Shrinking opposition: President not behind govs, NASS members’ serial defection to APC

Contrary to insinuation in some quarters that President Bola Tinubu is the one influencing serial defections of opposition governors and lawmakers to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party in power at the federal level, a top administration official says Tinubu is not behind the defections.
This happened as the leadership of the House of Representatives’ Minority Caucus threatened to explore all legal and parliamentary measures to challenge the defectors.
Sunday Vanguard had reported last week how serial defections to the APC since 2023 had shrunk the opposition in the country with the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) losing six governors and scores of lawmakers mostly to the ruling party.
In the National Assembly, particularly, no fewer than 70 opposition lawmakers have defected with 16 coming from the Senate and 56 from the House of Representatives.
We have also seen the entire lawmakers from some state Houses of Assembly defecting with their governors to the APC.
Meanwhile, various reasons have been adduced for the defections, ranging from the need for the defectors to align to the centre to be able to get dividends of democracy in full measure for their constituents.