By Emeka Alex Duru
I recall the late Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo, in a fit of sarcasm, writing off the political organisations in the country as mere rallies and not political parties.
Not many really understood why he made the blanket dismissal, of course, being one of the political players at the time.
But 15 years after his demise, what Okadigbo saw in the political parties in the country and the politicians, is panning out, increasingly.
Going by a simple definition, a political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections for the purpose of holding power in the government.
In going about the exercise, the party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the collective good of the people and furthering its supporters’ interests.
It is generally agreed that though there are established standards in the way political parties are recognized, and on how they operate, there could be some differences in management. Generally however, political parties operate on identifiable ideologies.
Rallies, on the other hand, are gatherings of people protesting or supporting a cause. They are often adhoc and may not be anchored on any lasting objective.
It is on this ground that the real understanding of Okadigbo’s analogy, would be appreciated. It is also on this basis that the true meaning of the rat race currently going on within the political parties in the country, especially the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), can be properly situated.
Six months to the 2019 general elections, it has been a bazaar of defections from one party to another among elected officials in the legislature and the executive.
And none of these movements, is anchored on principles. None, also takes into consideration, the people factor that should ordinarily be the driving force in the exercise.
On both sides of the defectors – governors or lawmakers, it is all about positioning themselves for 2019 or other strategic considerations.
Incidentally, the 1999 constitutions (as amended), states in explicit terms that for legislators moving from the platforms that brought them to office, they need to resign from the chambers, whether at state or federal levels and re-contest for the seat under his new political party.
Implicit in the prescription is that where a politician who defects fails to do the needful, machinery should be put in motion to make him leave the seat.
But because the parties are complicit in the offence, they have turned blind eyes on the activities of the travellers within their fold.
That is the danger in keeping mute in the face of oddities. When, for instance, at the early stage of the current dispensation, Senator Femi Okorounmu and his other defectors abandoned the Alliance for Democracy (AD) through which they won election to the National Assembly for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), not many took pronounced interest on the creeping tendency that would ultimately wear out Nigeria’s democracy.
It has consequently become the norm, especially in the build-up to major elections. In 2015, the then governors of Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko), Rivers (Rotimi Amaechi), Adamawa (Murtala Nyako), Kwara (Abdulfatah Ahmed) and Kano (Rabiu Kwankwaso), led the pack of members of the executive jumping from PDP to APC.
From the legislature, Senator Bukola Saraki (current Senate President), the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Waziri Aminu (Sokoto State governor), Tambuwal, were the biggest catches by the APC.
Few months to the next election, the rat race has commenced. Saraki has returned to the PDP. Tambuwal has also come back to his former platform. Governor Abdulfatah, has followed the same path. Kwankwaso has done same. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, has also returned to the party.
From the PDP, former Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, erstwhile Senate Minority Leader, has crossed over to APC.
This is the level Nigerian politics has descended to. That is the tragedy of the nation. For a system that staked much to reclaim democracy from the jaws of the military, it was expected that the rule of law would be at the driver’s seat in governance.
But that has not been the case. It is rather, as they say, everybody for himself and God for all. And the electorate, unfortunately, have not helped matters, as they keep on flirting around the defectors, not raising issues on how they have been serially abused and neglected by the leaders. That is the main issue.
