President Bola Tinubu will appear to be basking in the euphoria of political pundits’ acclamation of his political wizardry in inducing high profile political party members particularly of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to defect to his ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) just to self-satisfyingly enlarge the base of his government’s support and thereby correspondingly deplete the ranks of the irritable opposition.
The reasoned purpose for unarguably diminishing or negativing the untold sacrifices of the Nigerian people’s struggle in rejecting military rule which for all intents and purposes is a one-perspective rule is unclear.
Today, Tinubu is touted as “the greatest living master of Nigerian politricks” – a pseudonym for political rascality or deviousness. No commentator has drawn attention to a presumed dignity, sincerity or public spiritedness of a nationwide flurry of defections masterminded by the guru himself.
The general atmosphere is one of grim resignation and despair. One commentator has concluded that Tinubu has captivated everyone. The press has responded to the situation with characteristic aloofness. Nevertheless, the mounting criticism of President Tinubu’s imperious reign and of the induced or conduced “carpet crossing” weigh heavily on the conscience of the nation.
No special brilliance may be conceded the supposed success of inviting to the high table of lavishly-laden sumptuous dishes, persons whose hands are dripping with the iniquity of alleged public till mismanagement or who are threatened with duress and incarceration.
Tinubu seems to bestride the Nigerian political space “like a colossus”, forging as much reasonable a peace of the graveyard as conflicting interests allow. It is possible among some Tinubu acolytes that they have the right idea in skeleton form of general principles respecting a proper or reasoned grounding for the blitzkrieg defections which Tinubu may have curtly brushed aside.
Government cabinet members or of the leadership cadre of the party who fail to see that emasculating the opposition is the way to go are beyond the pale, Tinubu seems to reason. So, there is cold silence or unquestioning acquiescence among the herd.
Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of APC is full of egotism and partisanship. Any talk of a contrary position from any quarters regarding how the party is run is foolish as it is necessary for the APC to work out and perfect a compromise before 2027. In any case, the tradition of mordant criticism by party faithful or of a general critical tradition is long gone.
In all of these, only one bright diplomatic triumph may have brightened the atmosphere. Certain leaders of the opposition PDP are rallying the rump of the party just to have a semblance of an official opposition. They have self-congratulatorily put it out in the press that the APC shenanigans are of no moment. How far these self-professed champions of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy respecting multi-partism can go is a matter for conjecture given the nature and nurture of the Nigerian politician.
The seemingly all-pervasive defection gesture appears not to weaken the resolve of the opposition (or what remains of it). It must be borne in mind however that a lot of vigorous work is demanded for reversing the situation. It is not enough to call down or invoke malediction on all those who have used their parties’ gratuitous offices for climbing the ladder of national prominence and are now abusing them. The defining paradox, however, of our new political evangelists against defections is that many of them too at some time or another popularised and justified carpet-crossing. The magnitude of the faux pas this time may be a convenient distinguishing alibi.
One untoward incident has followed another with unrefreshing regularity. First, Ganduje announced four or so governors were about to jump ship. Then certain Senators and members of the House of Representatives gave flailing excuses for an intended change of play shirts. Something that may not have happened in contemporary Nigerian political history debuted thereafter.
A whole governmental and political party structure in Delta State announced their worth in the transfer market as they jettisoned their membership of their erstwhile party, PDP, to cruise in the supersonic APC yacht. No compunction; no pricking of conscience, no remorse.
Once in a while, some political instincts may be helpful or be made one’s directive principles for abjuring an inapt conduct. Thankfully, most of the Nigerian people’s impressions come from the informal press; conversations in the market place, boisterous arguments in the beer parlour, exciting banters at football match viewing centres, and from the rambunctious and officially-feared social media.
It is hard not to see Nigeria through the eyes of her people, particularly the downtrodden – the infinitely hardworking lower classes. The disappearing middle class may have chosen to make their bed with the lowly not out of sheer conviction but from the reality of a vanishing prospect. So the band of the discontent is swelling daily even by the enunciation of wrong-headed or anti-people official policies.
The surface area of lack, despair and hopelessness is enlarging daily. We may not have to creep to the rarefied levels of Nigeria’s social arrangement to have a glimpse of how things are going or to be able to suggest how to obviate her dysfunctional paradigm. The loud and gay social life of the politicians and of their hangers-on are no evidence of a relief of the people’s frustration over the growing tension of livelihood.
By their mass defections, the politicians may be putting all their eggs in one basket. As many ambitions will not be satisfied due to implacable or blistering competitive bids or as many big fishes will unconscionably swallow the small ones in a shallow pond which the party has contracted into and in which the sharks may only be quietened for some time, an implosion of a massive dimension should be expected as the resultant effect of this unsightly winner-takes-all panoply.
Many unsatisfied or disgruntled interests will begin to walk back into animated consciousness. They could remain in the party and begin to work against its fortunes. They will constitute the enemy within either to impede the growth of the party or to re-create the Judas Iscariot historical occurrence brandishing a social alternative that undermines their party.
The nation witnessed a similar or identical situation in 2015 when the managers of PDP became the undertakers of their charge respecting an election they had surrendered to their adversaries even before the whistle was blown for start of electioneering. The banana peels that fell the PDP appear strewn on the giddy road of the unhistorical or philistinic APC.
Commenting on the political situation of Nigeria way back in1982, Chief Obafemi Awolowo spoke concerning political leaders who are full of tendentious aspirations, indecorous behaviours and arrogant inclinations. Observed immortal Awo:
“Our current leadership is totally incapable of appreciating effective solutions or to apply them even when these are presented to it un-
solicited and on the platter.”
Awo, long gone away from these shores, is dutifully speaking to our utterly perverted or depraved situation even as our leaders continue to tread the path of self-annihilation and of social dysfunction.
Rotimi-John, a lawyer and commentator on public affairs is the Deputy Secretary-General of Afenifere. He can be reached via:
[email protected]
