By Oguwike Nwachuku
In the past two weeks, defections by Governors, Senators and House of Representatives members have dominated national political discourse.
What makes it more interesting is that most of those who defected were members of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) who are dumping it in droves for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Before the latest defections, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had exited from the APC, citing reasons that suggested the party has derailed from the original template with which it approached Nigerians for support.
Atiku has since rejoined the PDP where he is a founding member and is now a presidential aspirant on its platform.
Samuel Ortom of Benue State was the first Governor in this dispensation to announce he was no longer a member of the APC on Wednesday, July 25. The National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC described it as surprising.
Ortom defected with all his supporters to the PDP, and a few days later, 22 members of the Benue House of Assembly moved out of the APC and joined Ortom in the PDP, leaving behind eight members still battling to impeach him.
Days later, Kwara State Governor, Abdulfattah Ahmed, pulled out with his own supporters from the APC to the PDP. Ahmed was also joined by almost all the local government chairmen in the state.
All of them complained they were no longer getting fair treatment from the government led by the APC.
For now, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has completed the number of Governors who have left the APC when on Wednesday, August 1 at a well-attended rally in Sokoto, he announced he was no longer a member of the APC.
Tambuwal also left for the PDP with his supporters.
All three governors – Ortom, Ahmed and Tambuwal – pitched their tent with the PDP which they left about four years ago prior to the 2015 election.
Senate President Bukola Saraki’s defection is perhaps the mother of recent defections given his position in the APC and his clout in the country. It was Saraki’s exit from the APC on Tuesday, July 31 that jolted the party and made it begin to seek measures to halt further movements.
A few days later, APC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi (Saraki’s benefactor/crony) also threw in the towel, saying he was no longer trusted to discharge his duties by the party leadership because of political activities in his home state of Kwara.
It was the defections that rocked the National Assembly (NASS) – Senate and the House of Representatives – earlier in the week that signaled the subsequent gale of defections.
In the Senate, the defection left the APC in deficit of 14 Senators, while the casualty figure in the House of Representatives was 37.
The defections were considered a big blow to the APC by political analysts given that election year is around the corner. Forget that President Muhammadu Buhari and APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, see no big deal in the defections.
A demonstration of the extent of hurt the Senators’ defections caused the APC could be felt when APC Senate Majority Leader, Ahmad Lawan, tried fruitlessly to stop their movement while plenary was on.
House of Representatives Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, called a press conference to counsel his colleagues not to panic, assuring that the APC is still in control of the Lower Chamber.
The efforts made by Lawan and Gbajabiamila showed how hurting the defections were.
Their interventions were quite genuine because both men understand what it means to lose a party member, not to talk of members who have the capacity to do damage to the success of a party at the polls.
That Buhari held a very crucial meeting with all APC Senators on Wednesday, July 25 underscores how fearful the party has become ahead of 2019 elections, more so as Saraki, a key figure in the party, was absent.
Saraki’s absence really heightened the fear of a party in disarray notwithstanding the grandstanding by Buhari and Oshiomhole.
Saraki was bidding his time in the APC going by events in the days preceding his own defection.
Though he presided over Senate plenary where 14 Senators defected to opposition political parties, and never betrayed any feeling of intent to quit the APC, only a fool would assume Saraki was still part of them.
It is obvious that House of Representatives member from Kano State, Abdulmumin Jibrin, did not know what awaited his party a fortnight ago when he appeared on national television pontificating where the Presidency will go in 2023.
Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television featured Jibrin among guests on Sunday Politics to examine the political situation as it relates to the APC and its chances of retaining power.
Jibrin spoke with such confidence and vehemence that the APC will win a landslide and that Buhari will retain power in 2019. He is not the only APC member who feels so.
He reiterated what those I call politically naïve persons have been saying regarding the votes Buhari got in 2015 which they think are still there for him next year.
Many in the APC had bragged that those votes Buhari got in 2015 remain intact for him to pick in 2019. They failed to take into cognisance what time and space can do in human activity in a dynamic society.
But exuding such confidence that obviously was accentuated by the klieg light in a television studio, Jibrin posited like those before him that the over 12 million votes Buhari won in the North in 2015 are kept somewhere for him to pick up.
He reiterated that the 25 states where Buhari led in 2015 remain untouchable for him despite the ragging dissatisfaction among APC members that seem to be tearing it apart.
In justifying his hypothesis Jibrin insisted that there is no credible and strong candidate in any other political party who can withstand Buhari in 2019.
Rounding off his sermon, he said after Buhari has done two terms, power will return to the South in 2023 and the South West will produce Buhari’s successor.
What Jibrin said about power returning to the South West, assuming Buhari wins in 2019 and ends his tenure in 2023, was not the only thing that caught my attention.
The manner he put it as if the 2019 election had been held and Buhari emerged winner is suspect. What arrogance!
Jibrin’s posturing on who wins in 2019 and who succeeds the winner in 2023, when juxtaposed with what transpired in the governorship election in Ekiti State in July 2018 that produced Kayode Fayemi as the winner, rankles.
In Ekiti, vote buying was not only part of the exercise, allegations of intimidation by federal security agents are still rife. Many believe a similar thing is being planned for Osun State governorship poll next month.
It was surprising hearing Jibrin saying things like “Buhari already has more than 12 million votes in his kitty ahead of the 2019 election.” You ask, how?
Before Jibrin, Senator Ali Ndume had spoken to Daily Sun in an interview as if it was a mistake for someone from the South South to rule Nigeria. He was referring to Goodluck Jonathan.
Hausa/Fulani Northern political leaders, including their academics, do not hide their derision for other ethnic nationalities as a people less human.
As far as Jibrin is concerned, which is the thinking of the Hausa/Fulani, there are no people of worth anywhere in this country to rule over them.
They speak with such arrogant master mentality as if they have a court injunction that places other ethnic nationalities on perpetual exclusion from political leadership.
As far as the likes of Jibrin are concerned, those who are not Hausa/Fulani are even enjoying so much freedom of speech such that it dents their master/servant relation psyche.
Ordinarily, one would not have bathed an eyelid over the recent mass defections shaking the foundations of the APC, but they are interesting because they teach Jibrin and his type some lessons as they pontificate over 2023 power shift.
Democracy thrives better where there is mutual respect for one another, harmonious participation without intimidation, freedom of speech and association, obedience to the rule of law, and trust.
Growing up, we learnt of how Nigeria always stands on a tripod – Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Political parties in the Republics gone by did a lot to ensure that participation in governance was in line with the numerous ethno-cultural and religious backgrounds of the country.
That is no more the case today because recent administrations delight in planting in the land the seed of divide and rule, hatred and intimidation, against what the governments before now preached and practised. How bad!
Rather than the old system that ensured equity in governance, what we experience today is conspiracy by a few people from select ethnic nationalities who see themselves as political gladiators who plot to perpetually subjugate others.
Whether for the APC, PDP or any other party yet to assume power at the centre, the defections will continue to be what they are meant to achieve – keep the Igbo race perpetually out of power at the highest level.
It is 19 years already since the return to civilian rule, but the highest the Igbo have attained in national leadership is the office of Senate President during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s era.
Yet, some even believe the position is too big or sensitive for the Igbo. Funny enough, the conspirators did not have any qualms tagging the Jonathan era as the Igbo era because that serves their intention well.
That explains why the Buhari government was designed ab initio to sideline the Igbo from critical decision making, notwithstanding the few Igbo masquerading as leaders in the APC without access to Buhari and his co-conspirators against Igbo interest.
The audacity with which the likes of Jibrin parcel the Presidency to the South West even before the 2019 election shows that the conspiracy is deep-seated.
Mistreatment of fellow party members often precipitate defections. Inter and intra-party squabbles have caused defections from one party to another, among other reasons.
All known politicians of worth in Nigeria are associated with defection.
Did Buhari not move from the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to the CPC and to APC?
What of Tinubu? Did he not move from the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and, finally, to the APC?
Those who see political metamorphosis of the parties as not designed to achieve defection must remember that some politicians have stayed put in one party and will still not move.
If the parties they belong to and eventually migrate from have ideologies why quit?
If you are traveling in your vehicle and it develops a problem, is the right thing not to fix the problem and continue with your journey assuming the destination is important to you rather than throw the vehicle away?
Many have lost count with the number of times Saraki, Atiku, Tambuwal, Ortom, Ahmed, Rochas Okorocha, Ken Nnamani, Chris Ngige, Barnabas Gemade, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and numerous other politicians have defected from one party to another.
There is no guarantee they have reached their destination because they behave like those traveling to no where in particular because of how defective their intentions are.
Why some move on their own, others are made to move by their benefactors to keep some people out of power for as long as they breathe.
The question Nigerians should be asking is whether the movements are in their interest or in that of selfish, greedy, mischievous, wicked and unconscionable politicians and their associates.
My worry is for the poor Nigerian electorate who celebrate defection as though it will add value to their lives. It will not. Defections are never in the interest of the masses but in the interest of politicians, their families and associates.
The defections are partly for 2019 but majorly for the 2023 contest. They show how ready or not our politicians are to build political parties on ideology rather than for selfish considerations.
For as long as the defections are geared towards providing a platform to contest and win elections, so shall we continue to go round the circle every four years because there will always be room for politicians to be dissatisfied because of their selfish inclination.
Many of the politicians move from one party to another because they are not ready to keep to agreement for political offices on zoning in their state or constituency. Some defect to get a platform to run for President or Governor.
Yet, others defect to ply their political mischief to another level.
At the end, they are all working for the destruction of our democracy as no true democracy functions well without political ideology.