By Mansur Babale
The season is here and as expected, some politicians have kick-started that ignominious past time of defections from one party to the other in pursuit of self serving interest, regardless of the oddity and immorality of their actions.
In Kebbi state, some elements within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have gone into an overdrive of cross carpeting mainly to the People’s Democratic Party PDP as the country inched towards a general election in about a year’s time.
A member of the House of Representatives Alhaji Bello Yakubu Rilisco was the first to announce his defection to the PDP and soon after, two or three other fringe politicians followed suit.
It has been in the public domain, that the Senator Adamu Aliero faction of the APC had, as soon as their case against the election process that produced the current APC state EXCO in Kebbi was decided against them, been counting the days in their attempt to leave the party. This gale of defections is therefore seen, justifiably, as preparatory to the mass movement of the supporters of the Senator into the PDP. This decision is seen as a fait accompli.
What are the implications of this development to the popularity of the APC in Kebbi state in relation to the all important forthcoming general elections in Nigeria?
To begin with, the movement was not informed by any desire to advance the cause of democracy, because the reason for it was embedded in their inability to gain control of the levers of power in the party. It they had gained an upper hand or if the judgement had gone their way, you can bet that they would not have moved an inch away from the party. So, I must make it clear from the onset, that the defections were borne out of a desire to pursue narrow minded and very selfish interests. Should they remotely succeed in achieving those self centered interests and get their men in the political offices they covet, you can be sure that they will move en mass back into the APC if the party succeeds in controlling the center. In other words, the PDP should be ready to have its platform to be used to win political offices for elements of the Senator Aliero group of power usurpers only for them to quickly revert back to the APC if the centre should elude it.
This is a usual survival strategy which Adamu Aliero is known for. When the PDP won a hotly contested presidential elections in 2003, Aliero too had won his governorship election in Kebbi state on the ticket of the ANPP. Yet, he had no qualms in joining President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, at the Presidential Villa and actively participated in the cutting of a victory cake in the glare of all and sundry. This happened even when his party – the ANPP was vehemently against the process which gave the PDP victory and was tinkering with the idea of contesting it in courts.
I took us back memory lane to prove that when it comes to achieving self serving interests, Adamu Aliero can do just anything, even if it means jettisoning national interest. It is the same scenario that is currently at play as far as the so-called defections are concerned. The objective is for Aliero to use the PDP platform to corner offices like the office of Governor, some National and state Assembly members and board membership, which they feel are beyond their reach as a result of the unfavorable judgement against them.
Unfortunately for them, the politics of 2003 is different from what we have a decade or two ago. Politics of today does not have room for serial carpet crossers whose stock in trade is just to maintain relevance no matter how it adversely affects the state or the polity as a whole.
The recent defections have, sadly opened a new vista in the way some politicians are seen in Kebbi state. Any politician that cannot handle intra party struggles for space and accept such outcomes and move on, is not the kind of politician a state like Kebbi needs. Principled politicians and men of conviction are those who have the heart to fight for spaces within a party and remain in it, win or lose because service to the people is not hinged on a do it die perspective.
We must rise beyond playing politics on the sole aim of fulfilling personal desires. You win some and lose some and your loyalty to a party should not be based on ‘’its either me or nobody’’ standpoint.
Luckily for the APC, the average Kebbi man has risen beyond being taken for a ride. No election will ever be won by desperate and self serving politicians whose movement from one party to the other is determined by how it suits them.
This defection will be the last time an Adamu Aliero will ever be attracted to change party with the sole purpose of cornering power and then return to any party that wins at the center – in an endless self-serving antic that is bereft of morality and nationalism.
