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ADC chieftain, Senator Dino Melaye, says governors crossing to APC won’t influence the 2027 general elections.
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Melaye argues that the “governor factor” has collapsed, citing Labour Party and PDP’s 2023 performance.
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He predicts mass rejection of APC and PDP due to economic hardship and loss of public trust.
Senator Dino Melaye, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has dismissed the ongoing wave of defections by opposition governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying it will not benefit President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the 2027 elections.
In a post on his official Facebook page on Wednesday, Melaye argued that the “governor factor” that once shaped Nigeria’s electoral outcomes had lost its grip, noting that the 2023 elections proved voters now act independently.
“The 2023 election marked a political awakening, a rejection of the old order that believed power flowed from state governors. That illusion has collapsed,” he said.
According to him, despite lacking governors and major financiers, the Labour Party’s Peter Obi won 11 states including the Federal Capital Territory, while the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar secured 12 states, eight of which were under APC governors.
Melaye maintained that despite having 22 governors, the APC “struggled to maintain voter confidence,” losing key political territories including Lagos.
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He added that worsening economic hardship under the Tinubu administration would make the 2027 election “a reckoning” for the ruling party.
“The governors can all decamp to the ruling party and hold hands on the way down; the electorate will ensure it is a spectacular collective defeat,” Melaye declared.
The former Kogi West senator described both the APC and PDP as “political entities sitting on powder kegs,” predicting internal implosions driven by corruption and public distrust.
He presented the ADC as a people-centred alternative, free from what he termed “the baggage of looted governance.”
“The 2027 election will be an election of the governed, not of governors,” he added.
