Daniel Bwala, the Special Adviser on Policy Communication to President Bola Tinubu, says the All Progressives Congress (APC) should be wary of Borno South Senator Ali Ndume, alleging that the lawmaker’s spirit and soul are already with the opposition.

“Let me tell you today and I want everybody to hear, especially the chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje. Senator Ali Ndume’s spirit and soul are with the coalition; it is his body that is in APC. He is already going,” Ndume said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

“It is better the way (Nasir) el-Rufai did: just say I am leaving. You’d give more honour and credit to el-Rufai that he didn’t feel he could stay and be a snitch.”

On Friday, Ndume, unarguably the longest-serving lawmaker in the National Assembly since 1999, faulted Tinubu’s declaration of emergency in rule in Rivers and asked the president to rather declare emergency rule on security and economy.

The senator also said Tinubu should be worried if former President Muhammadu Buhari is not on his side. This was just hours after former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar led some opposition leaders to visit Buhari in Kaduna.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari receives Atiku Abubakar and others in Kaduna State on April 11, 2025. Credit: X/@atiku

Ahead of the 2027 polls, talks about an inter-party alliance reached a climax on Thursday, March 20, 2025, when opposition arrowhead Atiku, alongside former Anambra governor Peter Obi, ex-Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, amongst others, announced a coalition to oust incumbent Tinubu whose administration has been accused of mismanaging the economy, with all-time high inflation and unprecedented cost of living.

The coalition is banking on the numerical strength of the votes recorded by Atiku and Obi in the last poll. In 2023, Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party’s Obi came second and third respectively with combined votes of over 12 million, more than four million above the total votes recorded by Tinubu who was declared the winner by electoral umpire INEC.

With a litany of court cases arising from intra-party squabbles and protracted leadership crises rocking the PDP and the LP, as well as alleged maltreatment of some APC members, politicians in the three parties seem to have made the SDP a darling.

Already, El-Rufai and some of his foot soldiers have joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP). There have been talks about Atiku and Obi reportedly making moves to join the SDP but both politicians have not made such a decision known officially. (Channels TV)