By CHIDI OBINECHE

They are detectives of the right moments; adept at sniffing out the spirit of the times, and the trends that give the “staying power” in power. Their sense of timing is uncanny, as they play their cards in the steadied fashion of the chameleon. In Nigeria’s political parlance they are called AGIP – Any Government in Power.  They are captured in a lexicon most suited for the times as “turncoats”, or “fair weather friends”. They have always been around in their legions. But the intricate convulsions of the 2015 general elections played them up. They were kingpins in the increasingly emaciating Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who  bestrode the party like “Lords of the manor” in shining glamour and splendor, and at the nick of time ducked and found a new friend in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. In Napoleon Bonaparte, they learnt that “Space we can recover, time never”.
Today, their voices can be heard resonating in the din of “change”, the adopted mantra of the APC. They are like Joseph Fouche, a French seminary school teacher in the hey days of the revolution. He never completely committed himself to the church, never took his vows as a priest – he had bigger plans. He kept his options open. And when the French revolution broke out, in 1789, Fouche waited no longer. He got rid of his cassock, grew his hair long, and became a revolutionary. This was the spirit of the times. To miss the boat at this critical time could have spelt disaster. Their instincts tell them even as they sojourn in APC that power rarely ends up in the hands of those who start the journey, or even of those who further it; power sticks to those who bring it to a conclusion. They recognized the prevailing winds but did not run with them. Rather than ride the cresting wave of the moment, they waited for the tide’s ebb to carry them back to power.

Bukola Saraki
He is the Senate  president. A founding member of the PDP, he served as governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.  He became very influential in the party during the regime of the late Musa Yar’Adua, to the extent that he was touted as a member of the infamous “cabal”. Looking forward to the future rather than the ruins of the past, he anticipated the twists and turns, and did not miss the boat. He jumped ship in 2014, taking his entire state to the APC. Under the new canopy, it was not an easy ride to power. Employing sleight of hand and antics, he slithered up the ladder and hugged the seat of the Senate president. His stay on the seat has been rocky.  Buffeted by unending fusillades and not kept at ease by the real founders of the party, he has adroitly employed patience as his armour, not getting emotional or striking harshly. While the arrows are arrayed against him to push him out of power, he is skillfully building support among the senators, the bulwark of his power. As the third in the pecking order of power in Nigeria, Saraki may have found what he could not get in PDP.

Yakubu Dogara
Young, almost self effacing. He was not on the front row in the PDP in the real sense. But as a member of the House of Representatives and a principal officer, he learned the ropes so fast that he read the barometer so well to force the pace. Somehow, his ascendance as the Speaker of the House of Representatives has created a nest of problems that require fixing. According to Robert Greene’s 48 laws of power, “hurriers  may occasionally get there quicker, but papers fly everywhere, new dangers arise, and they find themselves in constant crisis mode, fixing the problems that they themselves have created.”  To build your powers foundation can take years; but the icing on the cake is to make it secure. As a ‘child of circumstance’, Dogara can give a perspective on the times we live in. Hurriers will often mistake surface phenomena for a real trend, seeing only what they want to see.  Today, from relative obscurity, he is the nation’s number four in a party he was neither a founding member, nor a major stakeholder at formation.

Atiku Abubakar
In this political dispensation, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar has emerged as a prime force, a keen player who has since 2003 been a major issue in presidential races. Under PDP in 1999, he won election to become the governor of Adamawa State. Fate however moved him up the strings when former President Olusegun Obasanjo picked him as his deputy.  He almost eclipsed Obasanjo in the run up to the 2003 presidential race with a structure and fortress that was intimidating and almost impregnable. Ever since, he has taken shots at the number one seat in all the elections, and on different platforms.  In the APC today, he has a high stake, is much respected as a leader, and is one of those, many people believe, stand a good chance in flying the banner of the party in the 2019 presidential elections.

Senator Ndoma-Egba
He was one of the surprise defectors to the APC after the elections. In his exalted office as Senate leader,  Ndoma- Egba , opened up time for himself, took the stage by storm, and enlivened the space. He worked and spoke as if there was nothing else to bother about in politics except PDP. His dance steps after the elections showed clearly where he was going. And he did not disappoint. Today, not only that he is a card carrying member of the APC , he is sitting atop the board of money –spinning Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

Senator Heineken Lokpobiri
In 1999, he began his political career as a henchman of the late D.S.P Alamieyeseigha and was the Speaker of the House of Assembly before they fell apart. After some years in reticent hibernation, he became a senator on the platform of PDP. In the dicey quicksand of Bayelsa politics, he ditched the PDP in the days ahead the 2015 general elections. Today, he is minister of state for agriculture.

Audu Ogbeh
Audu Ogbeh, the current minister of agriculture, was the third national chairman of the PDP. He was swept away by the convoluted schisms that were the lot of the party at the time, especially the 2005 abduction of Dr Chris Ngige, the then governor of Anambra state. He remained on the sidelines until the emergence of the APC. Today, he speaks of his former party with a loathing that belies the plum office he once held in the party.

George Akume
He was a two-term governor of Benue State under the PDP. He became a senator on the same platform in 2007. He left PDP in December 2010 for the Action Congress of Nigeria,  ACN, which later metamorphosed into the APC. Akume was a frontliner in the race for the seat of Senate president last year, and is regarded as one of the national leaders of the APC.

Nasir El- Rufai
His romance with the PDP dates back to the days when he was the director general of the Bureau for Public Enterprises.  He later bagged the highly influential post of minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. He left PDP in 2010 for the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, one of the parties that formed the APC. His arch political foe, Senator Shehu Sani recently in a rant said he “ate in the PDP for 14 years, before coming to the APC,” a dart designed to soil his “holier than thou image” and desecrate his APC “ Change” credentials.

Bello Masari
He was the speaker of the House of Representatives under PDP between 2003 and 2007. He left the party in 2010 for the CPC, and is today the governor of Katsina state on the platform of the APC.

Adamu Aliero
Senator Adamu Aliero held very high and visible offices under the PDP. Between 1999 and 2007, he was Kebbi State governor. In 2007, he became a senator, and later minister of the FCT. He left the PDP in 2010 and is now a senator under APC.

Senator Udo Udoma
He was a senator under the PDP twice. He was not known to have formally decamped to the APC, but is today the minister of budget and national planning.

Senator Ita-Enang
The Senior Special Assistant, SSA to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Affairs spent virtually all his years in politics in the PDP. Before he was announced as SSA, he was not known to have formally defected to the APC.

Samuel Ortom
The current governor of Benue State was before now in the thick of the affairs of PDP. He was the state secretary of PDP, the national auditor and a minister during Goodluck Jonathan’s regime.

Senator Barnabas Gemade
He was a founding father of PDP, and the second national chairman of the party. He joined APC in December 2014 and returned to the Senate.

Atiku Bagudu
The present governor of Kebbi State was a former two- term senator on the platform of the PDP.

Aminu Tambuwal
He was a principal officer in the House of Representatives before becoming the Speaker in 2011. He joined APC in December 2014 and is currently the governor of Sokoto State.

Senator Abdullahi Adamu
He served Nasarawa State as governor for two terms under PDP. He also was a senator under PDP. He left for APC and is currently a senator.

Senator Danjuma Goje
The ex-Gombe State governor also ran for the PDP presidential ticket in 2010, and in 2011 became a senator on its platform before ditching the party for the APC. He is a serving APC senator.

Dakuku Peterside
He was in the House of Representatives for eight years under the PDP. He left for APC in 2013 and ran for the seat of Rivers State governor.  He is currently the director general of NIMASA (Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency).

Rabiu Kwankwaso
He was a former Kano State governor and minister of defence under PDP governments. He joined APC in late 2013 and is now a senator.

Rotimi Amaechi
The current minister of transportation was a two–term governor of Rivers State under the PDP. He ditched the party in 2013 and ran a vitriolic campaign against it before the 2015 elections.

Rochas Okorocha
He was in PDP during the Obasanjo regime and held plum appointments as special adviser and board chairman of a parastatal before contesting and winning elections as Imo State governor in 2011 under the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.  He ditched the party midway into his first term and joined the APC, under which he is serving his second term.