Sitting Governors Who Dump Their Parties for Another Since 1999 [Full List]

Since democracy was reinstated in Nigeria in 1999, 23 incumbent governors across 18 states have switched their political affiliations.

The states with the most governors changing parties are Sokoto, Imo, and Abia.

In Sokoto, three governors have changed parties, while in both Imo and Abia, two governors have done so.

An analysis shows that 13 of the defecting governors were from the Northern region, and 10 from the South. Moreover, the most significant number of party switches by governors occurred during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

These party defections involved 10 different political parties, some of which no longer exist 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).

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.

Also meets Tinubu 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:

1 Boni Haruna Adamawa PDP to AC

2 Murtala Nyako Adamawa PDP APC

3 Ikedi Ohakim Imo PPA to PDP

4 Rochas Okorocha Imo APGA to APC

5 Mahmuda Shinkafi Zamfara ANPP to PDP

6 Bello Matawalle Zamfara PDP to APC

There were cases of defection in Benue, Lagos, Ondo, Rivers, Cross River and Edo, Kano, Kebbi, and Jigawa states.