I DO NOT WORRY FOR PDP; IT IS APC THAT I AM WORRIED ABOUT
There are stories or shall I say rumors about large number of PDP elected politicians defecting to APC. If these stories are true, PDP has nothing to worry about. But APC has a lot to worry about. In an earlier piece just before the election, I stated that after the election that we would have another mega party and that what was in doubt was if it would be PDP or APC. It is one of those things that I wish I had made a wrong call. I hate to be right on this.
Some of my Igbo compatriots have been urging their representatives to join APC and damn the consequences and others are throwing their support to APC for the governors' election, in the hope that APC is the game in town now. This is likely to be the case in the next couple of days. APC will win much bigger this time around than it did in the presidential elections.
This will be a bad move
But should this happen the immediate beneficiary would be APC but on the long run PDP would be the ultimate winner. History is on the side of PDP. During the Nigeria/Biafra war, Nigeria found an Ibadan University lecturer by the name of Ukpabi Asika of O nye ube ya ruru ya rama fame to be the governor of East Central State (Igbo State). Twenty years later nobody remembered Ukpabi Asika. Today his name is not in the annals of Nigeria history. In Enugu, Awka, Owerri, Abakaliki, Umuahia, Asaba, PH you will not hear his name mentioned. The more perplexing thing is that in Lagos and Abuja, Asika's exploits are also dead. He was a traitor and is recognized as such. This would be the how the current defectors would be forgotten also.
For PDP this will be an opportunity to purge its members who are not true believers. Obasanjo, and his fellow new believers in APC would swell the APC population and would win immediate attention but these defectors would be the ultimate losers, even more than APC. APC knows or should know who their true friends are. If anybody thinks that “baboon will work and monkey go chop” he is living in a fool's paradise. The reason why SE politicians are defecting to APC is the belief that Senate President and or House Speaker would be zoned to SE and these defectors are doing so just to be elected as such. As Governor Aliyu of Niger State sees it:
“…politicians defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressive Congress (are) as people who are suffering from poverty of integrity, morality and principle…electorates should not be deterred by defections from the PDP adding that those who should worry are members of the APC that will soon have problems of political profiteers in their hands…”
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That is the truth.
Those who fight together share together. Original APC members should get the office of Senate President and House Speaker. If no SESS person was there before, none should be there, after. Fair is fair. There are many other ways to reflect the Federal Character. But if APC tries to fit a round object into a square hole they will pay the price for the effort. By the time APC has absorbed the former PDP governors who had defected and the current newest defectors, there would be nothing for the APC founding fathers (AFF). Any effort to marginalize AFF would bring about the downfall of APC.
That much should be clear. How does anyone know that if things get better in the future in PDP that the defectors would not defect again? Once a thief always a thief.
What APC ought to do is to establish a set of core beliefs. People who want to be APC members would swear to those belief systems and would be admitted to what the Christian religion refers to as Inquirers' Class . During this period they are taught the party's culture and beliefs and after a year or so of learning, they would be baptized but not yet ready for the communion ( chop-chopping ). That comes after confirmation say in two years.
For one to jump from Senate President in PDP to Senate President in APC, would be outrageous. It will only prove what some people already believe: that there is no difference between APC and PDP.
We shall all see how these things turn out.
Written by Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba.