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Nigeria: Defection of 7 State Governors to Opposition Party dims Goodluck Jonathan re-election prospects
The PDP has been in power since shortly after the end of military rule in 1998, but it has increasingly been riven by internal squabbles. Many northerners say Jonathan’s running again would violate an unwritten PDP rule that power should rotate between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south every 2 terms.
The president has also made powerful enemies elsewhere, including the governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi, who is from Jonathan’s own oil producing Niger Delta region but defected nonetheless.
“They have come to join the APC. The governors have all agreed. We believe they are all on board,” Mohammed said.
Amaechi told reporters by SMS text message that the splinter group had joined the APC and Baba Dantye, a spokesman for Kano state governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, also confirmed the move.
“It is a blow to the PDP in terms of prestige, but most of the departing governors were from states where the president polled badly in 2011 and would not have been expected to win,” said Antony Goldman, head of Africa-focused PM Consulting.
With most of the defecting governors due to leave office in 2015, it is unclear how much help they can give the APC, Goldman said.
Source: Reuters
