Politics
Panic in APC over gale of defections
Olusesan Laoye
As the political activities continue to gather momentum, with the conclusion of primaries in all the political parties with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), set to release official list of candidates for the 2023 general elections, some of the political parties in Nigeria, particularly APC, are now at cross roads, over the spate of members dumping them and cross carpeting to other political parties.
The gale of defections is so widespread that it is now giving leaderships of the parties sleepless nights. They are now move around to curtail it and call members to order.
The parties most affected are the two major parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The situation is direct fallout of the primaries, which had exposed the usual impunity in our party system as names of candidates are being substituted even after they had won their primaries.
Worst hit is the APC, which is likely to lose its majority seat in the Senate after Majority Leader Yahaya had defected to the PDP. Last week speculation was ride that Senate president Ahmed Lawan is on his way out of the party having lost in his bid to secure the ticket for Yobe north, as his stand-in candidate, Machina, was issued the Certified True copy certificate on Thursday. As at last week, the party has already list seven senators to other parties.
Lawan had contested at the presidential primary of the party, but lost. However, Machina, who was supposed to withdraw his nomination to pave way for Lawan refused, insisting that he won on his own capacity. The party had tried to substitute his name by forwarding Lawan as the approved candidate, but the new Electoral Act empowers INEC to reject such impunity.
So, Lawan has only two options: Forfeit a return to the Senate where he has been since 2003 or defect to another party. There has been intense pressure on him by the party not to move because of its domino effect. But close sources to the party hinted that tension is high and he is expected to move anytime soon because the party cannot offer him anything to the bargain.
Before the just concluded primaries of the parties, there had been what a political writer described as subtle and pockets of defections by few politicians, who felt the best thing for them was to move quickly to other political parties, where their interests and aspirations would be met.
These politicians looking at their chances jumped out to contest the primaries in other parties where they eventually got their tickets.
Although the issue of politicians jumping from one party to the other is not new in Nigeria, it has been there right from the inception of politics in the first Republic, where the word cross carpeting was in vogue but it was not as rampant and self motivated as it is now, when just for flimsy excuses, politicians dump their parties.
Notable decampees in the senate since the primaries include Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe of PDP, Ike Ekere, who considered it but could not secure the ticket he wanted to run as governor in Enugu state, and Senate Majority Leader, Yahyah, among others.
What is actually trending now, is the move by over 20 APC legislators, particularly in the Senate that they have perfected their plans to shift camp to the PDP, the Labour, (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Already the likes of Senators Ahmad Babba Kaita from Katsina North Senatorial District, Lawan Yahaya Gumau Bauchi (South), Francis Alimikhana (Edo North) and former governor of Kano State Ibrahim Shekarau, the majority leader, Abdullahi Yahyah (Kebbi North), and former governor of the same State Kebbi Adamu Aliero have all left the party.
With the movements of these 13 law makers the strength of the APC has been reduced. It was, however believed that if the trend goes on and the the threats of the 20 senators to move out of the party comes to fruition, then the party is on the verge of collapsing.
This development is not going down well with the leader of the APC who felt that the major opposition party, the PDP, is gaining more ground, which is definitely dangerous for it and could cost them the presidential election and make them lose more seats at the upper and lower chambers of the National Assembly.
They felt as well that the party could also be affected grossly in the in the governorship and State Assembly elections in many States of the country.
The situation has made the chairman of the party Senator Abdullahi Adamu to move down to the National Assembly to meet the Senators, in order to prevent their mass movements out of the party.
Although he expressed the view that the defecting from one party to the other is a usual occurrence, during election period which should not worry any party and its leadership, losing members and even prominent ones at the election period shouldn’t be taken for granted. This he said informed why he had to consult with the lawmakers.
Adamu said that though other political parties are affected too, as they have their members moving to “our party and other parties as well, I don’t care about others but care about what is happening to us in APC. I am ready to discuss their grievances with the National Working Committee of the party to find solutions to their plights”.
Though the party chairman and other stakeholders of the party are jittery and looking for ways out of the crisis, it was gathered that their efforts have met brick walls, as the legislators and their supporters have made up their minds and that there is no amount of convictions that can make them change what they have decided, since some of them were said to have seen brighter futures where they are going.
It was argued that the governors were able to manipulate the primaries because they had already planted unelected delegates as elected ones during the ward, local government and state congresses, which gave them the total control and the edge to manipulate the primaries in their respective states.
Some of them also mentioned the adoption of the the new amended electoral law as their folly. One of the affected Senators Ahmed Babba Kaita pointed out that his resignation from the party was borne out of marginalisation by the governor and leadership of the party in Katsina State.
Also the majority leader Yahaya Abdullahi, who move to the PDP, said the governor’s imposition of unelected ward, local and state executives caused the defections of some of them in the state.
Although all the stakeholders of the APC at the National level believed that they have big crises at hand, the the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru said that the party would still wax very strong and would not lose its status.
According to him, some of the problems in the party is local and it depends on what is happening locally in different states. He said “some people are moving out of the party because they have lost their popularity and I can say that the APC is not in anyway under pressure to panic”.
The chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council Yabagi Sani, argued that what is happening across the political parties does not in any way amaze him. According to him, the gale of defections among the political parties is not strange and it is expected in a democracy.
But a legal luminary and former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch Lagos, Barrister Bisi Ade- Ademuwagun, said that the defections of politicians from one party to the other at will is not healthy for democracy in Nigeria. He pointed out that it is dangerous and not good for political stability.
According to him, “this has come to prove that Nigerian politicians are selfish and careless about the people because if you lose an election or even primary in a political party, that does not mean you have to be out of the party. You can still stay in the party and be relevant and contribute to the development of that political party.
“The selfishness of these greedy politicians made them lose relevance quickly because when they get to their new party they always failed to get what they want and that brings them back to square one. Again there is no institutinalised parties with specific ideologies in Nigeria.
“As far as I am concerned Nigeria is doomed politically because those coming to play politics are not politicians but gold diggers who believed in what they can only benefit and not what they can offer for the betterment of the people”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Organising Secretary of the PDP, Umar Bature has said that the party is benefiting from the great loss of the APC, which shows that the ruling party is not practicing democracy but autocracy, with imposition of candidates, which is now causing mass defection of its members to other political parties, at this crucial period when it should be consolidating.
On those leaving the PDP to other political parties, he said, that was expected but “I can tell you that the casualties are more on the other side than our side. We are the one reaping and gaining more members and prominent ones for that matter, which shows that the PDP is more democratic in all its actions and activities than the APC in particular”
