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Defection fever ahead of 2023 polls

Ahead of the 2023 elections, political gladiators are scurrying to shore up their membership with high profile politicians. BIYI ADEGOROYE and JOHNCHUKS ONUAYIM look at the trend, especially against the claim that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is on a poaching spree

 

 

There is no gainsaying that the two major political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in the trenches trying to increase their numerical strength and woo major opponent leaders from the states to their parties.

 

This is evident as the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus recently warned the ruling party members to stop wooing his governors. Secondus might be right as most times you hear two or three PDP governors were about to join the ruling party. Recently, the governor of Borno State, Prof. Zulumu said the governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed would soon join APC.

 

Mohammed has not been able to deny that statement credited to the governor of Borno State. Also the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde said that the ruling opposition should stop wasting its time, he was not leaving PDP. Makinde’s outburst indicated that he was being wooed by APC to defect to them.

 

Makinde and Bala are not the only PDP governors being wooed but the only in the public domain. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was also being wooed with the allegation that he would fly the presidential flag of the party in 2023.

 

It wasn’t long President Jonathan came to dismiss the insinuations.

 

The series of insinuations that some PDP governors would soon defect to APC have brought the worries of the recent romance of the Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki with APC governors and chieftains.

 

The Edo State governor was the only PDP governor who attended the second term swearing in of the governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu on February. 23. Worrisome to his attendance was the statement credited to APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that there was no PDP governor among them.

Tinubu’s statement, to many people, might mean that Obaseki might return to the APC despite defection from the party sometime last year after a humiliating disqualification of the sitting governor denied the APC ticket to contest the governorship election on the platform of PDP.

 

Obaseki fell out with his political godfather, former governor of Edo State and past National Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and could not secure the APC ticket for his second term ambition. His inability to secure the party’s ticket pitched the APC governors against Oshiomhole and Tinubu.

 

The APC governors did all they could to save Obaseki to secure the APC ticket to no avail, as Oshiomhole and Tinubu were determined to take the ticket away from him. But determined to secure his second tenure, he defected to the opposition PDP and secured the ticket of the party. With the ticket of the opposition party he was able to secure his second term as governor with 307, 955 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu’s 223,443.

The build-up to the feisty electoral campaign was full of mudslinging typical of politicians, as attempts were made to discredit Obaseki’s certificates issued by the University of Ibadan.

 

From the other side, slogans like “Edo no be Lagos,” an allusion to Senator Ahmed Tinubu’s truncating of the then Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s second term bid rented the airwaves. Not even the heavy presence of 11 APC governors at the University of Benin Sports Complex, the Chairman, Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Committee of the party, Mai Mala Buni, led 10 governors for the APC candidate, Ize-Iyamu could stop Obaseki. Needless to say, the leader of the APC in the South-South, the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State; Dapo Abiodun (Ogun); Abubakar Bagudu (Kebbi); Muhammad Abubakar (Jigawa); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna); Hope Uzodinma (Imo); Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (Ondo); Gboyega Oyetola (Osun) and Abubakar Bello (Niger); were in attendance.

 

With the full support of the PDP leadership and Governor Nyesom Wike as campaign Director-General, Obaseki pulled through, increasing the tally of PDP governors in the country. Since then, there has been no love lost between Obaseki and his godfather, Oshiomhole until recently when the governor visited him.

 

Obaseki visit to Oshiomhole has also been a source of concern to PDP members. It has been further been given greater by the axiom credited to Hans Morgenthau that in politics there is no permanent enemy or friend but permanent interest.

 

Fears are rife that this seems to be playing out between Obaseki and APC members. The fears have been fuelled by allegations that after Chief Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, three PDP governors may follow suit. Such names as Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Prof. Ben Ayade (Cross River) and Senator Bala Mohammed (Bauchi) have featured on the list.

 

Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal had dispelled the rumour, stating that the PDP governors are  more than united as was seen in the fact all the governors attended the recent meeting of the party.

He said: “All 15 of us are here present. We are individually committed to good governance in our various states in order to make our party strong. This is a clear statement that we are united and working towards strengthening our party for the future.”

 

The Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, told the gathering that the PDP remains strong in Ebonyi State despite the exit of Umahi, and faulted reasons adduced by Umahi for leaving for the APC but said it was a thing of joy that the PDP structure in the state remains intact.

 

He, however, expressed delight that the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) took proactive steps to ensure that Umahi did not take undue advantage of the PDP structure in the state.

The worry is what could APC members be promising Obaseki that he is finding a new love with them after saying that he risks losing his integrity if he returns to the APC. His words: “I couldn’t have contested on a party, won on that party and then consider moving to another party. “It is not the kind of thing to do; it’s not the right thing to do and I am sure you will not encourage me to do that.”

 

However, some political pundits have said that PDP should not dissipate its energy as Obaseki would not return to APC. For them, Obaseki going to Akeredolu’s swearing in was to pay back the solidarity given to him by APC governors during the election. It was alleged that the APC governor supported him, not minding they had a candidate in the election.

 

Among the APC governors, it is on record that only Kano, Imo and Kogi states APC governors worked against Obaseki for his second term bid.

 

The pundits also said the recent visit of Obaseki to Oshiomhole was on the interventions of some political and business mogul on the recent probe of instituted by Obaseki against Oshiomhole on hospital furnishing in Edo State. Obaseki is said to be probing Oshiomhole’s government of about N2.4 billion used to furnish hospitals in Edo State.

 

Observers believe that should Obaseki return to APC, he would have shown himself as a typical Nigerian politician that do not value agreement and do not see anything wrong in jumping around like political prostitute- soothing at variance with the principles he is believed to stand for. To the party leadership, reconciliation seems to be top on the cards.

 

For instance, Prince Secondus recently led members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP to the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK), and was able to extract commitments from him that he remains in the party.

 

He even utilised the occasion to advise those he described as “our brothers from the other side, especially some of these governors and leaders of APC,” to face the business of governance, as jumping around and looking for critical stakeholders of our party to poach will not resolve the issue of security or economy.

 

He assured that Fani-Kayode, who he described as a man if his word, will not leave PDP, irrespective of the amount of tricks.

 

The visit was informed by the combined effect of the disclosure by the Kogi State Governor that Fani-Kayode has joined the APC and the former minister’s romance with the ruling party. Fani-Kayode too, had expressing delight for the visit, stating” “I never left the PDP. I am in PDP and am proud to be here.

 

Whatever is happening in the country, the best thing for us to do is to build bridges across party, regional, ethnic and religious lines. So that we will all be glad to have a country that we can call our own.”

 

Similarly, former Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki, underscored the importance of unity in the party, stating that all and sundry should know that “we are united; we are together. Fani-Kayode is still in PDP, will continue to be in PDP and will remain in PDP.”

 

 

Observers believe that the PDP in particular needs to put its house in order with the ongoing reconciliations, ensure justice, fair play and internal democracy to vitiate or stop unjustly treated and marooned members from jumping at any carrot the ruling party might throw at them.

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