Full List: Sitting Governors Who Dump Their Parties for Another Since 1999
Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, 23 sitting governors in 18 states have dumped their political parties for another. The top states with the highest number of sitting governors jumping ships are Sokoto, Imo, and Abia. In Sokoto, three governors have dumped their parties for another, while two sitting governors in Imo and Abia have done the same.
Analysis revealed that 13 of the defecting former governors were from the North, while 10 others were from the Southern bloc. Also, the highest number of governors dumping their party for another happened under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
List of former governors who joined ship while in office emerged
Photo Credit: Orji Kalu, ABdulfatai Ahmed, Aminu TambuwalSource: Twitter
The defections of the sitting governors happened under 10 political parties. Some of the political parties are no longer in existence due to mergers or deregistration.
The political parties are the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA), All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA), All Progressives Congress (APC), and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Others are Action Congress (AC), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and Democratic People’s Party (DPP).
Prominent among the sitting governors are:
Aminu Tambuwal
The former governor of Sokoto left the APC as a sitting governor and joined the PDP in August 2018, ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
Tambuwal was the speaker of the House of Representatives when he first left the PDP for the APC. When he joined the major opposition, he was suspected of nursing a presidential ambition.
He later went on to contest for the PDP presidential ticket but lost to Atiku Abubakar, who also left the APC for the PDP for the same reason.
Other former governors of Sokoto who left their parties while in office are Attahiru Bafarawa (ANPP to PDP) and Aliyu Wamakko (PDP to APC).
Orji Kalu
The Abia North senator dumped the PDP for the PPA when he was governor of Abia State. He prided himself on being a major financial and founding member of the PDP but soon fell apart with then-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
After falling apart with Obasanjo because of the third-term ambition of the former president, the businesses and family members of the former governor of Abia state became casualties at the hands of the former military general.
In an interview cited by Premium Times, Orji Kalu said:
“I knew this would happen when he sent word to my mother during the third term debate to mobilise support for him. My mother said, ‘No, I can’t be part of this. We have given you two terms, and I stand on those terms.”
Interestingly, his successor, Theodore Orji, left PPA for PDP soon after leaving the umbrella party with him.
Abdulfatah Ahmed
The former governor of Kwara state was one of the politicians whose defections were remarkable during his time in office. As a sitting governor, Ahmed defected twice.
Former governor Ahmed first dumped the PDP for the APC in 2013 ahead of the 2015 general election but returned to the umbrella party in 2018.
Others are listed below:
| S/N | Names | State | Part Elected From | Party Defected to |
| 1 | Boni Haruna | Adamawa | PDP | AC |
| 2 | Murtala Nyako | Adamawa | PDP | APC |
| 3 | Ikedi Ohakim | Imo | PPA | PDP |
| 4 | Rochas Okorocha | Imo | APGA | APC |
| 5 | Mahmuda Shinkafi | Zamfara | ANPP | PDP |
| 6 | Bello Matawalle | Zamfara | PDP | APC |
There were cases of defection in Benue, Lagos, Ondo, Rivers, Cross River and Edo, Kano, Kebbi, and Jigawa states.
Source: Fox Nigeria
