By Mike Kebonkwu
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has become a sanctum with charming talisman; the pool, brook and oasis in the desert, and a place of rest. The party is becoming a platform and gathering place to appease the gods, and undergo ritual baths to exorcise political impurities.
Nothing captures Nigeria’s political scenario better than the song of the three witches in ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare, “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” That was the esoteric enchantment of the three witches in the coven while preparing their spell, and a warning also to Macbeth of the ominous signs ahead. Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Nigeria should also not ignore the ominous signs ahead. The year 2027, the next election cycle, is fast approaching and politicians are busy scheming on how to secure viable platforms and positions. There are alliances, re-alignments and merger talks with even politically strange fellows.
The major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been on its knees and in disarray, unable to organise itself after the last general election in 2023. It is sinking deeper in the mire, and engaged in self-destructive squabbles. There is a gale of defection to the APC, the only party with relative stability and tolerable leadership ready for the next election. Many people are worried that the nation may slip into a one-party state. So what? Why would anyone be losing sleep over that, if you ask me? There is no need to be whining and belly-aching that the nation might become a one-party state.
We should rather be concerned about higher ideals regarding the integrity of our electoral system. Let all politicians defect to the ruling party, or any other party of their choice, if they like, but let the votes of the people count. Let the elections be credible, free, fair and transparent and let the politicians go to the polls and test their popularity.
Nigeria remains a constitutional multi-party democracy. The politician lacks principle and vacillates like the ocean and angry weather, coasting only to wherever his bread is buttered. This is also because our party system is not driven by any known or defined political ideology or philosophy. The parties just exist as purpose-driven machines to win elections and capture power.
Thus, when that purpose can no longer be achieved in one party, the politician would simply code-switch and move to the next viable party, abandoning the party that brought them to power. This has been the trend and tradition. There is no honour, no virtue and no integrity in politics; it is power qua power. Whenever the vehicle or airplane breaks down and can no longer take you to your destination, just change the machine; ala the Akwa Ibom State governor’s theory, while endorsing Mr President for 2027. The politician would rather go and buy a slot in another party than fix his party’s problems. Don’t maintain your vehicle, and don’t fix your machine!
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The credibility of the electoral system and the electoral umpire should be our concern and headache. If it is your business to worry that the country would become a one-party state, then go and organise and run your party properly; you are all part of the problem. Honest, modest and credible leaders should be elected to run institutions of government, not winebibbers and tempestuous individuals who behave like emperors that will rock the boat in troubled waters.
Then comes the melodrama in Delta State The governor, his entire cabinet and party structures in the state defected to the ruling APC in a colourful ceremony. The PDP has been beaten black and blue with the ground yielding under its feet as the party loses serially their support base in the South-south region, the nerve centre of the party. The party is dazed and disoriented and counting its wares in single digit; River State is gone; Delta is gone; and the engine room of Akwa Ibom State is roaring into life and steaming; and it is only a matter of time.
The reasons for the defections are legion; the party lacks ideological clarity. There is no internal democracy; and indiscipline, greed, selfishness and corruption, among others, are tearing the party apart at the seams.
What about the constitutional provision or position on defection? The application of the law is fluid and susceptible to abuse by manipulative politicians and a corrupt judiciary. The court, therefore, found itself also vacillating in stamping its authority on what the constitution says on defection. These are the reasons for the harlotry and prostitution by politicians which they get away with lightly leaving the people short- changed.
In any case, there is really no difference between those people in APC today and PDP; they are all sired by the same progenitor. People are also defecting for fear that they might soon become guests of the anti-graft agencies due to having helped themselves to the public till. We have an undisciplined political class that operates like locusts, ravaging every green plant on its way and leaving the country anaemic. They, therefore, need security of their loot and malfeasance.
The APC is waving the magic wand and there is a plague of defection; the politicians understand the game; join the winning party and every other thing will be added unto you. The alternative is that the sword of Damocles might just be hanging over your head!
The PDP does not deserve our sympathies. For 16 solid years, it bestrode our world and political landscape like a colossus, vaunting itself as Africa’s largest party poised to be in power in the next 60 years. Lo and behold, the party came crashing like a pack of cards and none of those former governors and ministers who lived large like emperors could help or rescue the party.
One would have been surprised if Dr Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, former governor of Delta State, did not defect and join the APC, not with his ordeal at the hands of the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over alleged massive corruption and theft of public funds belonging to his state. He has an example in his boss, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has been in virtually all the political parties that would offer him a platform to pursue his dream to become the president of Nigeria.
The former APC Chairman, Adams Aliyu Oshomole, was probably right when he admonished the politicians that if they joined the APC, their “sins” would be forgiven. Becoming an APC member is a transition from purgatory and rosary of penitence to political sainthood and liberty.
Governor Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, the current chief executive of Delta State, has not done anything unusual. As the Ika people of Delta State would say, ‘when the mother goat is plucking leaves, the young one will be watching.’ He is a very good student and has been watching his godfathers so that he does not become a guest to the EFCC sooner or later, before the ship enters turbulent waters.
The politician is always driven by appetite and self-preservation, which the former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, called “stomach infrastructure.” Delta State, since the beginning of the Third Republic, had been a PDP state; it is a state with tradition. Let us wait and see if the people will jump on the bandwagon with their defecting governor and party structure.
Elected governors and political party structures are not one and the same thing as the people, the electorate who choose who to represent them under any political party. Politicians can defect for all they care but that does not translate to herd movement of the people with them to their new platforms. The people are not zombies. The people chose and elected governors, the governors did not choose the people and cannot move them like chattels to achieve political objectives in a free contest.
If a free, fair and credible election is delivered come 2027, we will soon see the rump of the fowl as the breeze blows. Rather than lamentation over defection, those who care should organise themselves and mobilise to form a formidable opposition and challenge the status quo, and do things differently instead of the hysteria about the country becoming a one-party state.
•Kebonkwu, a lawyer, writes from Abuja
