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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
One recurring phenomenon in the build-up to the forthcoming 2027 presidential election is the carnival-like celebration of the defection of many politically exposed figures from the opposition political parties to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
There has been such an exodus of politicians into the APC, accompanied by an electrifying fanfare, that no month passes without the ruling party rolling out the drums at the state level and mildly at both chambers of the National Assembly.
And as at the last count, the three states of Akwa-Ibom, Enugu and Bayelsa have joined the APC. But for Kebbi State with abduction, that of Taraba would have since taken place. For now, APC is in control of 25 states and still counting.
The APC’s overwhelming dominance is gregariously widespread across the six geopolitical zones of the country, leaving the opposition political parties with an insignificant number of eight states of Osun, Rivers, Abia, Anambra, Plateau, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, and obviously the two about-to-defect Taraba and Adamawa, for now.
The trailblazing events to mark the defections are normally presented in the form of a jamboree, packaged, perhaps to send warning signals and or to make a bold statement about the APC’s readiness to possess and dominate the entire political landscape ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Not restricted only to the state executives alone, the defections also involved members of the people’s parliament, the State Houses of Assembly, and both chambers of the National Assembly, thus, confirming that the APC is really battle-ready to continue its harvest of more defectors.
It has become so widespread in the legislative arm that there are only an insignificant number of opposition legislators remaining.
The prime motive and specific target of the APC-led government and leaderships at state and national levels, including the presidency, is very much clearly defined, and specifically to weaken all the opposition contending forces and make the 2027 presidential poll, particularly, less competitive and perhaps a stroll in the park.
Unfortunately, the mission of the ruling party and the presidency has apparently heightened the apprehension and speculation in many quarters of their ground plot to make Nigeria a one-party state by allegedly destabilising the opposition forces.
And weighing in on the anxiety pervading the country, Elder Statesman, Buba Galadima, argued that President Bola Tinubu has become so afraid of his re-election to the point of ensuring that every governor and important political figure must be part of the ruling party, the system, and part of him.
He expressed concerns in a chat with the Daily Sun, highlighting the fears that the one-party plot and other recent political developments are indicators that the APC-led government does not want to conduct elections in 2027, assuring Nigerians that the ruling party will not succeed in actualising its goal.
He said, “But let me assure you that elections will be held. Whether all of us are APC, there will be Nigerians who will stick their necks to challenge them, and if they continue with the kind of things they do, they will dig their own grave with their own hands and fall inside.
“There is no democracy without an alternative view. Once there is no alternative view, it becomes a dictatorship, monarchy, or fascism – you can call it any name. Even those in the APC should pray and strengthen the opposition because once there is a strong opposition, they can be relevant.
“If there is no opposition, it means the government doesn’t need you. And just as it happened in Germany when Hitler started picking group by group and everybody said it is not my turn, till it engulfed everybody,” he warned.
The pull and attractions into the ruling party, according to the orchestrators, are President Tinubu’s enticing economic policies, growth prospects for politicians desirous of remaining politically relevant in future and the inability of the opposition to provide a peaceful and united platform.
But, describing the speculation of turning Nigeria into a one-party state as a plot to gaslight the ruling party into stopping to mobilise more members, the National Secretary of the APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru, attributed the defections to the inability of the opposition parties to guarantee a political future and prospects to active politicians.
Senator Basiru, who dismissed the speculation that monetary reward is the attraction to justify the defection into the APC, told Daily Sun that the idea of turning Nigeria into a one-party state is incongruous and absurd.
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“I read a very ridiculous report claiming that the APC is offering N250 billion to governors to decamp into our party, N2 billion or so to the senators, and N1 billion to House of Representatives members to defect into the ruling party.
“It is very ridiculous, and I find it very strange that anybody in their right senses will even believe such a report. Where will we get such an amount of money, as high as N250 billion, to offer to the governors?” Basiru asked.
Expressing further concerns, the ruling party’s scribe quipped: “But why will the governors not join the APC by the way? The parameters are favourable to them. No governor needs to borrow money to pay salaries and pensions or to execute infrastructure. Unlike previously, when they either raised bonds or even took overdraft to pay salaries, it is no longer the situation today.
“Again, we also have a situation where all the other political parties are not serious about getting their houses in order and ensuring peaceful leadership is in place. As a political party, of course, APC will have to benefit from that.
“Any aspirant for elective political office, in their right senses, according to the governor of Bayelsa state, Douye Diri, won’t want to be in the PDP because they are not even sure whether their nomination forms will be signed. So, is it not more reasonable to join the APC?” Senator Basiru asked.
And justifying the defections further, the ruling party’s chief scribe said: “The indices for any political party to grow favour the APC. We have mature leadership. We have unity and amity. And, of course, President Tinubu’s policies are favourable for good governance and for people to join our political party.
“As far as we are concerned, the talk about intimidation is not true. Who is intimidating who, by the way? Everybody facing criminal prosecution belongs to different political parties, including our own party. Nobody can get immunity from criminal prosecution because of their membership of the opposition or the ruling party. That is not the case. Nobody is intimidating anybody. Everyone joining the APC has reasons for doing so,” he added.
Despite the defence to justify the defections into the APC, it has not actually reflected in the lives and living of many ordinary Nigerians.
In the perception of pundits, it is the dog that said that it is only when it sees bones outside that it will confirm the announcement of merriment going on inside its owner’s house.
Obviously, many Nigerians are yet to come to the realities of the claims by the APC-led government that the tough situations facing Nigerians have improved because they have continued to go through excruciating pains and pangs of hunger to the point of hopelessness, an analyst said.
Daily Sun gathered that while the political class are defecting into the APC, more masses are joining what some pundits refer to as the Masses Insecurity Political Party (MIPP). Their plight, appears worsened by the activities of the non-state actors, who only last week, disorganised and forced government to reschedule many of its programmes.
Their activities not only disrupted the already fixed defection of the Taraba State government officials into the APC, forcing it into an indefinite postponement, but also unsettled the programmes of the presidency with rising cases of kidnappings.
Daily Sun recalls that apart from forcing the indefinite postponement of the Taraba defection event, President Tinubu had to also hurriedly cancel his planned visit to South Africa for the G20 Summit due to the deteriorating insecurity in the country.
Warning of the grave danger currently facing the country, Alhaji Galadima, a chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), also emphasised that nobody may liberate the country from its current state of quagmire should the APC-led government continue to be fixated with the defection of opposition politicians to perfect its plot for a one-party state.
“I want to tell you that Nigeria is at crossroads. What people say is different from what they do. That is our problem. Some of us don’t have the potent instrument to fight this malaise. Some of us cannot because we can shout, and they call us frustrated persons. That is our name. Everything is abandoned now.
“There is danger ahead. Clearly, I can see it. Apart from the media, apart from our clergy, both Muslim and Christian, I think we may have to visit Okija Shrine to implore the chief priest to help us to intercede over the situation in the country because the rate we are going towards a one-party system shows that we are not practicing politics of ideology,” Galadima quipped.
But, regardless of the perception anybody may hold about the situation the country found itself in, history will recall that it is certainly not the first of its kind. What is happening now may have followed the trajectory of the build-up to the 2015 presidential election, when there were similar incidents of kidnappings of both Dapchi and Chibok secondary school girls and the unending strategic bombing of certain areas.
