The last two weeks witnessed a gale of defections by politicians notably from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to the governing All Progressives Congress(APC). The high water mark of these defections were the fell swoop defections of the Governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwor, and a former Governor of Delta State and the former Vice Presidential running mate of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 General Elections, Ifeanyi Okowa, and many of their supporters.
Defections in Nigerian politics are not new. Their antecedent can be traced to the First Republic when we operated a British-style parliamentary system. The phenomenon was referred to as “cross carpeting”. In spite of this unsavory history, defections have come to define and characterize the politics of the Fourth Republic which encompasses our return to democracy from 1999 up to the present.
Interestingly, the opposition PDP, which previously held sway until 2015, set this unseemly tone by co-opting bigwigs of the opposition on the watch of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua. Subsequently, the APC took this predilection to a new low: it enticed members of the opposition and others facing investigation for alleged corruption by dangling them carrots. A former Chairperson of the APC enticed allegedly corrupt politicians by famously promising that they would be free of their sins if they joined his party.
The latest gale of defections is alleged to be informed, partly, by subtle blackmail and coercion. This allegation is lent credence when we consider that one of the high-profile defectors, until now, was being brow-beaten and hectored by one of the anti-corruption agencies.
It is correct to to argue that these defectors have the right to do so if they choose. After all, our Constitution allows us to associate freely and in an untrammeled fashion. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is a serial defector and whose political standing is supposed to be vitiated by Okowa’s defection, underscored this in his recent remark.
If politicians have the right to defect or to chose which persons to relate with, our defections are informed largely by the need to jump onto a gravy train and a primitive desperation for power. This is best underlined by the languid rationalization offered by former Governor Okowa. He claimed that in hindsight, he ought to have aligned with the interests of his geo-political South South. What took him so long to receive this revelation? Does he want us to seriously subscribe to the notion that he did not give his aspiration to be Vice President any forethought?
In other jurisdictions where politicians are informed by high-minded ideals and well considered principles, it is an uphill task to defect or make the kind of shameless three hundred and sixty degrees turn that our politicians make. In such serious climes, cogent and reasoned explanations will be offered to the citizens or voters. Or the politicians will resign their positions because the platforms they used to secure power were no longer tenable.
Even in the more redeeming Second Republic when there was a semblance of ideological politics, and the political parties were anchored on some modicum of principles, the parties, at the worst of times, were sundered or splintered into factions. The Peoples Redemption Party(PRP) and the Nigerian Peoples Party(NPP) were cases in point. Today’s political parties, except a very few, are mere sucked eggs. They are bereft of belief, principles or moral compass. Worse, the returns on investment in politics in Nigeria is the highest of any enterprise, hence the desperation for office. This desperation is aimed, not at adding value to Nigerians but at feathering the nests of these politicians.
The fact that politicians can defect with ease, and without recourse to their supporters or voters, speaks eloquently either to a lack of respect for Nigerians or to an insult to their intelligence. It also betrays the fact that the overriding considerations for the typical Nigerian politician are power and the lavish perks of office.
If as some of them glibly argue that they are leaving their parties to the governing APC because they are dysfunctional or that they are riven with crises, is the APC, which refuge they desperately seek, a paragon? This is a party, like other defective ones, which does not lay premium on internal democracy. This is a party which scarcely holds meetings of its executive bodies. This is a party which gives its ticket to the highest bidder. And this is a party which is bereft of any succinct or lofty agenda other than state capture.
The APC is thus as guilty, if not more guilty, than the parties they are abandoning.
This writer’s conjecture is that those scrambling for the grace and embrace of the APC do so for two self-seeking reasons: To have their sins glossed over by a party desperate to remain in office and to seamlessly access its ticket in 2027. This may be informed by the calibration that the APC has some of the most pivotal institutions which will facilitate this possibility in its thrall.
But even this calculation may be preposterous or unattainable. Besides, as the well-worn saying goes, only fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Those departing the APC may not be without blemish but they had compelling reasons, informed by the APC’s failings and peccadilloes, to leave. The APC, itself, rather than alleviate Nigeria’s woes, it has worsened them and remains, at best clueless.
Additionally, a scramble which is not adroitly managed can only lead to an implosion. The spooning or dishing out of the gravy could be messy. This is not to mention the greed and vaulting ambition of those jumping onto the APC train.
These defections also take Nigerians for granted. The defectors, and those cajoling them, assume that Nigerians will forever be docile and that they would forbear the misrule and excesses of the APC in perpetuity. There is a word for it. It is called hubris. Hubris often comes before a catastrophic fall.
