Politics: Rising Defection vs Falling Ideology -By Abdu Abdullahi

A chronic disease is currently devastating Nigeria’s political domain. It is the renewed vigor of restless and competitive defection from one party to another by ambitious politicians in their desperation for power, fame and resource manipulation.

Harold Lasswell’s book, ‘Politics: who gets what, when how’, can be an effective tool for full understanding of this political behavior and shenanigans.The intensity and intricacies of defections between now and the period of 2027 elections will overtly baffle the mind and continue to trigger debates as to the ideological bankruptcy of our contemporary politicians. It is evident that defection is the smoothest way of getting power with the primary objective of resource plundering such as budget padding for personal gains.

More than 20 years, events have revealed that political migration has not been aimed at strengthening democracy and its institutions in Nigeria. Neither does it have the masses concern as paramount. Rather, political decamping has only succeeded in widening the political game and space of individuals for political survival to become stronger than institutions, while the nation’s protracted crises are frustratingly unresolved, and the yearnings as well as the aspirations of the masses remain persistently elusive.

Sadly, unnecessary defections have created a dangerous gang of parasitic politicians who have forsaken the essence of politics as a selfless service to the people and substituted it with the politics of ‘stomach infrastructure’. Those who cannot manage ideological thoughts and practices are in politics with a zero vision and do not have the capacity to move the society forward. Their only capability is tilted towards self enrichment and personal comfort.

By and large, political defection is actually a deflection from the basic tenets of democracy to the political decay of ‘democrats.’ It moves away from political morality to self-indulgence or personal idiosyncrasies. Party migration by individuals does not consider developmental issues but self-aggrandizement as the best political practice.Abraham Lincoln’s emphatic assertion is that for every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader.

Contextually and with the current wave of indiscriminate defections, for all selfish politicians, we may end up not having dedicated leaders. When almost every politician is power hungry to achieve self- complacency , pomposity and a source for amassing ill- gotten wealth, we may lose the potency of dedication in both politics and leadership. In the end, our democracy will be in a state of complex disorder.

In the school of the late Malam Aminu Kano, we saw the pragmatic example of political dedication and viability. Before departing to the great beyond, he had assiduously established a political institute of exalted ideology aligned to the ‘left’, under the banner of the People’s Redemption Party( PRP). An unforgettable lesson he taught still resonates, ” We want to suffer for our philosophy and stand by it. We don’t want to be in power by all means”. Indeed, we were once blessed with a political Messiah who did not consider election as a do or die affair. He was faithful to his political conscience because he wanted order to prevail.

Till his death, he remained ideologically balanced, yet ‘stubborn’, strictly observing the fundamental laws of ideology for a radical change and deepening of democracy through deployment of sound vision, perseverance, jingoism, selflessness. Eventually, he succeeded in creating indelible values in politics instead of creating defection virus in politics. He ended up justifying his people centred leadership rather than the people justifying their followership on him.

Clearly, the ongoing extraordinary drama of political prostitution is ignited by the abject poverty of ‘democratic, functional and independent parties’. Our existing political parties have fatally been infected by the venom of powerful individuals who have usurped the dignity of party structures and supremacy. They are lacking of the essential values of internal democracy and are dispossessed of working cohesion for a defined target. They are functioning like a body without a soul.

The poor outcome is that the unity of the members of these parties is not based on political realities, national agitations but fluctuating circumstances that will favour them. For instance, the practice of merger or coalition is now assuming a new character of opportunistic democracy to wrestle power from the incumbent government. Compare this to the meetings of the nine progressive governors drawn from different parties of the Second Republic. Their actions were compelled by national agenda and not personal ambition.

For the record, the Second Republic politics was keenly and ideologically contested by the veterans Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Malam Aminu Kano as the key political players. Each one supported his political struggles with a clearly developed ideology.They engaged in politics with a sincerity of purpose to make our world a better place to live in. In other words, they lived for others as they were political servants of the people not masters.

For example, the Awolowo camp was known for its sterling quality of discipline among its members which reflected positively on governmental affairs. The Aminu Kano group adopted and followed the radical way of politics for reformation. The Azikiwe political movement succeeded in building a social consciousness for social mobility. Unfortunately, no attempts are made by most of our contemporary politicians to step into their shoes. Even the so called youths who are advocating for power to be surrendered to them are lacking outstanding principles that can make our democracy masses oriented. Both the young and the old politicians are poor in political principles. That is why Nigeria will continue to be enmeshed in staggering crisis of underdevelopment.

From all indications, there is no adequate space for political ideology today but mainly brouhaha and hullabaloo. We are always bombarded with politics of personalities and how they participate in unending conflicts and cheap popularity. It is quite unfortunate that they are not combative with ideas to propel the country forward. This is the 21st Century, yet our politics is still archaic and uninspiring. Day by day, the people are demonstrating political apathy while the political elites are ideologically falling apart. Thus, democracy is reduced to the status of an orphan.

On this note, a paradigm shift is desirable and imminent from the politics of go-getter to the politics of go-giver. It is high time for the rebirth of real politics that has ideology as its bedrock. Democracy will never be deepened as long as it is infiltrated by men of broken down principles. By continuously changing party to especially the ruling party, democracy is losing its unbridled character of universality and dynamism.

The case of former governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state suffices here. This man saw,came but failed to conquer as he was conquered by his own political dishonesty and betrayal. The god of defection rejected and dishonored him at the most critical time of his political ambition. And in this, there is a great lesson for the followers of defection religion.

The late Uthman Dan Fodio identified two broad based politics: just and unjust. According to him, just politics is for the benefits of the majority of people while unjust politics is the opposite. Therefore, nomadic politicians are unjust because their majority is power constituency only, period!

Abdu Abdullahi
aaringim68@gmail.com
07036207998