The recent defection of a former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress, has once again opened up the issue of cross-carpeting in Nigerian politics for scrutiny.
The move by Nnamani, who served between 2005 and 2007, is seen by political observers as one that will shake the PDP’s already fractured structure, not only in Enugu State, but also at the national level.
Nnamani was quoted to have said that impunity killed his former party, which he described as “completely dead, unproductive and unprofitable.” Cross-carpeting, or in layman’s language, defection, is as old as politics in Nigeria. Defection in Nigeria pre-dates the October 1, 1960 independence.
The first celebrated cross-carpeting episode took place in 1951, when Yoruba members of the defunct National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroon were induced and lobbied to cross over to the defunct Action Group, to prevent the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo man, from becoming the premier of the old Western Region.
This signalled the beginning of regional and tribal politics in Nigeria. As NCNC leader, Azikiwe was primed to become the premier of Western Nigeria, following the elections of 1951, where the NCNC won 42 seats in the 80-seat regional House of Assembly.
That would have confined the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a Yoruba man and the leader of the AG, to opposition leader in the Western Region House. But some NCNC lawmakers were persuaded to cross over to the AG, and within 24 hours, 20 of the 42 NCNC lawmakers had cross-carpeted to the AG, thus denying Azikiwe the premiership of the Western Region in favour of Awolowo.
This precedent set the nation’s politics around ethnic and regional rivalry, and also precipitated the crisis and instability that followed later. After that, stories of cross-carpeting became the norm, with tales of former Premier of the defunct Western Region in the First Republic, late Chief Ladoke Akintola, defecting from the AG, following a fallout with Awolowo.
The late Dr. Kingsley Mbadiwe also defected from the NCNC, after a disagreement with Azikiwe. In the Second Republic, the celebrated defection of late Chief Akin Omoboriowo, the then Deputy Governor of old Ondo State, from the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria to the defunct National Party of Nigeria, the leading political party of that era, to fly the NPN’s flag in the 1983 gubernatorial election, remains fresh in memory.
In the present democratic dispensation, beginning from 1999, prominent politicians have also defected from one party to another. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar carpet-crossed from the PDP to the Action Congress in 2007, where he ran for the Presidency.
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, had, in a space of 17 years, criss-crossed about four different political parties, from PDP to Action Alliance, back to PDP, then to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, and now the APC.
In a similar fashion, the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, has had his fair share of crosscarpeting, moving from the PDP to the Action Congress of Nigeria, whose flag he flew in 2011 as presidential candidate, back to the PDP to contest the 2015 gubernatorial election in Adamawa State.
He is now in the APC. This trend, attributed to the lack of ideology and values across party lines, and which now seems the norm on Nigeria’s political scene, is undoubtedly threatening the fabrics of the nation’s nascent democracy and rendering the opposition ineffectual.
Though defection has been part of the country’s political culture over the years, the rate at which politicians defect these days calls for concern.
For instance, PDP, analysts have said, is comatose at present due to the gale of defection that hit it in 2013, when five governors, 11 senators and 37 House of Representatives’ members, elected on its platform, jumped ship to the APC.
Whether constitutional or not, it is clear that the massive defections that have been witnessed in our latest democratic experience are self-serving, aimed at guaranteeing personal survival and not in the interest of the masses.
Every democracy requires a virile opposition to keep the government in power on its toes. The politics of bread and butter, which is seemingly being practised at the moment, must be jettisoned
It is a trend that portends grave danger for the nation’s political development and needs to be tackled headlong.
In saner climes, like the United States of America, politicians are wont to remain in their parties, irrespective of whether their parties are in power or not, in some cases for an upward period of eight years.
It is important that Nigeria, and indeed, politicians, take a cue and allow order on the scene. Every democracy requires a virile opposition to keep the government in power on its toes.
The politics of bread and butter, which is seemingly being practised at the moment, must be jettisoned. Where possible, the Nigerian people must also not hesitate to apply the relevant sections of the Constitution to call erring politicians to order, in a bid to stem the tide of this dangerous trend.
Politics, as is being practised now, portends no good for national development. While we recognise the right of association of every Nigerian as entrenched in the Constitution, Nigerian politics should not be premised on patronage but principles.
