A gale of bewildering, unprincipled defections

Given the current rate of defections from the PDP to the APC, it will be a miracle if at the inauguration of the Muhammadu Buhari APC government on May 29 anyone of ‘timbre and calibre’ is left with President Jonathan. The defections began shortly before the presidential poll, with some politicians crossing over to the APC hours before the ballots were cast. Some of the defections, such as the ones that convulsed Ondo State and unnerved Governor Olusegun Mimiko, were so comprehensive and debilitating that they left the victims dazed and disconcerted.

The defections have gone essentially in one direction, where they used to be multidirectional many months back. The only beneficiary now, of course, is the APC. This has left the PDP haemorrhaging very badly. In fact, some politicians now actively fear that if the defections go on at this frenetic pace, the country could transform into a one-party state, especially because there is no law regulating or barring defections. Politicians no one ever expected could defect have done so unashamedly and cavalierly.

If anyone thought the defections were limited to specific geopolitical zones, he would be wrong. No zone is left out in the scramble. The defectors come from the North and South, East and West. They are young and old, rich and poor. What binds most of them together is their common opportunism.

One reason for the gale is the well-known reluctance by Nigerian politicians to roost in the opposition, a camp described and derided as a punishing wilderness of lack and want and humiliation. Since their businesses depend on government patronage, staying in the opposition is sheer ostracism and death. The second reason is that both the APC and PDP are widely believed to lack ideological differentiation. Even if this is not wholly true, the defectors themselves do not think they are discomfited by ideology, nor do they attach any ideological coloration to the two main parties.

There will, therefore, be more defections in the days ahead, some significant, some unremarkable. No one will stop them; and no one can stop them. Indeed, it will take a few more years for the peregrinations to end and the evolution of the parties to be completed. Meanwhile, roll out the drums and welcome into the new ruling party the pilgrim fathers and the prodigal sons.