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It is the season of political alignments and realignments and politicians from across the divide are beginning to weigh their options and pitch their tents where they feel that their bread is buttered.
Given the general perception of Nigeria’s brand of politics as stomach-based, it is not surprising that the party in power, the All Progressives Congress (APC), is so far the biggest gainer in the gale of defection hitting across the country.
The defections have largely been a two-way traffic between the ruling APC and the major opposition, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), with the former receiving a lion’s share of the defectors.
Recently, however, a new wave of defection is beginning to happen, which analysts say may be the long-awaited game-changer in Nigeria’s political equation.
Barely a week ago, Jerry Gana, a former information minister, Tunde Adeniran, a former education minister, and Godsday Orubebe, a former Niger Delta minister, all founding members of the PDP, moved to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which is merging with the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and People’s Salvation Party (PSP) to form a formidable party ahead of next year’s elections.
The move, reminiscent of the massive exodus of the pre-2015 New-PDP movement by aggrieved members of PDP which later merged with the APC, comes on the back of failed efforts by the PDP to placate party members who felt short-changed during the party’s last elective national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
At the convention, Adeniran was defeated in a bitter PDP chairmanship election by Uche Secondus, who was backed by Nyesom Wike, Rivers State governor.
Sources say more PDP chieftains may yet join the defectors.
With reports emerging that the former President Olusegun Obasanjo-inspired Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) is in talks with the SDP to work together, analysts say the SDP may yet prove to be the third force that has been touted to be a dire necessity to save the country from the failures of the PDP and APC.
A recent marathon meeting/negotiation between the aggrieved party chieftains and the leadership of SDP ended with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the coalescing groups in Abuja.
In the MoU, the groups agreed to work together “to ensure the emergence of a new and credible political order to deepen democracy, good governance and genuine development, with peace, security and social justice” and to build “(a) a restructured, balanced equitable and truly functional Nigerian Federation; (b) a humane, free, self-reliant and democratic society; (c) a dynamic, productive, transformed and sustainable economy; (d) a just, fair, egalitarian and peaceful nation; (e) a land of bright and full of opportunities for all Nigerians; and (f) a national culture of raising good leaders through effective mentoring.”
Before now, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had last November left the APC and returned to the PDP fold to nurture his presidential ambition.
Since then, the wind of defection has never ceased to blow across the country, from Ebonyi to Edo, Rivers to Katsina, Lagos to Niger, Enugu to Kebbi, Adamawa to Plateau, and many more.
In November last year, Martin Elechi, former governor of Ebonyi State under the PDP, his wife, Josephine Elechi, Solomon Onwe, a former deputy national chairman of the party, and about 6,000 others were received into the APC fold by Join Odigie-Oyegun, APC national chairman.
Other defectors included Edward Nkwoagu, Labour Party governorship candidate in the state in 2015, some former senators, former House of Representatives members, commissioners, special assistants, permanent secretaries and local government chairmen who served under Elechi.
Late December, Nyesom Wike, Rivers State governor, received hundreds of APC decampees from Opobo-Nkoro Local Government Area at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
In January, the Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) dealt a big blow to the PDP camp in the state as major PDP heavyweights, including Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, member representing Egor/Ikpoba Okha Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, and Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, a former gubernatorial aspirant of the PDP, alongside their loyalists and supporters, dumped the umbrella and embraced the broom.
They were welcomed by Godwin Obaseki, Edo State governor, who said their joining the APC had further swelled the ranks of the party to become an indomitable force in the state.
Adams Oshiomhole, immediate past governor, on his part boasted that the action of the decampees to Edo APC reinforced the total clearing and cleansing of the opposition in the state.
“Together, we will sweep whatever is left out of Edo State and Delta. Comrades, we have secured Edo State, now we must advance to Delta. In the spirit of Bendel, which was governed by the late Samuel Ogbemudia, we must carry more brooms to Asaba and sweep all the way to Warri and install an APC governor in Asaba, so that the resources of Asaba can be used for the benefit of Deltans,” Oshiomhole bragged.
Also in January, the APC in Kebbi State formally received Usman Nasamu Dakingari, a former governor of the state, his deputy, and 267,000 decampees from PDP, including three former chairmen of PDP in the state, former lawmakers, commissioners, former local government chairmen and top government officials in the Dakingari administration in the state.
Dakingari, who was governor of Kebbi State for eight years under the umbrella of the PDP, said his move into the APC was to help the party to move Kebbi and the nation forward.
Similarly, the APC in Etche Local Government Area, Rivers State received 1,018 decampees from PDP and ACD in an event that was witnessed by Chibuike Amaechi, immediate past governor of the state and Minister of Transportation.
In February in Minna, Odigie-Oyegun received 34,826 members of the PDP who defected to the APC in Niger State. Among the defectors were Aminu Yusuf, deputy chairman of the PDP in the state, Adamu Usman, a former Speaker of the State Assembly, and Abdullahi Wuse, a former Attorney-General, who said they joined the APC to assist in developing the state.
In some states of the federation, the wind is blowing in the opposite direction as APC’s loss becomes PDP’s gain.
In February, the PDP in Plateau State received over 2,400 decampees from APC in Kampani Zurak, Bashar District of Wase LGA of the state amid smiles, wild jubilation and celebration among the PDP folks.
The decampees, who spoke through their chairman, Salisu Jarman Kampani, accused the broom party of “inability to fulfil its campaign promises, deception, lack of clear direction, gross incompetence, social injustices, inability to curb the incessant killings and selective fight against corruption”.
More than 3,400 members of the APC in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State also defected to the PPD, complaining of neglect and hardship in their former party.
Similarly, Felix Obuah, chairman of PDP in Rivers State, received 1,000 defectors from APC to the PDP, including Ngerebia Emmanuel, APC state ex-officio member and president, Nkoro Solidarity Forum, in an event that took place at Opobo Town, in Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area of the state.
In the same month in Enugu, over 2,000 members of the APC in Igbo Eze North Local Government Area of the state defected to PDP.
In Bayelsa State, Tarila Tebepah, a professor and former chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC), Hon. Stephen Erebor, former Commissioner, Bayelsa West Senatorial district, and Augustine Lugbenwei, onetime chairman, Brass Local Government Council, were among over 6,000 people who defected to PDP and were received at theGovernment House, Yenagoa, by Seriake Dickson, the State governor.
Adamawa State also saw Ahmed Ali Gulak, a former adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan on political matters, and others defect from PDP to join APC in February, accusing that PDP of impunity, injustice and lack of internal democracy.
Gulak said 42,000 members of PDP across the 21 local government areas of the state, including the entire structures of his former party, were defecting with him to join the APC, signalling that “the PDP is destroyed and buried”.
The wind of defection also recently blew in Katsina State, where big names like Senator Ibrahim Idah (PDP), Hon. Ya’u Umar Gwajo-Gwajo, former Speaker under PDP, Alh. Bature Umar Masari, former Director General, PDP Katsina State Campaign Organization for 2015 General elections, and Hon. Musa Adamu Funtua, former state Commissioner for Agriculture under PDP government, bade goodbye to their former party.
Other decampees included Dr. Yusha’u Armaya’u, former chairman of People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), and 34 local government executives; Alh. Ibrahim Abdullahi Tsauri of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and his supporters, and 264 councillors of the PDP defunct local government administration.
Ahead of the March 10 date for the reception of the defectors into APC in Katsina, the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the state accused the APC of wooing decampees with public funds running into billions.
Just last Thursday, Moshood Salvador, Lagos State PDP chairman, received into the party decampees from ruling APC, Accord and Kowa Party, at a function in Oregun.
The decampees included Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a former KOWA local government chairmanship aspirant.
APC is currently in control of 24 out of the 36 states of the federation.
The story is similar in most other states of the federation, even as strong indications have emerged that some APC governors, senators and members of the House of Representatives who are dissatisfied with events in the ruling party have cut a deal with the PDP with a view to joining the umbrella party.
Sources claiming insider knowledge of the details say Nigerians would be shocked by the calibre of APC members that would dump the party for the PDP and that the defection that would happen in the National Assembly would be so huge that the power configuration would change. These defections, they say, may happen latest by May.
“By the time federal lawmakers move to the PDP, I can tell you that the PDP will constitute the majority. They are joining us in preparation for the 2019 general elections,” said the source.
But as the wind of defection continues to blow across the nation, analysts are wondering whether these are based on ideological leanings or the usual self-serving antics of politicians.
Political observers are asking whose interest, ultimately, the defections will serve – Nigerians or politicians? Many say they have also adopted a wait-and-see approach as events unfold, adding that whether or not these moves will significantly alter the balance of power in 2019 is still buried deep in the womb of time.
CHUKS OLUIGBO
