Shortly after Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s jolting victory in the 2015
presidential election, some politicians obviously realised their mistake of not
disavowing the then President Goodluck Jonathan and his ill-starred party, the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP). But all hope was not really lost – they
attempted to salvage their wrecked political fortunes. Some immediately
denigrated their political parties and declared their allegiance to the winning
party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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| *Dasuki |
Others were subtle.
They did not want to be seen as brazen opportunists who were ready to sound the
death knell of the party on whose platform they had attained socio-economic and
political leverage. Thus, they declared their retirement from partisan
politics. It began with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reported dramatic
tearing of his PDP’s membership card. However, the former president was
recently quoted as insisting that he never tore his card. Obasanjo’s example of
retiring from politics was quickly followed by a former Chairman of the PDP,
Bamanga Tukur, the political godfather of former President Jonathan, Edwin
Clark and others. The only difference between these and Obasanjo was that they
were never involved in the razzmatazz of tearing their party membership cards
while quitting active politics.
We need not interrogate
the real motive of the afore-said politicians who chose to quit partisan
politics. Again, we need not reckon with the fact that Obasanjo’s action
appeared to have smacked of ingratitude for abandoning the same political party
on whose back he held the presidency for eight years. Let’s accept that their exit
from the political space was necessitated by old age – they were only bowing
out for the younger generation to take over.
But now, it is clear
that self-survival is the leitmotif of the current trajectory of politicians
abandoning their parties. They do not leave their parties to channel their
energies elsewhere; they are still actively involved in politics and their next
destination is the APC. Clearly, when the carapace of the self-serving excuse
that they are joining the APC to better serve their people is broken, we are
left with the discovery that these are politicians who are only fleeing to the
ruling party as a refuge from probe for corruption.
Remember, Buhari has
declared that no member of his cabinet is corrupt. This was what informed his
clearing of his Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai of the charge of
corruption for unaccountably owning assets in Dubai. This is also why despite the accused
judges’ allegation that Rotimi Amaechi tried to use them to pervert justice, he
is not being probed. In fact, just last week, a robust defence of Amaechi came
from the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption,
Prof. Itse Sagay. According to Sagay, Amaechi should not resign since the
charges by the judges were not only baseless, they are targeted at depriving
the Buhari government of the great contributions of Amaechi to good governance.
