Adams Oshiomhole, senator representing Edo North and former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, has questioned the fitness of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to lead Nigeria, following Abubakar’s decision to join the African Democratic Congress.
Oshiomhole issued the criticism on Monday during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, shortly after Abubakar publicly confirmed his membership of the ADC. The former vice-president had earlier shared a photograph of himself holding his party card on X with the caption: “It’s official.”
The senator argued that Abubakar’s long-running difficulty in stabilising the Peoples Democratic Party undermines his present bid to reposition the country. According to him, the former vice-president has failed to demonstrate the capacity to provide direction within the PDP, despite decades of political influence.
Oshiomhole said, “If Atiku as a former vice-president under PDP could not fix PDP, he could not reconstruct it, and he could not provide leadership and use his influence which he had built, how can you lay claim to fix Nigeria?”
He linked Abubakar’s latest move to a pattern of political withdrawals, recalling that the former vice-president had also quit the APC after failing to secure its presidential ticket. Oshiomhole maintained that Abubakar only returned to the PDP for electoral purposes, yet “could not build” the party that once elevated him to the position of vice-president.
He added, “He was once a member of the APC. He left because he lost the party’s presidential ticket. He went back to the PDP. He’s so much in love with the PDP, at least for the purpose of contesting election. He could not build PDP. So, if Atiku can’t build the PDP that made him vice-president, he can’t fix Nigeria.”
Abubakar’s defection to the ADC follows his resignation from the PDP in July, after months of internal disputes that left the opposition party fractured ahead of the 2027 elections.
