Defections have long defined Nigerian politics, but nowhere are their theatrics more pronounced than in the National Assembly. The pre-2015 era set the stage for chaos: ahead of the 2015 elections, 37 House of Representatives members defected from the PDP to the APC, flipping the lower chamber's majority overnight. The APC surged from 137 to 174 seats; the PDP plummeted from 208 to 171. Yet Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, a PDP member, clung to power—an anomaly made possible by opposition backing, not his own party's support.

The drama persists. Recently, six PDP lawmakers from Delta and one from Plateau jumped to the APC. Three more legislators from Katsina departed from the PDP to the APC, while the Labour Party lost two lawmakers from Enugu to the PDP. In the Senate, a senator from Kano abandoned the NNPP for the APC. Cumulatively, 27 lawmakers have crossed aisles since the 2023 polls: 24 to the APC, one from LP to APGA, and two from LP to PDP.

Today, the APC dominates with 199 House seats; the PDP and LP limp behind at 96 and 32, respectively. These revolving-door politics lay bare a harsh truth: parties are little more than taxis for power-seekers, their ideologies as fleeting as the alliances they forge.

What are the implications? At the federal level, these defections solidify President Bola Tinubu's grip on the legislature. Critics have long described this 10th Assembly as more pliant than a rubber stamp; with these fresh additions to the ruling party, the lawmakers' ability or willingness to check executive recklesness and overreach becomes even more unlikely.

In Delta State, mass migration has effectively aligned the state's executive and legislative branches under the ruling APC banner. Factors such as resource control and proximity to the Federal Government drive this kind of political realignment. As an oil-rich state in the Niger Delta, Delta has been central to the debate over the redistribution of natural resource revenues and the demand for greater control over resource exploitation. These issues have become tools for political bargaining between the Federal Government and the Delta State political elite.

Furthermore, Nigerians should not be surprised that, beyond specious public rhetoric like "supporting President Tinubu's renewed hope agenda," unspoken incentives such as NDDC appointments, oil bloc licenses, and pipeline surveillance contracts influence joining the ruling party.

For the PDP, this represents a significant setback. Having governed Delta since 1999, the party now faces the loss of its gubernatorial influence and one of its last strongholds. The internal fractures that have plagued the party since the contentious 2023 presidential primary continue to deepen.

Looking ahead to the 2027 electoral cycle, the opposition's dwindling bench of elected officials poses a dual challenge. First, it undermines the PDP's capacity to present itself as a credible counterweight and attract quality candidates and mobilise grassroots support. Second, it hands the APC an ever more unified political family, making it increasingly difficult for any rival party to mount a serious challenge. Unless the PDP can resolve its internal rifts and rebuild its state-level structures, it risks sliding further into political oblivion.