Nigeria: Defectors As Jesters

By Dan Amor

It is a sickening reality in Nigeria that defection, the act of leaving one political party for another, also known as carpet –crossing or what the eminent poet and humorist, Uzor Maxim-Uzoatu called “Jumpology” (the political act of jumping from party to party), has been elevated to the height of a national ideology. 

This glamourisation of political prostitution by Nigerian politicians signals the death of commonsense. Before the December 2013 defection of 37 members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in an open show and fanfare, four PDP governors had led the way in a much more rehearsed, media pampered braggadocio in November 2013.
Many Nigerians believed that despite the larger implications of the defection with regards to the 2015 political permutations, nothing had really changed. Nigerians who are no longer shocked or surprised at the sheer gejunity of the defection gale which has seen some politicians changing parties more than they change their agbada, have unanimously called for a stop to this wayward political culture.

Consequently, the 2014 Abuja Federal High Court order asking the 37 lawmakers who defected from the PDP to the APC to resign their positions as members of the National Assembly, had been hailed by well-meaning Nigerians who are interested in a clean break from the ugly past and present when politics is played without adherence to any democratic ethos, ethics and principles. Justice Adeniyi Ademola, in that courageous and landmark judgment, told the lawmakers that they had lost their competence, to vote or contribute to any proceedings in the House declaring that the legislators had no moral or legal sanctity or authority to be called Federal lawmakers having defected from the party on whose platform they won election to the Green Chambers. That judgment had aborted the conspiracy of the then opposition (APC) politicians who thought that with a simple majority in the House they could change the House leadership and proceed to impeach former President Goodluck Jonathan.

With the slamming of a perpetual injunction on the House restraining the defecting lawmakers from effecting any leadership change in the House of Representatives, Justice Ademola had once more demonstrated that it is the judiciary that has the legal and moral authority to interprete the constitution as the safety value or sole arbiter of the common-man. Despite the mixed reactions that trailed the judgment depending on which side of the divide one was common from, the message had been sent already without equivocation or compromise, that there is a huge awakening in our collective journey to the comity of democratic nations of the world. But if you think that the judgment favoured only the PDP, then you got it wrong. Careful watchers of party politics all over the world are worried over the wanton derogation of our democracy by this ugly phenomenon of defection. What makes it even more beguiling is that because people go into politics not to serve but to loot the national patrimony into their private pockets, the moment they are less favored with the largesse of office in their current party, they jump the boat to where they feel their interests would be protected.

Whether they belong to the ruling or opposition party, these people have been part of the decadent Nigerian system, and are experts in the manipulation of the Nigerian people for selfish political gain. Even as the political pendulum appears to be tilting towards a balanced two-party political arrangement, which is good for the growth of our democracy, our politicians can still reclaim their reputation and the sanctity of their high offices, so severely muddied by the debauchery of defection if they resigned from the position which they got on the platform of their former party in spite of any precedent or not. This is more so because our constitution does not recognize independent candidature but political parties. The young are taught that in a democracy all power resides in the people. And that in a free enterprise system all authority rests with the sovereign consumer operating through the impersonal mechanism of the market. For a politician to now defect from a party on whose platform he won the people’s mandate to another without surrendering the mandate to the people amounts to undermining sovereignty which ultimately belongs to the people. This position, according to John Kenneth Galbraith, the erudite Paul M Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard University, in his seminal, The Anatomy Of Power, is sacrosanct.

In fact, the case of the 37 lawmakers had exposed the soft underbelly of our lawyers who are easily polarized along party lines. It is sad that even members of the so called radical wing of the bar, are consumed by this shameless partisanship in our polity. It is the obituary of ideology. Supposing Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAM, SAN) were to be alive, he would have hailed the exquisite judgment of Justice Ademola, meaning he would have voted for justice, morality and commonsense and not sheer theatrics and propaganda. The country needs judicial activism and radical judgments like the type delivered by Justice Ademola for this fledgling democracy to stabilize. It is indeed the duty of the Supreme Court to promote the growth and stability of this democracy and the unity of the country. For instance, in the history of the democratic development of the United States of America, the Supreme Court, especially under the leadership of Earl Warren, led a judicial revolution that reshaped many social and political relationships in that country. The Warren Court had often plunged the US into bitter controversies as it decreed an end to publicly-supported racial discrimination, banned prayers in public schools, and extended constitutional guarantees to blacks, the poor, Communists and those wrongly detained by the police.

Warren was a symbol of progressive change, the spirit of much that happened in his country during his time at the American Supreme Court as his radical actions turned out to be a redeeming mission for his country. Imagine what a Gani Fawehinmi would have done in Nigeria were he to be appointed Chief Justice! Yet it was lamentable listening to otherwise brilliant lawyers who claim to be members of Gani’s camp condemning Justice Ademola’s fearless and revolutionary judgment and trying to malign the judiciary because the judgment did not go down well with the party they had sympathy for. But, ultimately what is at issue here is not the political party involved but the moral responsibility or otherwise of the politician as a public trust. For, you see, my sweet dreams have long been haunted by this sad infighting and lack of understanding among Nigerian politicians. There is indeed one thing we should know: the average politician should be a classic exponent of learning and morality. By the range and depth of his knowledge and experience he should lead virtue. All things being equal, the equanimity of the politician should not be vitiated by the nuances of his personal background or business interest.

If therefore our new-breed politicians cannot rise above parochial group or personal interests, what moral justifications have they to criticize the existing backward-looking social system in our society? Or when shall our polity emerge from the dark laboratory of revolting dissembling and ethno-religious cross-breeding? Politics must always profess and end in view which, roughly speaking, appears to be a decent and mature struggle for power and judicious allocation of resources. The politician’s task, therefore, appears to be clearly cut out for him; and it ought to be comparatively easy to decide whether be performs it satisfactorily, and in general, what kinds of political actions are useful and what are otiose. But on giving the matter a little attention, we perceive that politics, far from being a simple and orderly field of activity from which impostors can be readily ejected, is no better than a Sunday park of contending and contemptuous orators who are yet to arrive at the articulation of their differences. Here, one would suppose, was a place for quiet co-operative labour.

The politician, one would suppose, if he is to justify his existence, should endeavor to discipline his personal prejudices and cranks, tares to which we are all subject, and compose his differences with as many of his fellows as possible, in the common pursuit of responsible politics. While it is very necessary to tolerate the practice of radical politics as a vital weapon for the social advancement of any given nation; while it is very necessary for us to realize that there are certain national issues that transcend personal or even tribal sentiments, it is also very necessary for us to cultivate the habit of objectivity as an inevitable therapy for political survival-all in business of moving our nation forward. But we find out that the fair-weather politician owes his livelihood to the intellectual convalescence and political chicanery of his time, or else, to some trifling oddities of his own which he contrives to season the opportunistic positions which men already hold, and which, out of vanity or sloth they prefer to maintain.

Our intolerant politicians must address themselves to this nagging pestilence. The gale of political defection must be halted for this democracy to stabilize no matter the party involved. The judiciary has the whip. And the revolution ought to have started with the landmark judgment of Justice Ademola which, incidentally, was not obeyed and on which basis he was recently haunted out of the Supreme Court. The 2014 illegal defection of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal from PDP to APC had reinforced this argument. He had not even tendered his defection letter to the House and he was causing hoopla in the media. Invoking the doctrine of separation of powers to buoy up our growing intolerance is the acme of deception. There is no water-tight separation of powers anywhere in the world without checks and balances. Many 'gain' politicians who jump into the fray for what they can get or to protect their business interests are the ones who have murdered ideology in politics. A careful investigation into the profiles of the top brass in APC shows that apart from President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and a few others, every notable personality in APC defected from PDP when political fortune failed to favour them. Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha, the jester who is governor of Imo State was in PDP. He defected seven times from one party to another and on the eight time, he rode on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to clinch the diadem.

Also, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, who was governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007 on the platform of the PDP, is the current town-crier for President Buhari in APC. Senator Abdullahi Adamu was governor of Nasarawa State between 1999 and 2007 on the platform of the PDP. He became Secretary of the party's Board of Trustees after which he became a senator on the platform of the PDP. Today, he is the most vocal agent provocateur of APC in the attack of PDP. Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State was a PDP senator who defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria when he lost out in the race for the governorship ticket of his erstwhile party. Today, he is an APC governor. Ditto Alhaji Aminu Masari the governor of Katsina State who was Speaker of the House of Representatives on the platform of the PDP. In fact, 20 politicians who are sitting governors in their respective states and more than 40 APC senators including the Senate President Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki who was governor of Kwara State for two terms, were in PDP. The figure is even more in the House of Representatives. These are the jesters and political prostitutes who are painting PDP black with their list of looters. Until we adhere to the tenets of the moral law which stipulates that anyone who decamps from his party must resign from the position he attained through the party, this nonsense will continue. Whether we believe it or not, this shameless act of jumping from one party to another for selfish political dividends, is at the root of our political and economic quagmire.

*Amor, a public affairs analyst writes from Abuja