By Sufuyan Ojeifo
I have watched with
amusement the hollow rituals of “comic tragedy” or tragicomedy, which the
defection of politicians from one political party to another typifies. The
polity has witnessed, in recent times, movements by some politicians who were,
doubtless, respected leaders of their people up until their sudden volte-face
and gravitation to other political parties, characteristically for obvious
reasons. Anytime I see them on television or read about them in the print
media announcing, with glee, their decision to jump ship because they have
suddenly realised how bad their original party has been and how disciplined and
forward-looking their newfound party is, they cut a pathetic picture to the
sight and create a sardonic impression in the mind.
What they, perhaps,
know but which they do not give a heck about is that they do not enjoy the
respect of well-meaning Nigerians, including, most of the times, their
followers, especially those of them who can hold their own without the usual
compromising handouts from “the lords of the manors.” This dimension
reinforces the age-long subjugating notion of stomach infrastructure, which
has, only recently, been so elegantly described and tagged in the aftermath of
the 2014 Ekiti governorship election that swept Ayodele Fayose into power.
Nevertheless,
political leaders’ movements have characteristically thrown up the loyalty
question. As supposed leaders, they have failed the critical test
of loyalty by wavering in their commitment to the party on which platform they
have been voted into elective offices. Rather than consistently and
persistently inspire confidence in their followers, they have disconcerted
them, dealing a strong blow to their pristine sense of conservative attachment
to the party. It thus becomes crystal clear that the followership that
has remained unwavering in its support is, indeed, the nucleus of the tribe of
enthusiastic and enchanted party faithful, not the opportunistic political
elites who, always wanting to be politically correct, lack the discipline to
promote and embrace any well-defined ideological standpoint, which the
followership can relate with or approximate under their tutelage.
Like a reed, they are tossed about by the winds of
political considerations and correctness. Whenever apolitical leader decides to
defect, he is always propelled by selfish interest. He is either battling
for survival or groveling for relevance, hence the instinct and wisdom to
strategically reposition. He rationalises his decision and couches his
action in elegant diction- that is, if he is gifted with the oratorical
power. Sans the power of oration, he deploys the allurement of lucre,
thus taking advantage of the followers’ poverty to further degrade their
sensibilities. But then, the people are wont to see through the chicanery of
political leadership in a background that is traditionally conservative; which
brings me to the conquistador’s temperament that the All Progressives Congress
(APC) is exhibiting in the southeast zone, apparently in defiance of the
affection the people have had for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since
1999. The zone is a traditional PDP enclave.
It may, therefore, be
pretty difficult to suddenly shear the people of the sentimental affection they
have for the party. Even in Imo
State
But the greatest beneficiary of the on-going circus of defections has been the
governing APC and this is understandable. There has been a change of
baton and the party has become the new power base. That is the way the cookie
crumbles. For the PDP leaders, especially those holding elective offices,
that have already jumped ship, such act of abandoning the party on whose
platform they won election, has only exposed their weak points as spineless
politicians whose god is, perhaps, their bellies. They really do not care
about what the rest of us think of them. For them, the end justifies the
means, which is surviving the intriguing world of cloak-and- dagger politics.
Therefore, they attach little importance to the
leadership-followership system that underpins interactions in the context of
political party administration on the basis of essential ideologies.
Whereas, they are
supposed to provide unwavering leadership, they have become the exact opposite
of that assumption. They have deliberately failed the test of faithfulness
to their parties and what they stand for. The followers, on the other
hand, are left to relate with the culture of leadership infidelity that
cumulatively leads to atrophy of the party spirit.
Since none of the
parties can lay claim to any guiding ideology, they may be somewhat excused,
but the individual politicians are inexcusable. To define their
individuality, they should dare to be different by standing for something so
that they do not fall for everything. A few of them have remained unwavering in
their commitment to their political platforms since 1999, not changing parties
even in defeat as has now been typified by the PDP.
But what rankles, as
its former Board of Trustees chair, Chief Tony Anenih, recently confessed, is
that those who have defected to the APC were those who benefited so much from
the PDP. They have acted smart, so it seems, by using and dumping the
party in dishonest circus and manifest political duplicity; but, then, they
have created an impression of themselves in the minds of their new landlords
who will deal with them wisely, considering the fact that they are rangers in
quest for insular political return. This is, indeed, unconscionable and sad.
*Ojeifo is the Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine.
*Ojeifo is the Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine.
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