Less than two years to the next round of the general election in Nigeria, politicians are increasingly making up stories to create situations of crises in their parties to justify their defection.
They are employing all manner of ‘monkey tactics” to strategise for future positions and for “endless enjoyment” at the detriment of the masses. This has been the pattern in the last few years.
Many of them currently holding elective or appointive positions, who may have considered their chances of re-election/re-appointment very remote, are beginning to jump ship, defecting to the ruling party, having obtained promises of secured return ticket or bigger positions in government in 2023.
Ambrose (Gwinett) Bierce, 1842-1914, American writer, said: “Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”
When Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State dumped the party that had made him everything he ever is in politics, he blackmailed the party.
He claimed that his singular reason was that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had refused to zone the Presidency to the South-East geo-political zone.
He expressed the optimism that the All Progressives Congress (APC) he defected to would zone the slot to South East. But his critics were quick to say that he was eyeing the Presidency, and thought decamping to the APC could brighten his chances.
It was the same story when Ben Ayade, governor of Cross River State, exited the PDP recently. He complained that internal wrangling drove him away.
Upon his exit, the governor tried to erase everything that connected him with the umbrella association, and to prove he so much love the new group he now embraced, he drove the PDP away from their state secretariat and willed it to the APC, a development that did not go down well with many people in the state.
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Before Ayade’s defection, some individuals and groups had continued to cajole him to take the state to the mainstream, for possible benefits from Abuja. Like, Umahi, Ayade is a two-time governor, who is constitutionally serving his last tenure as governor.
Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara State, a few weeks ago also dealt the unkindest cut on the PDP. Recall that in 2019, following the internal wrangling in the APC, the court nullified all the elections won by the party in the state, and ruled in favour of the PDP. It was on that strength that Matawalle rode to power.
When the rumour of his defection became deafening, the leadership of the PDP threatened to go to court to challenge him if he made good his exit.
They contended that the APC should not reap where it never sowed, and that since the Court of law ruled that APC had no candidate in the state in 2019, it would be tantamount to robbery for the party now to become the ruling party in the state through the back door.
But for those who had followed Matawalle’s activities and utterances, his physical exit from the party was not surprising. Recall that while he was still with PDP, he had severally engaged Governor Samuel Ortom in slanging matches over the killings in Benue State.
Matawalle felt that Ortom’s indictment of the Presidency was becoming too much; so, he literally arrogated to himself the position of the spokesman of Aso Rock.
Some of the state’s representatives at the National Assembly that decamped with Matawalle, also claimed that there were crises in the party.
Speculations are also rife that some other governors of the PDP may soon jump ship. Critics say that apart from seeking future appointments, the decampees may also be seeking refuge in a party that claimed to fight corruption but has openly declared that whosoever joins it would have his/her sins forgiven.
A few days ago, seven members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) tendered their resignation, citing inclement political weather in the party.
This happened despite the efforts of the leadership of the party and the governors elected on that platform, battling to save the umbrella association from implosion.
Although Austin Akobundu, a retired Colonel, and national organising secretary of the party, said those who resigned were inconsequential and mere deputies and not substantive heads of departments, the development is also a minus to the party.
Those who resigned were deputy national financial secretary, deputy legal adviser, deputy national auditor, deputy national publicity secretary, deputy women leader and deputy organising, secretary. They were said to have complained about “an unpleasant working environment.”
A matter of hours after announcing her resignation as a member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) Senator Joy Emordi defected to the APC.
She was formally received by Mai Mala Buni, chairman APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).
But describing Emordi’s comment as “unfortunate and disappointing”, Noel Ayo, a public affairs commentator, said for the senator, who became everything she is today on the PDP platform, to say the kind of things she said during her meeting with APC leadership in Abuja shows the character flaws of many Nigerian politicians.
Ayo said: “Her choice of words rankled. We have been in Nigeria in the last six years, and have followed what has been happening. Where did she see the ‘sincerity and genuine commitment of the APC to a united Nigeria that has plans for the future generation’?
“It was also insulting for the Senator to have claimed that ‘The APC-led Federal Government is working for the South East and this is attracting more PDP members into APC’. Why have we descended so low in this country? One thing they all forget is that power, position and money are ephemeral. No matter what they do, they cannot carry anything out of this world when the time comes.”
Last month, some prominent members of the PDP in Abia State left the party for the APC. Some of them are close allies of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, fueling allegation that he, too, may be on his way out, as had been speculated recently.
Like a commentator noted recently, what rankles most is the false claim often being made by defectors who had benefitted maximally from their former parties, and the bad-mouthing of the parties just to justify their reason(s) for living.
For such, perhaps, Aristophanes, a former Greek playwright, said: “You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.”
There is nothing new in the Nigerian brand of politics and the crop of politicians the country breeds- Fairweather political actors!
Defection has always been an instrument Nigerian politician uses to prospect for higher posts on other platforms.
Many of those calling the shots in the PDP at the moment have at one time or the other dumped the PDP and also returned because of their own political calculations.
But the ruling All Progressives Congress is also assailed by internal wrangling; yet, not many people are leaving the party.
Defections from the broom party are not common because the aggrieved members are hanging in there with the hope that remaining with the APC, no matter how fractured at the moment, is better than jumping ship.
In Nigeria, the first law in politics is “self.” That is why every politician sees it as a business, and that accounts for the winning-by-all-means that characterises elections in the country.
As the nation inches towards the 2023 general election, there would be more defections. In fact, a few months to the election, when President Muhammadu Buhari’s power in office must have begun to wane, the APC may begin to implode.
The country would begin to witness alignment and re-alignment of forces. The aggrieved in the APC, whose interests in the party are refused to be accommodated, would begin to seek refuge in other parties, to remain relevant.
Are we likely to see splinter APC groups like what happened in 2019 when we had NewPDP and other assorted groups? Time will tell.
