defection

Essays, Writers

Political Party Defections: A Spanner In The Works by Oluka Emmanuel. 

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    Introduction  Different scholars, different literatures, have given definition of democracy; but the most striking of them all, remains that by Merriam-Webster dictionary. It defines democracy as, “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodic free elections”.     There is no gainsaying that Political parties remain the life wire of any democracy, and politicians belonging to these parties can truncate democratic processes through their actions within these parties. Party defection is one of such actions with great propensity to throw a spanner in the works of any democracy. These defections have become not only a norm but an increasingly dominant feature in Nigeria’s democratic journey.     Party defection involves politicians moving to a new political party, after being elected on the platform of a previous party. In doing so, they change their allegiance. This trend is a practice prevalent during election periods. For Nigerian politicians, this is a critical moment when their fates in the coming election are decided; how well the parties meet one’s hope and desire informs whether (s)he stays or moves to another party. The interest of the people who they represent falls down the pecking order in these calculations.     Sincerely, the gale of defections has not only constituted democratic nuisance, but has continued to raise serious concern among political observers and participants. It is a big threat to Nigeria’s democratic survival, and the frequency with which the strong wind blows the present fourth republican space leaves a lot to worry about already.    It is on this premise, that this essay investigates the peculiar trend of political party defections and the implications it portends for Nigeria’s democracy. In doing so, the writer traces briefly, the historical antecedents of party defections from the first republic to present republic. The essay also reveals some of the factors responsible for the trend, and the influence and nexus such factors have on the sustainability of Nigeria’s democracy. It concludes by proposing some antidotes to curtail the aberration.    A brief walk down the Memory lane…  Politics of defection in Nigeria can be traced to the first republic in 1951, when several members of National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC), defected to the Action Group (AG) just to deny Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and his party (NCNC), the majority in the Western Regional House of Assembly, which the party required to form the government in the Western Region. Meanwhile, within the Action Group (AG), Ladoke Akintola, a deputy leader of AG, left the party in a crisis of personality and ideology between him and the party leader, Obafemi Awolowo, to form United Democratic Party (UNDP). UNDP then entered into alliance with Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to frustrate AG’s dominance of the Western Region.    Meanwhile, in the second republic, Akin Omoboriowo, the then Deputy Governor to Michael Ajasin of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in the old Ondo state, defected to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and became its gubernatorial candidate in the 1983 general election. This turned the state to a theatre of political violence because of the desperate move by the NPN to win the governorship election through massive rigging and falsification of election figures.    The third republic, political observers say, would have produced more defection drama if not that it was aborted by military incursion.     Within the fourth republic and under the 2015 general election, out of the 29 governorship candidates of the main opposition party – the All Peoples Congress (APC), 18 had at one time or the other been members of the ruling party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), which lost the March 29, 2015 presidential election to the APC. The same trend happened after the 2019 general election; most recent of them being the defection of David Umahi, the incumbent governor of Ebonyi state to the ruling APC from the PDP, with permutations  surrounding the 2023 presidential election already seen as reason for his defection.    In all these scenarios, Nigerian political parties thus, have had history of defections and cross defections of party members from one political party to another.            But why do politicians in Nigeria bounce between political parties?  Contributory to this trend is the lack of internal democracy and deep rooted ideologies within political parties. Meaning that parties are bereft of internal structures and operations that are democratic in nature; party members are not included in decision making and deliberations within the party hierarchy and structures.     For this reason, this leads to politicians defecting, should they fail to secure their party’s nominations during primaries. Meanwhile, some move to other parties so as to participate in the elections if they feel disillusioned, cheated or denied free and fair primaries by their party. In some cases, politicians still defect even when there is no crisis within their political parties. Such politicians thus become likened to “political prostitutes” lacking in political principles, morality and conscience needed to champion the course of true leadership.    Personality clash, power tussles, divergent views on the operation of political parties’ philosophy, disagreement on party’s position on an issue, realization of one’s personal ambition and party leaders reneging on agreed issues like power sharing formula, have all been implicated as other reasons why politicians jump ship.    There is also the absence of water-tight legislative framework to curtail party prostitution amongst politicians. Sections 68 and 109 of the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended) for instance, emphasize the conditions for a lawmaker to defect; it however, exempts members of the federal and state executive cabinets, where the anomaly also exists. For the legislators, defecting candidates must justify that there is a division or merger in their party and they readily exploit this deficiency as they decamp to their new parties, helping them retain their offices in the process.    The Implications…  The shenanigans that define party defections in Nigeria merely reflect the level of desperation for political relevance in the pursuit of public office. This implies that many Nigerian politicians do not believe in party ideologies; rather, they are just power drunk. Ultimately, this makes a mockery of the nation’s democratic evolution, as well as degrades and humiliates the political class before the civilized society.    With continuous defections, what the people now have is a contaminated pool of parties and a structurally-perverted political tradition that relegates the needs of the people behind in the scheme of things. The Nigerian voting masses are therefore mere victims of the whims and caprices of a mindless political class who show total disrespect for the electorates.    As is often the case also, once elections are over, the interest of the people is no longer in the opposition party’s agenda; rather, they would be struggling to defect and be part a unity government, if offered by the ruling party. And so, several anti-democratic and mischievous schemes are devised to keep the opposition out of work. There becomes the absence of strong opposition that would create a balance in the country’s democracy by checking the excesses of the ruling party at any time; paving the way for the emergence of crude imperialistic governments      Conclusion and Way Forward  For democracy to

Essays, Writers

A Resultant Effect In The Absence Of Structured Political Ideology by Victor Okonjo.

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                        The sixteenth President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, (1809-1865) defined democracy as “The government of the people, by the people and for the people”. Politics on the other hand is the science of promoting ones political belief with a view to influence public service and government decisions in a state. Therefore, a country can only have the fullness of democratic advancement when it has attained political maturity. However, if politics is not well managed, it will impede the tenets of democratic ethics and ethos of our society. One major trend that has become a regular practice in our political domain is the incessant defection of politicians from one political party to another. This practice is indeed becoming an impediment to our democracy. It is a matter of fact that incessant and unwarranted political defection is due to nonexistence of formidable and structured ideology. A political movement that is not founded or driven by feasible ideology will be deficient in their force of compatibility. Consequently, it gives room for politics of defection at the detriment of our democracy. The politics of defection has serious negative impact on our democracy and governance. With Nigeria as a case study, it has been observed that some politicians defect from one political party to another for the wrong reasons and it is obviously to promote selfish ambition and cheap propaganda thus, the politics of defection becomes a routine ritual. Unfortunately, as earlier mentioned, this trend inhibits the advancement of democracy and good governance. It is imperative to know that our present political dispensation lacks the political wherewithal to sustain the desired nature of democracy at the level of its maximum in which a major cause can be attributed to regular defection in politics. Defection in politics makes the political arena look like a market square or may be a “political market” where politicians move from one political party to another to trade their non selfless ambition. It has made politics have a pyridine shift in focusing on democratic development and good governance, which in turn is a misplaced priority. The advocacy for an improved and developed democratic society should be the campaign of a responsible political process. This should be so because the relativity between politics and democracy is directly proportional. Politics of defection is indeed a questioning factor on the role of political ideology (only if it exists). According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, ninth edition, ideology is defined as “A set of ideas that an economic or political system is based on or a set of beliefs, especially one held by a particular group that influences the way people behave”. Therefore, political ideology is a set of beliefs upheld and rooted in a political movement in order to influence public service and governance. Furthermore, no matter the political ideology of any political party, the adherence to democratic norms is a collective goal. The fundamental aspects of our democracy have to be respectfully sustained by political adherents and their ideologies in line with the rule of law. In our dear country Nigeria, the unwarranted and incessant defection from political party to another by politicians is questionable and inconsistent with the 1999 constitution. The constitution clearly explains the stage political defection is deemed appropriate before the law and that is simply when ones political party is in crisis or at a level of critical disintegration due to conflicting circumstances. On the contrary, some politicians still continue to involve in the routine ritual of political defection even when their political party is stable and crisis free. This will amount to outright disobedience and total disregard to the rule of law that binds on the land. Consequently, if this is left unchecked and discouraged, it will cause gradual and unpalatable complications in our democratic system most especially in government affairs. For a country to experience an effective and functioning democracy, political stability must be attained. Conclusively, politics of defection is not the best way to promote neither good governance nor the less democracy rather an avenue to promote politics of deceit, recycling incompetent and corrupt individuals in government, and to exploit the weaknesses of our fragile democratic system. A matured political system exalts democratic values and allows the reign of unbiased democracy. Such cannot come into play if our political institutions are not rooted on a feasible ideological formation. Finally, a true democrat will be faithful enough to work assiduously in building the capacity of a formidable political structure driven by purpose and vision rather than give in to unnecessary political defection. Politics of defection expresses the sign of a premature political system and a failed political will to defend political ideology without sentiment. Therefore, the negative impact and its attendant effects associated with politics of defection on our democracy cannot be underestimated.   Victor Okonjo wrote in via okonjovico@gmail.com

Blog, Monishots

Why Saraki Is Scheming For 2023.

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  When General Muhammadu Buhari made a pact with politicians from diverse backgrounds with little similarity in ideology – if they had any – to emerge the APC flag bearer and subsequently the president, he cannot possibly claim that he didn’t anticipate a bumpy ride. Likewise, when Bukola Saraki and his henchmen sabotaged their party and successfully carried out a ‘coup’ to assume the Senate leadership in cahoots with the opposition they surely would have expected many battles in the fore. I had posited then in my thesis that for Saraki, winning a battle does not in any way translate to winning the war as it was clear to the discerning that tougher battles lay ahead. That it was an action that also resulted in the emergence of the PDP’s Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President made it more humiliating for the APC and left the intrigues ahead to one’s imagination. Saraki can rightly be described as well ‘connected’ and battle-tested; his rise in politics started with his appointment as Obasanjo’s aide on budget matters. From thereon he only looked forward and propitiously employed a combination of sagacity and ruthlessness to rise rapidly. However, many of his political battles were fought when he had immunity as a governor. As the Senate president, a higher position in the larger picture so to say, that privilege is no longer available and his fate unlike before is not entirely in his hands. All the same, credit must go to the medical doctor turned politician for surviving like the proverbial cat with nine lives. Basking in the support of colleagues that cut across party lines, he has managed a vice-hold grip on the Senate whilst surviving the onslaught of a protracted CCT trial and more recently some police investigations. It is even more impressive when you consider that while many have come to regard our NASS as the bulwark of the corrupt, populated by ex-governors and ministers with questionable records, Saraki still commands huge followership in his home state. He will likely be re-elected to the red chamber even in a free and fair contest. But the Senate President has been in the political scene long enough to know that a Nigerian President is an all-powerful demi-god. Having watched Obasanjo remove Senate Presidents and Governors, he knows the arsenal at the disposal of any occupant of Aso Rock. Even men like Anyim, Na’Abba, Nnamani, and Orji Uzor Kalu who successfully contained Obasanjo’s often fractious belligerence are yet to fully recover from the overwhelming political trauma that executive pressure can bring to bear on a perceived foe. That President Buhari, a stubborn soldier, is not disposed to the do or die tactics of his fellow jackboot, Obasanjo, is obviously a political strategy ingeniously conceived. I believe the Senate President knows too well that but for this disposition of the president, he would have been long gone. His supporters may disagree but he knows this and his traducers know too. Now let us briefly examine why Buhari has accommodated the Senate President. After the national assembly leadership elections, the division among the various parties that made up the APC became evident. President Buhari’s CPC took charge of the executive and Bola Tinubu’s ACN maintained a similar grip on the party leadership while Saraki and his nPDP group pocketed the legislature. In most organizations, it is often beneficial for the man at the helm not to take sides in any battle of attrition between his subordinates and in his bestselling “48 Laws Of Power”, American author Robert Greene put it thus: Do not commit to anyone. It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others-playing people against one another, making them pursue you. ~ Law 20 When Buhari refused to meddle in that tussle for the NASS leadership, many including yours truly didn’t fully comprehend that the taciturn general was only employing this golden rule. If he had intervened then, perhaps Bola Tinubu and his men would have become too powerful for him by having control of the party and the legislature. He maintained mature neutrality while not losing sight of the need to have both groups sucking up to him. A sort of balance -if you like- that ensured he remained the lord and master. However, as the battle for 2019 intensified the need to pander to the whims of the party power brokers became more critical for the President’s re-election bid because it is only on the party platform that his loyalists can deliver. Obasanjo successfully deployed this tactic against Atiku when he replaced Audu Ogbeh with Ahmadu Ali to take control of the party and checkmate the Vice President’s influence with the lawmakers. Moreover, given our politicians’ penchant for cross-carpeting to contest elections, it would be futile trying to stop those who had already lost out in the local congresses. President Buhari still enjoys cult followership, especially in his Northern base. A cursory look at his record haul of votes even when the PDP was still writing election results in Ota farms clearly accentuates his popularity in the region. That is not likely to change now he is in power despite the challenges facing the country, at least not significantly. His appointments into INEC and the security agencies equally indicate that the man will not gamble away a hard-fought presidency. So as the political fireworks escalate towards February 2019, the fallback option to the PDP may offer some hope for the political lightweights to have a shot at retaining their positions in 2019 but the gladiators are actually battling for relevance in readiness for a post-Buhari Nigeria in 2023.

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