The rate at which politicians and political office holders are defecting from one political party to another in recent times is alarming.
The trend seems to call to question the place of ideology
By Wale Sadeeq
The rate at which politicians and political office holders are defecting from one political party to another in recent times is alarming.
The trend seems to call to question the place of ideology among the political class.
From the Senate through the House of Representatives to state houses of assembly and even among party chieftains, it appears like a season of defections, with each defector adducing reasons, whether genuine or frivolous, for ditching his/her political party for another.
First to announce his defection in the 10th National Assembly was Sen. Onyewuchi Ezenwa, representing Imo East Senatorial District.
Ezenwa, who got to the Senate on the platform of Labour Party, moved to APC, reportedly preparatory to contesting the governorship election in Imo.
Only recently, a member of the National Assembly, Sen. Ned Nwoko, representing Delta North Senatorial District, also resigned his membership of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Nwoko highlighted the current state of PDP, including its internal crises and instability to justify his defection to APC.
The senator said that part of the reasons for dumping PDP was that the Delta Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori and a former governor of the state, Ifeanyi Okowa, did not give him space to function.
Indeed, Nwoko did not only leave PDP; in a correspondence read by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, he urged the upper legislative chamber to constitute an ad hoc committee to investigate the ongoing crisis within the party.
The senator, while addressing stakeholders and party supporters in Agbor, said that his defection was not for political interest, personal gains or electoral ambitions.
He said that he took the decision based on his desire to align with a platform that prioritises good governance, economic development and the overall welfare of the people of Delta North and Nigeria at large.
Other lawmakers, particularly from the House of Representatives, soon followed in the gale of defections that has hit the national legislature.
They included Chinedu Okere (Owerri Municipal/Owerri North/Owerri West Federal Constituency) and Mathew Donatus from Kaura Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, who both moved from Labour Party to APC.
Others were Akiba Bassey (Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency of Cross River), Esosa Iyawe (Oredo Federal Constituency of Edo) and Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu.
Amos Magaji, representing Zangon/Kataf Federal Constituency of Kaduna State and Salisu Koko, representing Koko-Besse/Maiyama Federal Constituency of Kebbi State also ditched PDP for APC in the lower legislative chamber.
They all attributed their defections to the crises in their former political parties.
While their defections were celebrated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and many lawmakers, especially those from APC, their colleagues in the opposition parties cried foul, condemning their actions.
The Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, countered the defections, citing Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as prescribing the consequences for defection.
Chinda quoted the section as saying that once a lawmaker defects to another political party, such a lawmaker will lose his/her seat in the legislature.
His point of order was not only met with shouts of disapproval from many of his colleagues; he was also urged by the speaker to channel his point of order to the appropriate quarters in writing.
Also, a prominent pro-democracy activist and former senator, Shehu Sani and 49 other prominent politicians in Kaduna State, recently defected to APC.
Those who defected along with Sani were former Gov. Ramalan Yero and Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi, the governorship candidate of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the 2023 governorship election in the state.
Others were Sani Sha’aban, former Sen. Danjuma Laah, a former PDP National Organising Secretary, Abubakar Mustapha and a former Nigerian envoy to South Korea, Sule Buba.
Perhaps, one striking thing about the gale of defections was that virtually all the defectors moved from their respective former political parties to the ruling APC.
No wonder, former Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State derisively told the defectors that their actions were driven by stomach infrastructure.
Tambuwal, who spoke the North-West PDP national executive council (NEC) meeting held recently in Kaduna, said no politician with a conscience would join APC, said those defecting to the ruling party were driven by “stomach infrastructure”.
However in a swift reaction, APC said that Tambuwal, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, lacked the moral standing to attack those who have decided to pitch their tents with it.
APC Spokesperson, Felix Morka, in a reaction, described Tambuwal as a “notorious and vainglorious party defector” who should not be insulting those joining the ruling party.
According to Morka, the former Sokoto State governor’s “itinerant defections” from one party to another are also driven by “stomach infrastructure”.
Also, Osita Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), took on Tambuwal, saying that the wave of defection from PDP stemmed from the party’s breach of the president’s rotational arrangement and Section 7 of its constitution.
Okechukwu, a founding member of APC, also said that PDP members were leaving because the party had been ‘demobilised, irretrievably wrecked and ineffective’ in playing its traditional role as the main opposition party.
However, a Political Scientist, Prof. Abubakar Oladeji, described the rate of defections by politicians as a true reflection of their characters.
Oladeji, who is the Head, Political and Governance Policy Department, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, likened many Nigerian politicians to fish which cannot survive outside water.
“Many of Nigerian politicians are the same; it is only their nomenclatures that distinguish them.
“A politician can wake up this morning as a member of APC and by evening, he is already in PDP,’’ he said.