By: Okoi Obono-Obla I read a post on X made by Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization on 1st January 2026, and the revision it conta...
By: Okoi Obono-Obla
I read a post on X made by Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization on 1st January 2026, and the revision it contained made me laugh and wonder how historical facts could be twisted to construct a certain narrative to deceive those who are not well informed.
The post blatantly claimed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu moved through several parties in his political career, namely SDP, AD, AC, ACN, and APC. It even went further to assign years to his membership in these parties:
- SDP — 1991–1992
- AD — 1999–2007
- AC — 2006–2007
- ACN — 2007–2014
- APC — 2014–present
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was one of the two political parties established by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida in 1989 as part of its transition programme. The other was the National Republican Convention (NRC). Both parties were dissolved and abolished when the transition programme was aborted in a bid to stop Chief M.K.O. Abiola from assuming the presidency after his spectacular victory in the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was annulled by the military. President Tinubu was indeed a member of the SDP, but the circumstances of his exit cannot, under any circumstance, be compared to Peter Obi migrating from Labour Party to ADC. Such a comparison is simply disingenuous, intended to muddle facts and mislead those unfamiliar with Nigeria’s political history from the 1980s to 1999.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) was one of the registered political parties established in 1998 during General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s transition programme to return Nigeria to democratic civil rule. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected Governor of Lagos in 1999 under AD and won reelection in 2003 on the same platform. Of the five governors elected in 1999 in the South-West geopolitical zone, only Tinubu survived the political onslaught unleashed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2003 general election, which swept away AD’s control in the region, leaving Lagos State as its only stronghold. After 2003, AD became severely weakened and fragmented. Tinubu, visionary and sagacious, floated a new political party—the Action Congress (AC)—with members of his AD faction forming the nucleus of the new party. Comparing this strategic move to Peter Obi’s circumstances is revisionism and distortion of the highest magnitude.
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) was not a new party separate from AC. Rather, it was simply a renamed version of AC after it merged with the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several other minor parties in September 2006. Therefore, Tinubu did not “move” from AC to ACN, as the X post suggested.
Similarly, President Tinubu did not migrate from ACN to APC. The All Progressives Congress (APC) was formed in 2013 as a merger of the defunct ACN, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), and two factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), along with the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP). Tinubu was not a mere member who joined in 2014, as falsely claimed, but a foundational member and one of the key architects of APC’s creation. The merger was formalized and registered by INEC on 31st July 2013, when the constituent parties dissolved their structures and surrendered their certificates.
Conclusion:
The narrative pushed by Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization is a clear distortion of Nigeria’s political history. President Tinubu’s political journey reflects strategic leadership and party-building, not opportunistic migration. To equate his trajectory with Peter Obi’s movements across parties is misleading and revisionist. Historical accuracy matters, and twisting facts to suit political propaganda only deceives the uninformed.
@ Okoi Obono-Obla
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