In professional soccer, the period known as the transfer season is when the market opens for trading players.  Different clubs would sell and buy players. Nigeria’s political sphere is now in its transfer season when politicians switch camps and alliances. The Electoral Act 2026 has capped the option of someone belonging to two political parties and has prescribed a closure of the membership register at least twenty-one days before the primaries of any political party.

Under Section 77 of the Electoral Act 2022, political parties were required to maintain a membership register and submit it to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at least 30 days before their scheduled primaries, congresses, or conventions. But it is stricter under the 2026 version of the law. Additionally, the register must now be a digital database containing detailed personal data for each member.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revised timetable for the 2027 General Election, political parties are scheduled to conduct their primaries between April 23 and May 30, 2026. Therefore, the intensity of defections would be more pronounced as the parties prepare to hold their primaries.

Over the past week, numerous politicians have switched parties. The APC has gained most from these defections, with the PDP losing ten of its twelve governors to them. The remaining two governors face challenging decisions regarding the options available to them. They appear to be shut out of the APC because the party has ratified the list of elected executives from the ward to Lg, state and national levels. A politician without control of structure at those levels is like a fish out of water.

Nigeria’s political scene is seeing rapid defections and shifts between its main parties. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State and one-time presidential candidate for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), is the most prominent figure whose defection could potentially reshape the nation’s electoral scene.

Senator Kwankwaso announced his defection officially from the party where he was the flagbearer on Monday to join the newly formed opposition front, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), teaming up with some notable political figures in the country who have made the same move sometime in 2025 to form a strong coalition against the current ruling party under President Bola Tinubu. Suddenly, the momentum is shifting to the coalition known as the ADC.

The former governor of Kano State, who was also a founding member of both the PDP and the All Progressives Congress, marks the fourth time he has changed political parties since the start of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in 1999.  In his formal resignation letter from the NNPP, Senator Kwankwaso announced his exit from the NNPP, citing the need for strategic political realignment. He said, “I wish to formally announce my resignation from the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, with immediate effect.

“I seize this opportunity to express my profound gratitude for the honour and privilege of serving as the party’s national leader and its presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections. Making this choice was difficult, given my genuine dedication and loyalty to the party.

Explaining his decision to join the new coalition, Senator Kwankanso said his movement to the ADC was a consideration of the new political landscape and the tendency to change the narrative in the 2027 general elections. “However, considering the current trajectory of the nation’s political landscape, which calls for strategic realignment, I have found it necessary to identify with another political platform that offers the best opportunity to effectively change the nation.”

As a result, many analysts now predict that the new opposition coalition could challenge the APC in the 2027 election. That can only be correct if the party reaches a mutual agreement to have a united front without internal crisis among the key individuals in the party. The management of its primaries and its outcome is therefore crucial.

Regardless, Kwankwaso’s move can serve as an enhancement to the ADC’s credibility, particularly in the North-West, where his political machinery remains formidable, especially as the 2027 general elections are closing in; the consolidation of alliances suggests that political actors are learning from past fragmentation, which occurred in the 2023 general elections. The opposition’s failure to unite effectively in previous cycles has often benefited incumbents. A more coordinated front, if it materialises, could alter that equation.

Apart from the defection of Senator Kwankanso to ADC, there have been indications that the three Senators from Kaduna state, Lawal Adamu Usman, Khalid Ibrahim Mustapha, and Sunday Marshall Katung, are also on the verge of moving to the ADC to join forces with the train of the opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Likewise, there are signals that the Lagos State governorship candidate of the ADC in 2023, Funso Doherty, is planning to return to the party after he resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party. If this materialises, this wave could extend beyond traditional power blocs to include technocratic and policy-driven voices seeking a more viable political platform and put pressure on the APC in Lagos State.

A former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoanka, has resigned his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He attended the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja at the weekend.

Because of defections, the APC now has a two-thirds majority to pass bills in the two chambers of the National Assembly. Down the line, there have been movements of party leaders and supporters, especially from the smaller opposition parties to the APC.

While defection is not a new phenomenon in the Nigerian political system, as politicians defect from one political party at the sight of more juicy offers from another political party, the current wave of political movement across parties is neither incidental nor surprising. On the other hand, it reflects a system in which political parties often lack deep ideological roots, functioning instead as vehicles for electoral ambition.

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