Bayelsa and Rivers State Governors, Douye Diri and Siminalayi Fubara are now the only Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Governors still holding the banner of the party in the South-South geo-political zone after their Akwa Ibom counterpart, Umo Eno officially defected to the All Progressive Congress, APC on Friday June 6,2025.
Governor Umo announced his defection after months of vascilation during a formal ceremony at the Government House in Uyo.
According to reports, the event attracted prominent APC figures from across the country.
Speaking at the event, Eno said: “After completing the rounds of my consultation as your servant whom you have elected to serve, I have therefore decided to progressively move to the APC.”
He emphasised that his defection was a strategic move: “We are not joining the APC from a position of weakness, but from a position of strength. We’re bringing value to Akwa Ibom State. We’ve come into the APC with a ministry of reconciliation.”
However unlike the defection of the Governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori to the APC, that literally collapsed the PDP in the state, Umo’s defection leaves him like a lone voice in the wilderness as his threats to his commissioners and appointees to join him to the APC were largely ignored.
At the defection ceremony, no member of PDP of note in the state was mentioned as part of Eno’s train moving to the ruling party.
Many PDP members in the state had reaffirmed their membership of PDP and loyalty to the leadership of the immediate past governor, Emmanuel Udom since the rumors of Umo’s defection started.
Since 1999, Akwa Ibom has remained a PDP controlled state. Even the defection of Godswill Akpabio, former governor of the state and incumbent senate president had little or no impact on the strength of PDP in the state.
But for the alleged shenanigans of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, and the judiciary, Akpabio would not have even found himself at the red chamber because he didn’t participate in the primaries of the APC for Akwa Ibom North senatorial district. But the Supreme court in a bizarre pronouncement, ‘smuggled’ Akpabio and former senate president, Ahmed Lawan into the list of candidates cleared to contest their respective senatorial district elections without participating in the primaries and they ‘won’.
Governor Eno, whom little was known of him prior to his endorsement by Udom perhaps believes that belonging to the party that controls the central government will earn him a sure ticket for second term.
However, belonging to the party that controls the center without having reasonable grassroots support could be a hard sell for hom since Udom Emmanuel still wields significant influence in the state politics even with Akpabio as senate president in opposition.
So what appears to have worked for Governor Oborevwori in Delta might be a different ball game for Umo because the political dynamics in the two states are quite different.
Virtually all appointees of Oborevwori moved with him to APC including his predecessor and former vice presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 general election, Ifeanyi Okowa.
Umo’s defection to the APC could be a prelude to his retirement back to the pulpit where he used to hold sway as a pastor before his foray into the political fray if he fails to navigate his way back to the Government House in 2027 because of this singular choice.
With the latest development, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta and Edo States are now all APC compliant states, leaving only Bayelsa and Rivers, two sister states that share a lot in common holding the umbrella of the PDP.
But even the two states are not sure bets for the PDP going by recent developments in the political scene.
In Rivers State, the suspended governor, Sim Fubara is throwing in everything he has to stage a comeback to the Government House which might not exclude eventual defection to the APC.
He has held a series of closed door meetings with President Tinubu and is lately singing the praise of the president for suspending him from office even when there was no justifiable ground for such constitutional breach.
Read also:
- Akwa Ibom Governor Umo Eno defects to APC
- Governor Umo Eno orders appointees to join APC or resign
- Rebrand Nigeria to attract foreign investors, Gov. Umo Eno urges NIPR
For the Bayelsa Governor already in his second term, there is no pressure on him to take any action he would ordinarily not have taken because of political exigency. He should be relaxed except for the promise of a juicy appointment should Tinubu win when he would have seen through his term as governor.
The recent visit of the Delta Governor, Oborevwori and his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa to Diri in Government House, Yenagoa without any statement after their meeting is troubling to many political analysts.
The visitors might have come to woo Diri to join in waving the broom in APC. The speculation gained further traction when Diri was sighted among other APC governors and officials during the recent commissioning by Tinubu of the Lagos section of Lagos -Calabar Coastal Road in Lekki, Lagos, shortly after the visit of the Delta duo.
How are the mighty fallen! PDP, the once vibrant party whose umbrella used to illuminate party grounds with lots of people thronging to take shelter under the umbrella, is now a shadow of itself. No thanks to the lack of political ideology in our polity.