Political Defections: A Desperate Political Class And The Shame Of A Nation (PHOTOS)

The Nigerian political firmament is filled with men and women whose desperation for power has practically brought the country to its knees. 

In their quest to occupy political offices, retain their seats or remain relevant in the scheme of things, the politicians employ so many underhand tactics to undermine the rule of law, manipulate regulatory bodies, compromise security agencies and deceive the electorates.

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Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, one major occurrence that has repeated itself in the political space is the defection of politicians and their supporters from one political party to another.

The major pattern of the political defections is usually politicians from the opposition joining the government in power, when the reverse is the case, the politicians are either aggrieved or have not been fully ‘compensated’ by the government in power based on their own estimation.

Since the political tide in Nigeria changed after the 2015 elections, politicians have once again started the wave of defections. While some are moving to the All Progressives Congress (APC) being the new ruling party at the federal level, others are decamping to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) especially in states where the PDP is the government of the day.

Bayo Olupohunda, Naij.com columnist, yesterday, January 19, opined that at the rate politicians defect from one party to another, it won’t be long before Nigeria is turned into a one-party state.

On her part, former member of the House of Representatives and veteran broadcaster, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, described the mass exodus of defections witnessed recently as a show of shame.

A Lagos-based public relations expert, Adeolu Isadiran stated that Nigerian politicians lack ideology and respect for their party’s philosophy.

Speaking to Naij.com today, January 20, Isadiran said: ”A politician that has a solid ideology will stay put in his or her party and show faith to make things work. How many times do you hear of an American politician in the Democrats cross-carpet to the Repulicans?” he queried.

The defections have been prominent in Ondo state. This is understandable as residents of the state will soon be heading to the polls in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the South-west state to elect their preferred candidate.

Late last year, two former supporters of Ondo state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, and Dr Pius Osunyikanmi, dumped the PDP for the APC.

While Osunyikanmi was Mimiko’s personal assistant as commissioner for health under former governor, late Adebayo Adefarati, Akinyelure was a senator representing Ondo Central District (Mimiko’s zone) in the 7th National Assembly.

The pair, in a statement released to journalists, said they dumped the PDP because they want to support the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Another state preparing for a gubernatorial contest this year is Edo state. And the state is already living up to its billing as a politically charged state.

On Monday, January 18, no fewer than 500 women in Udaba community, Etsako Central local government area of the state dumped their parties for the PDP. 

The women from the Social Democratic Party and the APC said they were defecting to the party that would take Edo state to a higher level.

In Anambra, Senator Uche Ekwunife stunned political watchers when barely a month after she was dismissed as the senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly by an appeal court sitting in Enugu, dumped the PDP for the APC.

But the controversial defection of Ekwunife from was greeted with repugnance from leaders of the APC as the former senator was shunned by the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun and other members of the National Working Committee when she visited the party national Secretariat in Abuja.

The leadership of the APC had earlier ruled out the admission of billionaire businessman, Prince Arthur Eze and the immediate past governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi from joining the party following unconfirmed rumours that the duo might join the party to contest for the vacant post left by Ekwunife.

The story is the same in Akwa Ibom as a former chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Otu Ita Otoyo, recently defected to the APC alongside a a former senator, Aloysius Etok, and a former member of the House of Representatives, Eseme Eyiboh.

In Enugu state, a former minister of Information, and governor of the old Anambra state, Chief Jim Nwobodo, on Friday, January 8, defected to the APC.

Nwobodo, a former presidential aspirant and senator on the platform of the PDP, announced his defection at a meeting convened by Dr. Geoffrey Onyeama, the foreign affairs minister who is from the state. A former PDP senator from Enugu state, Chief Fidelis Okoro also joined Nwobodo in defecting to the APC.

Nwobodo, who was named by the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, as one of the beneficiary of the controversial arms funds, had denied media reports that he collected N500 million from Ahmed Muazu, former national chairman of the PDP.

Olupohunda stated that with the 2015 elections, fiercely contested by the two parties, he had thought the contest would evolve the much needed democratic culture needed to develop a healthy inter-party competition as seen in advanced democracies such as the United States.

For Isadiran, he advised politicians to emulate the former governor of Lagos and National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who stayed put as an opposition leader before he helped his party wrestle power from the then ruling party, the PDP.

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