A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and political affairs analyst, Dr. George Agbakahi has stated that the flurry of defections into the ruling APC by opposition governors and national Assembly members and others, was due to the sterling performance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He also said the detectors want to save their political career from the sinking parties.
Agbakahi, who is South East leader of Tinubu Support Organization and member of 2023 Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) Media and Publicity Directorate, explained that far from political survival or lack of ideology, the defectors had to think of their political survival given that the opposition parties like the Peoples Democratic Part, PDP, and Labour Party, LP are either in life support or bleeding badly.
Speaking on the development, in an Arise Television current affairs programme, which was monitored in Abuja by our reporter, Dr. George Agbakahi, stated that defection is not a new thing in Nigerian politics or even in the United States of America, whose democracy Nigeria is copying.
Politically speaking, political alliance, realignment and alignment are all major features of multi-party democracy and it’s been ongoing since time immemorial. It’s not only in Nigeria, it’s a global issue.
Going to the United States, you remember a major world politician, President Donald Trump, he was once a member of Democratic Party sometime in 2001 and 2009 before he later decamped to the Republican Party, and now he is the President of that great country, United States of America.
In the Nigerian context, you remember in the Second Republic, it was Abubakar Rimi being the first governor that defected from PRP to NPP. So it’s ongoing. I remember vividly during the Obasanjo regime or towards the end of the regime; that was 2007 election when PDP won about 28 governorship seats and later four governors defected to the party.
I believe that time we only had AD (Alliance for Democracy) winning in Lagos state, the current President was the governor; the then ANPP (All Nigeria Peoples Party) winning in Borno, Kano, Yobe and I think one other state.
What I’m saying is this, defection in a political system is not an aberration, this has started long ago. So all these governors or senators or honourable members that are defecting to the ruling party in the country, the APC, there is nothing disingenuous or cynical about it,” Agbakahi stated.
He cited Section 68 of the 1999 Constitution, which he said made it clear that if one defects to another party, the person loses his or her seat in case of lawmakers.
“But people have to remember that that same Section 68 Sub 1(g), there is a little bit of ambiguity in there in the sense that if you are defecting to another party when your party is in disarray you are justified.
That’s why you have never seen any court of law in Nigeria that has removed any politician, be you a member of the House of Reps or senate or governor that has defected, except when his or her party is not in turmoil,” he said.
He noted that aside from the crisis in their parties, the governors and other defectors are defecting because of the performance of President Tinubu.
So, one of the reasons in my view some of these governors are defecting to the APC is probably because of the good work the president is doing. The economy has turned around and I see these defections, particularly the one in Enugu state, which is one of the major states, probably the capital of South East.
When you talk about the five states there, I see it as an affirmation and utmost proclamation of the renewed hope agenda of the current government. That means that his policies, all the initiatives are working. The economy is turning around, the inflation is coming down to probably about 18.12 percent now, and our foreign reserve has gone up to about 43 billion dollars, there is a trade surplus, so that’s why I see them defecting,” he added.
The APC chieftain maintained that the party is also doing a lot to improve stability and unity in the party in order to overcome some shortcomings that might come with such massive defections in the party like the way the party is managing such issues in Delta state between contending parties.
But the thing about the Enugu defections, it’s instructive to note that in Enugu state the governor did not defect alone, he defected with almost the entire political structure. But more importantly, all the former governors, Ugwuanyi, Sullivan Chime and probably Chimaroke; they are all defecting enmass to the APC. So this is a big boost for the APC not only in Enugu state but also the South East,” he said.
He said that APC is now entrenched in Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo states, while the governors of Anambra and Abia states, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Alex Otti respectively have pledged to support President Tinubu because his policies and vision intertwined with theirs.
While dismissing insinuations in some quarters that the defections were for lack of ideology, political survival or for personal interest as against the interest of the people, Dr. Agbakahi cited the example of Enugu state, who gave his reasons for defection as the alignment in his vision and policies with that of President Tinubu.
The governor of Enugu state or one of his spokespeople came on television and said that PDP was not taking Enugu state seriously. He came again and said that his vision in Enugu state is interwoven with that of Mr. President. He again went as far as saying that they don’t want to stay with the sinking ship, the PDP.
We all know what has been going on in PDP. PDP for quite some time has been on life support. This is a party that cannot get its acts together, a party that cannot conduct a convention, they are in court, they are fighting,” he stated.
He said that a similar chaotic situation obtains in the Labour Party where Abure and Nenadi Usman are fighting for supremacy.
“Like I said the economy has turned around, even the food prices are coming down. I went to the market last time and bought a bag of rice for about N62, 000. I remember around this time last year I bought it for around N84, 000.
I’m a middle class guy. When I go to the market, one moodu of garri is N1,100. I remember by this time last year it was N1,500 to N1,600. Food prices are coming down because of the bold policies and initiatives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that’s what you see happening,” he maintained.
