DEFECTIONS AS DEFEATIST EMOTIONALISM By Eno Ikpe sentinelres2@gmail 08023560727 Rumor is rife that some prominent and visible members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the State, among them our own dear immediate past Governor of the State, Arc. (Obong) Victor Attah, are contemplating defection from the party. This has made sensational headlines in some local newspapers. Granting it was anything beyond media speculation, I would say outright that if anyone may be impressed by this plan, call it threat, not this humble writer. From experiences of the past, defections especially among the upper echelon of a party are defeatist emotionalism. They only serve to boost the morale of the benefiting party. Sooner or later, these high profile defectors find themselves like the Grand Duke of York of our scouting yarn of old, who “had ten thousand men; he marched them up to the top of the hill and marched them back again. And when he was up he was up. And when he was down he was down. And when he was only half way he was neither up nor down”. Defections are good enough among the proletariat for spicing the campaign of the party that is beneficiary of it. For whoever may be contemplating defection, in politics as in other games there will always be winners (in Nigeria by fair and foul, in many cases foul means) and losers. Quitters are branded as bad losers, and that you have quit will not stop the victorious from savouring their victory whether deserving or not, and turning around to taunt you as good riddance. I was still gathering up here and there for crafting this piece when a sibling drew my attention to a page in the Friday November 7, 2014 edition of Daily Sun. At its page A6 is the picture of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in dancing posture and carrying a broom. The caption is “who is this?” The answer is “Governor Amaechi now, but in 2011, Governor Amaechi said, “Those who carry brooms are night soil men and juju priests”. Can you beat that?. Is Governor Ameachi now a night soil man and juju priest? Yes, defection is emotional defeatism, except in very rare cares. Those days when parties operated on ideological basis, it amounted to circumstantially being yoked with birds of a different, sometimes strange plumage. Even these days when parties operate in ideological lacuna, it is still an absurdity seeing some cherished people, let alone ex-governor Victor Attah, abandon the party they laboriously founded and funded to upstarts, to be treated joiners and debutantes in another people’s party. Ingratitude can be very hurtful, but defection hardly ever heals it. There are better ways of fighting a behemoth without being worsted. Space will not let me delve into the political experiences of the early 80s, during which today’s PDP seems in comparison a reincarnation of the woe-be-gone NPN (National Party of Nigeria) Reminiscences of that season today provide me the inspiration to counsel against defections. By the inscrutable ways of Almighty God, some of the combatants and activists in that infamy of 1982-83 are today still around to be fed with the hemlock which they had helped to concoct. Paradoxically, in 2011, it was PDP fighting like a wounded lion to stop the rampage of Udoedehe’s ACN. In 2014/2015, it is PDP versus PDP. Udo eyewot Udo, as Efik masquerades chant. Generally in a polity where people exercise their franchise freely and fairly, PDP would have been shown that the interest of one man, one family, cannot supersede the will of the people. Whether it is germane to Akwa Ibom State or not, the advice of Emeka Omeihe gleaned from the top right hand shoulders of The Nation in its edition of Monday November 10, 2014, is worth passing on to whom it may concern. It is that “the PDP must purge itself of this ruinous notion that it will continue to disregard the sensibilities of its members at the grassroots without dire repercussions. It is no longer business as usual now (that) there is a strong opposition party’’ The potential land mine that seems to have escaped the vigilance of political pundits, including the good Senator Ita Enang who recently advise his district to “ join Eket, Ikot Ekpene and together work for Eket Senatorial district to produce the next governor of Akwa Ibom State, “ is governor Akpabio choice from that district and his methods. If this stand will help the good Senator to retain his second term Senate bid, good luck to him. If this choice, an Ibibio from Eket Senatorial District, scales through the primaries, where would his running mate come from? Surely not from Uyo Senatorial District, because there is nowhere he can cast his lot in Uyo Senatorial District that it will not fall on a fellow Ibibio, and there is no history of both the governor and his deputy coming from the same ethnic stock. He cannot pick an Ono, Eket, Ibeno, Obolo, because both governor and deputy cannot come from the same Senatorial District going by precedents. His next bet would be Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, and he cannot pick one from Ikono-ndo-Ini, being Ibibio, and so the safest bet would fall on an Annang. Can we imagine an Annang just bowing out as Governor and another Annang bowing in as deputy with the eventuality that cannot be ruled out, even with all amount of optimism in the world of taking over as Governor should anything happen to the incumbent? Who then is so daft, so self-centered, as not to perceive the Penelope’s web that Governor Akpabio is weaving around Akwa Ibom State, all in his own interest, that of his extended family and his ethnic stock? This web must be untangled at every fair cost and means if Akwa Ibom State is to be safe for posterity and if the best of all times that our forebears had dreamt of and that we have already started enjoying is to be durable. As for PDP, particularly in Akwa Ibom State, the prediction of Chief Andu Ogbe, one–time National Chairman of PDP, that “PDP will self-destruct” may just be a vision which awaits its time. The process has already begun. The party may postpone the evil day, it can decelerate the swing, but it will not stop the pendulum of time’s march.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 19:54:32 +0000
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