science continued to be amazed by some certain occurrences which
regularly emerge out of politics in Nigeria.
For example, recently after the apparent defeat of President Goodluck
Jonathan, many spineless and unprincipled politicians began a gale of
defection to the new incoming ruling party, All Progressives Congress
(APC). The storm was so much that one of two reasonable leaders in APC
sounded a note of warning to APC leadership against these fair weather
politicians.
We have never heard of or even read of hundreds of Republicans
defecting to the Democratic Party after the Republican Party had lost
the Presidential elections for two consecutive times in the United
States.
What the Republican Party did was to go back to the drawing board to
begin a process of rebuilding the party, preparatory to the next
Presidential Election. No, it does not happen like that in any
civilised and developed political system.
But here in Nigeria first, following the party primaries of some of
the major political parties, those who were not favoured defected to
other parties where they thought they would have a better opportunity.
Now, after the apparent defeat of PDP Presidential Candidate, a
movement of swam of defectors began to defect to APC. Throughout the
country the gale of defections reached peak in all the States of the
Federation. But expectedly, Imo State as usual had more defectors than
any other state in Nigeria. Although there were some glittery
politicians who defected to APC or to PDP before the election, the
trend became so acute and sustained immediately after the Presidential
election. This raises a critical question. Why are people defecting to
APC in quick succession after the party had won the Presidential
election?
Although there may be very many explainable reasons, some key ones
remain paramount. Because most of Nigerian politicians play what could
be described as "politics of stomachology." This does not require any
explanation. Others outside this classification are those who play
politics of "opportunism" And thirdly, there are those who play
politics of "projection." Each of these must be explained.
Painfully enough, those who play "politics of stomachology" are well
to do personalities whose wealth and assets as rich persons are not in
doubt. People may ask, if these are wealthy persons, why do they still
indulge in playing politics of stomachology... the answer is simple. It
was the late Abiola who said, "What I fear most is going back to
poverty bracket." No rich person would like to go down to poverty
level. Therefore, they see that playing politics of stomachology is a
way of sustaining their financial eminence. Because, according to
Winchester Oslo, "the distance between affluent and poverty levels is
very tenuous." Therefore, in order to maintain their affluence level,
they have to go with wind of change.
The second category of defectors is those to be described as those who
play politics of "opportunism." To them, now that the APC has won the
Presidential Election, it is the party's President that would have to
distribute numerous political positions, ranging from Ministers,
Ambassadors, Heads of Government Agencies, Chairmen and members of
big-time corporations such as NNPC, and many other numerous positions
from which they can distribute some political largess. So, their
geometric calculation is that it is better to join APC now so that
they could be counted along.
But knowing the Nigerian politicians, those in APC now would see the
decampees as "those opportunists who want to reap where they did not
sow." Sooner or later, these decampees would be virtually disappointed
because, if the President elect plays the type of politics many expect
him to play, he may pull a some surprises by boldly going all out to
pick somebody from PDP camp if such a person is adjudged to likely to
be competent but above all "incorruptible." In that scenario these
decampees would soon find out that they have slapped tipper lorry
carrying sand.
The third category of decampees are those who play politics of
"projection." What this group of politicians are doing now is to get
inline with the APC members projecting that through their activities
which may centre primarily on sycophancy which may include taking of
goods and colourful advertorials on the pages of most of the national
papers, assailing the President elect with all sorts of names in order
to be noticed.
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