Supreme Court verdicts and defectors’ hunger for comfort zones

The gale of defections that hit the ruling All progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, following the Supreme Court’s judgments on the outcome of the 2019 general elections in some states attests to the fact that politics is a game of interest in which there are no permanent friends or enemies.

The defections started from Ogun State immediately after the Supreme Court confirmed Dapo Abiodun as the duly elected governor of the state and they continued to spread across the country. While they, like gusts of the dry Harmattan wind, swept through Edo, Imo, Kano and Sokoto States, the question on every lip was who and where next?

A few hours after the Supreme Court judgment in Ogun, Abiodun’s arch rival in the 2019 governorship election, Adekunle Akinlade, announced his return to the All Progressives Congress. Earlier he had left the party to contest the governorship election on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement.

Not a single member of the APC’s Caretaker Committee in Ogun attended the event held in Abuja to officially mark Akinlade’s return.

The leadership of the party in the state, it was gathered, was not happy about the manner in which the national headquarters readmitted Akinlade and his supporters to the party. This was echoed by Abiodun when he received the governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Congress in the state, Prince Gboyega Isiaka, alongside other politicians who defected to the APC.

Beside Isiaka, other members of the opposition who quit their parties for the APC included some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

They are a former Deputy Governor, Alhaja Salmot Badru; former members of the House of Representatives, Dave Salako and Onadeko Onanusi; a former state Chairman of the PDP, Elder Joju Fadairo; a former member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Iyabo Apampa; and a former Secretary of the PDP in the state, Sofowora.

In Kano State, many loyalists of a former governor of the state, Rabiu Kwankwaso, decided to dump the PDP after the apex court affirmed the election of his successor, Abdullahi Ganduje a few weeks ago. Two days later, the state Chairman of the party, Rabiu Sulaiman-Bichi, defected from the opposition party to the APC. He was no longer sympathetic to the PDP governorship candidate, Kabiru Yusuf, whose appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Many others, including Kwankwaso’s spokesman, Binta Spikin, left the PDP for the APC. The initial report from Sulaiman-Bichi was that his decision to dump the party was based on principles and personal conviction, not the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment.

At the Government House in Kano, shortly after he defected alongside other followers of Kwankwaso to the APC, Sulaiman-Bichi also claimed that the decision to leave was unanimously taken in response to Ganduje’s invitation to the opposition to join hands with his government in moving the state forward.

He said, “We believe in Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s genuine commitment to developing the state. That is why we resolved to join hands with him to develop our dear state.”

On her part, Spikin, said, “I am only officially announcing my defection to the APC today. My decision to abandon the party was influenced by my political mentor, Alhaji Rabiu Sulaiman-Bichi. I parted company with Rabiu Kwankwaso immediately after the 2019 general elections.”

Other political bigwigs who defected to the APC include a zonal woman leader of the PDPin Kano, Aisha Kaita; a former state lawmaker, Muhammad Tarauni; and a prominent Kwankwasiyya promoter, Idris Bala. The term Kwankwasiyya refers to a group of Kwankwaso’s loyalists.

In Sokoto State, a former member of the state House of Assembly, Muhammadu Lili, had to change his mind about returning to the legislative arm of government, after the Supreme Court affirmed the re-election of Aminu Tambuwal.

After the ruling, the supporters of the APC gathered at the residence of Senator Aliyu Wammako. While stalwarts of the APC were a large crowd at Wammako’s residence, Lili, alongside his supporters, was at the PDP state secretariat, to announce his defection to the party.

Addressing PDP leaders in the state, Lili said, “My decision to defect to the PDP, which is coming two days before the scheduled House of Assembly election for Binji State Constituency, was informed by a string of victories, which Governor Aminu Tambuwal had recorded over time.

“When we were in the APC, we challenged his election and a re-run was held. He won the election. After that, we took him to the election petitions tribunal. He was adjudged the winner. We dragged him to the Appeal Court, yet he won. Unsatisfied, we took him to the Supreme Court, he was again handed victory. Why should anyone continue to contest with somebody who God has clearly shown that He support s?” Lili said.

He told a crowd of PDP supporters at the party’s secretariat in Sokoto that he had decided not to contest the seat he once occupied as representative of Binji in the state House of Assembly.

The gale of defections has also spread to the South-East, with the defection of the PDP Chairman in Imo State, Charles Ezekwem, to the APC after the controversial Supreme Court judgment that sacked Governor Emeka Ihedioha and installed the APC candidate, Hope Uzodinma, who came fourth in the 2019 governorship election in the state, as his replacement.

Ezekwem was not alone in the rush to join the APC in Imo. A senatorial candidate of the Action Alliance, Ndubuisi Emenike, had also defected to the APC before he was killed last Sunday. Also, the Deputy National Auditor of the PDP, Regis Uwakwe, defected to the APC, following the Supreme Court’s declaration of Senator Hope Uzodinma as the new governor of the state.

Like many others, Ezekwem said his supporters encouraged him to abandon the PDP. In his resignation letter, dated January 25, 2019, he said his decision to abandon the PDP was based on the approval of his supporters and the prevailing circumstances in his party.

In the Imo State House of Assembly, PDP lawmakers did not stay in the party to provide the needed checks and balances against Uzodinma. To the chagrin of many residents, nine members of the House of Assembly from opposition parties, including the PDP, defected to the APC. The Minority Leader of the house, Ekene Nnodumele, was the first to resign his position and defect from the All Progressive Grand Alliance to APC. The Deputy Speaker, Okey Onyekamma, followed suit, citing “convention and zoning,” as his reason. According to him, zoning arrangement in the party prescribes that the deputy speaker should be from the geopolitical zone of the governor.

They were later joined a week after by eight other lawmakers elected under the PDP, thereby giving the APC 18 lawmakers out of 26, as Uju Onwudiwe of the AA, who won last Saturday’s supplementary election in the state, has yet to be inaugurated

Four members of the AA, Arthur Egwin, Obinna Okwara, Johnson Duru and Ngozi Obiefule, were also caught up in the rush to defect to the APC. The duo of Paul Eweziem and Ekene Nnodumele defected from the APGA.

While Amarachi Iwuanyanwu, Chidiebere Ogbunikpa and Okoro Hercules were the first set of the PDP lawmakers to defect, a week later, the Speaker, Collins Chiji, led the majority leader, Chigozie Nwaneri; Eddy Obimna, Kanayo Onyemaechi, Kennedy Ibe, Uche Ogbuagu and Michael Njoku to the APC.

The Head of the Department of Political Science at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Dr Yahaya Baba, in an interview with our correspondent blamed incessant defections of elected political office holders on the faulty foundation of political parties with no clear cut ideology.

Baba described unrestricted defection of elected political office holders as an unpleasant development.

“The problem and challenges here is that political parties in Nigeria have no ideologies, clear cut manifestoes and reasons for defection are not spelt out.

“This however, cannot be reversed because when there was mass defection from the PDP to APC in 2014, a court ruled that politicians had a right to change parties and still retain their seats.

“It has never been as bad as this in our democracy of more than 20 years, such that people who were elected on a particular party platform defect in a bandwagon to another party after a Supreme Court judgment.

“Maybe, there are negotiations and inducement. Be that as it may, this exposes the absence of political institutions in Nigeria. The basis of forming political parties is primarily, to contest election,” Baba stated.

From all indication, defections have become a part of Nigeria’s political culture, which will leave the country without viable opposition.