A Glut Of Gutless Politicians -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

2027 may still be two years away, but already Nigerian politicians are falling over themselves either to get into office or sustain power. Their hyperactivity bespeaks a class that has failed to pull up any trees in office and is desperate to survive by any means.

The only surprise with the defection of Umo Enoh the Akwa Ibom State Governor from the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was that the announcement took this long. For months, the man elected governor on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party had taken to innuendos and veiled threats to his helpless and hapless cabinet members to chart his cause to the APC. The goal which he made very little effort to conceal was to browbeat them into capitulation and submission when he decides to move. Alas, it was not just his cabinet members that the trick worked on so well. On announcing his defection to the All Progressives Congress, some members of the State House of Assembly, suspected all along to be an extension of his cabinet in a manner that thrashes the principle of separation of powers, also made the move to the ruling party.

For weeks now, the presidency has taken great pains to deny that it is using every trick in the box, some not too subtle or gentle, to swell the ranks of the ruling APC and effectively turn Nigeria into a one-party state. But with the gale of defection, the conclusion is inevitable and rather unfortunate.

In describing his seven social sins, the immortal Mahatma Gandhi spoke of politics without principles. The father of Indian democracy may have since journey through the gates that await every mortal but his prophecy is playing out in Nigerian politics today. To put it mildly, Nigerian politicians have no principles whatsoever, and they make no pretence about it. In fact, they are so shameless about their lack of clear-cut principles or ideology that they have no qualms flaunting it.

For many of them, what drives them is political gain, which means political power which beats out the path to the national treasury, and the aversion to political pain, without which no politics which is profitable to the poorest can be played.

Many of those who were elected or who bludgeoned and battered their way into different positions in 2023 have done laughably little in the past two years to justify their positions. That they will spend what is left of their current terms in office bartering their souls to retain their seats is troubling, and is testament to the fact that they are not just morally bankrupt but lack the nerves or nuance to hold on to people’s trust.

The 2023 elections, just like the 2015 elections, may have sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s political firmament. With 2027 closing in, the APC is browbeating politicians in other political parties to make the jump. The PDP, which is of identical plumage to the APC in terms of corruption, confusion, disruption, and distraction, has been especially vulnerable to this brand of vicious politicking. The offer is to jump or be jeopardized and many opposition politicians are taking the bait because their cupboards are stacked full of skeletons.

The defenders of those who are defecting to the ruling APC may argue that the constitution allows freedom of association. But unlike such polemists and the politicians they support, the constitution has a conscience. The constitution is a code of conscience; it embodies the conscience of a country. Because it has a conscience, the constitution is clear on the conditions for a defection. However, unfortunately, these conditions are hardly ever met by those defecting and damningly, the courts have been reluctant to bring down the hammer.

Political participation is about conviction. But many Nigerian politicians lack conviction in politics, especially in its primary purpose of serving as a vehicle for the betterment of society. For many of them, politics is about their private pockets, oversized paunches and outsize egos.

For Nigeria, this glut of gutless politicians represent its festering sores as well as its flailing future.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com