Defection: A Brutish Instrument Of Party Politics In Nigeria

By

Lucky Alade

The instrumentalization of defection by our politicians has given the greenlight to the disgraceful perpetuation of party politics as against the threats of national chaos which has instilled some nightmarish consciousness in the minds of many Nigerians come 2015. If defection is now the solution to the problems confronting this country, I bet that certain shameless politicians would have been the long awaited Messiah to take us out of this marshy land of corruption and place us in a land flowing with Milk and Honey. But as ‘typical’ Nigerians as they have always been,they are only interested in themselves and not the masses they apparently claim to represent.

Defection is not political righteousness but an act of political prostitution. Neither is it an attempt to right the wrongs on our polity but a shameful quest by some hoggish politicians to slake their failed concupiscence. Is it not abominable for a dog to go back to its vomit?! Why are we this deceptive? If you can not act as an agent of change in your previous political party,where is the assurance you will not decamp your present political alliance in case your egomaniacal fantasies are met with similar frustrations you had in your divorced party? Let’s get it straight. A politician does not become a saint over night by switching camp but the records he has set in the past will surely speak volume for him. Any politician,to say the least,who shuffles and doubles between two political parties is not the expected Messiah that will revolutionize our battered polity. But he is rather a desperate political desperado looking for an available platform to loot our national coffers all the more.

Party politics has only succeeded in igniting and fanning the embers of ethnic,religious,and sectional consciousness in our feeble geographical agglomeration. It is an expression of the ever-gaping stretch of apathy some of our political leaders have towards us,the masses. Why must they glorify the interests of their political parties at the expense of the unification of all the ‘elements’ of our geographical landscape? Or should I safely say that our politicians do not understand the import of that maxim which says that a house(country) divided against itself can never stand? What an ignoble ignorance!

As if our politicians have not wreak enough controversies in our polity,some of our political commentators are fiercely contributing to the ‘polarization’ of this country. They seem not to understand who they are and what they represent in our strive towards a cohesive and sturdy Nigeria. I can categorically say that majority of them are just so ignorant of their place in our social strata. Instead of them to apply their rhetoric in form of ideas to foster change,inform the masses and appeal to our sense of justice, they have successfully reduced the power of their pen to some dangerous politicking in a face of our volatile polity. I don’t know if they have formed an alliance with some of our politicians to disintegrate this country. Some of them no longer constructively criticize issues but they have embarked on a mission of personal vendetta against some selected political personalities. I will not mention names. Nigerians are intelligent enough to fish them out. By the multitude of their words,we have known them.

To add to that,I will not fail to remind both our defecting politicians and misguided political commentators that a drunkard who chooses to dance naked in the open will always not realize the gravity of his action,not until his inebriated madness has spelt stupidity to his reputation.

Our polity is too sacred for some of our shameless politicians to be leaping like frogs from a party to another,croaking,agitating and disturbing the peace of our political neighborhood. Why can’t they concentrate on taking this country to the Promise Land irrespective of the political party they have  pledged their loyalty to? Are they yet to realize that all-inclusive development and national security are tasks we must all give our unalloyed support to in spite of the sheer animosity we have for certain elements in the political battlefront? Can’t we learn from the model of United States of America where the breeze of healthy democracy and national interest dominate their polity? If Nigeria disintegrate,where would our ill-meaning politicians continue their repugnant politicking? In rubbles or Planet Mars?

Let’s always rememeber: ‘A man wey dey always go thief fowl for another man’s poultry in the night go meet snake there one day and instead of breeze to open the fowl yansh,na his own yansh go open’. I rest my case. God bless us and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.