria’s political map is being redrawn by a fresh wave of defections. The latest major shift came from Zamfara State, where Governor Dauda Lawal formally dumped the Peoples Democratic Party for the APC. Multiple reports said the move pushed the number of APC governors to 31, further tightening the ruling party’s grip on state-level power and deepening concerns among opposition figures about the future of multi-party competition in the country.
For Salihu, the issue is not just party movement. It is the mentality driving it. He argued that some governors now appear to believe that their future depends less on performance, party structure, or voter trust, and more on proximity to the President. That is where the Tinubu political survival argument becomes politically explosive. In Salihu’s telling, the rush into the APC is based on the assumption that the President can determine electoral outcomes in 2027 simply by the force of incumbency and control.
That assumption, he suggested, ignores Nigerian political history. Salihu pointed to the era when the PDP held overwhelming control across many states but still lost power at the federal level in 2015. His message was blunt: numbers alone do not win elections, and political dominance can collapse faster than those benefiting from it expect. The core of his criticism is that Tinubu political survival cannot be built only on elite alliances if ordinary voters are unconvinced.
This is what gives the story national significance. The comment may sound like partisan rhetoric from an opposition figure, but it lands in a season of genuine political anxiety. Nigeria’s opposition has been weakened by internal division, leadership disputes, and defections. The APC, by contrast, continues to expand its control over state structures. In that atmosphere, the claim that governors are embracing Tinubu political survival as an insurance policy is not merely a personal jab at the President. It is an argument about the health of Nigeria’s democracy and the shrinking space for competitive politics.
https://ogelenews.ng/tinubu-political-survival
Recent events help explain why the accusation is gaining traction. Dauda Lawal’s defection was officially tied to the prolonged crisis within the PDP, with reports saying the internal legal and leadership battles in the opposition party made his continued stay untenable. But opposition voices have framed the same decision differently. To them, the move reflects a calculation that the safest place to be before the next cycle of power contests is beside the ruling party and, by extension, beside Tinubu. That interpretation feeds the broader narrative of Tinubu political survival now shaping elite politics across the federation.
There is also the matter of what happens next. Reports published on March 16 indicated that Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed may be preparing to join the APC after talks around power-sharing and his political future in the state. That move had not been formally completed at the time of reporting, but the speculation alone shows how tense and fluid the political environment has become. Every rumoured switch strengthens the impression that Tinubu political survival has become a magnet for governors who fear isolation, succession battles, or declining influence in weakened opposition platforms.
Still, there is another side to the argument. Supporters of the ruling party would likely say governors are not worshipping Tinubu or seeking protection, but acting in pragmatic ways to secure federal cooperation, improve access to political networks, and position their states for development. In Nigerian politics, defection is often justified as realism, not surrender. Yet Salihu’s remarks force a harder question into the open: when elected governors abandon the parties that brought them to office and move toward the centre of federal power, is that strategy, or is it fear? That is the deeper conversation beneath the phrase Tinubu political survival.
For now, what is clear is that the balance of power is shifting again. The ruling APC is expanding. The opposition is bleeding. Governors are making calculations that will shape 2027 long before campaign season officially begins. Salihu’s “tin God” remark may be controversial, even excessive, but it captures a growing mood in opposition circles that too many political actors now see closeness to the President as the surest path to relevance. Whether that bet holds at the ballot box is another matter entirely. Nigerian history, as Salihu reminded viewers, has a habit of humbling parties that mistake temporary dominance for permanent control.
https://punchng.com/govs-treating-tinubu-as-tin-god-for-political-survival-adc-chieftain
