Promise Adiele
A colleague informed me recently of his intention to develop a theory which will give English words regional meanings, every country with a different meaning of a word. According to him, while a word can mean something in one country, it can mean a totally different thing in another country, therefore to continue to use words in a global context will be a disservice to the lexical enterprise. For example, the meaning of ‘corruption’ in Nigeria would be different from its meaning in the US. The meaning of ‘integrity’ in Nigeria would be different from its meaning in the UK. It is the foregoing consciousness that informs my interest in ‘defection’ as a lexical item in the global political register.
In developed countries of the world, ‘defection’ is a normal political practice motivated by divergences in principles and ideologies. All over the world, people move from one political party to another and there is nothing wrong with that. In many countries, this kind of movement is ideologically informed because the political parties are also ideologically grounded. In the US, when a politician calls himself a Democrat, you know what he stands for. When another politician calls himself a Republican, you know what he represents. Most Republicans at one time or another defected to the Democratic Party and vice versa. On such occasions, fundamental political issues as party policies affecting children and women, immigration, tax, health, education, and housing necessitated such movement. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Nigeria.
Defection as a political term has a different meaning in Nigeria. While some people call it cross-carpeting, others refer to it as decamping. Both terms leave a derogatory taste in our mouths. We may, in the interest of public decency, mildly label those who are guilty of this act as political turncoats while those who do not care about decency may call them political prostitutes. I am minded to substitute the word ‘defection’ with another word ‘apostasy’. However, ‘apostasy’ gravitates towards a religious meaning, which reminds me of the Biblical account of how the Israelites always abandoned Yahweh, while turning to other gods.
Even so, in a different context, I would have stuck with the all familiar word ‘prostitution’ to drive home the habit of the shameful debasement of the body in exchange for materiality, mostly money. Allegiance can also be merchandized in a promiscuous way when men, for various reasons, shift base in politics in a very easy, cheap manner. I am going to stick with the word ‘defection’ as it applies to Nigeria where politicians embrace it in search of positions, filthy lucre, and perhaps in a bid to evade the law. Sadly, defection in Nigeria is a different exercise mostly provoked by gain and other mundane, cosmetic considerations.
Immediately after independence during the first republic when NPC, NCNC and Action Group held sway, defection was more respectable, done with a measure of dignity. Then, politicians defected from one party to another for plausible reasons. As Nigeria’s democracy grew, defection became a casino where gain was the galvanizing force. All through Nigeria’s democratic journey, defection has never been so despicable than it has been since the return of civil rule from the manacles of military regime in 1999. The typical Nigerian politician since 1999 has impaired every rule of decency associated with defection as a legitimate political exercise. A politician belongs to one party in the morning and by evening, he is a member of another political party. Nigerian politicians have demonstrated an absolute lack of shame in their political engagements by the way they move from one party to another. How is it possible for people to return to their vomit in such a shameless manner? How is it really easy for a politician to spew profanities through inappropriate language against a political party only to defect to that same party the next day? What ideologies do political parties and politicians in Nigeria enunciate beyond gain and reprobate patronage?
In 2003 and 2007, Nigeria’s current president, Muhammadu Buhari was a member of the ANPP and was the presidential flag bearer of the party in those years. By 2011, he left the party and founded the CPC where he also contested as the presidential candidate. In 2015, he had become a member of the APC, representing the party in the presidential elections which he won. Nigeria’s former Senate President, Bukola Saraki has straddled the two leading political parties in Nigeria like a vocation.
In 2011, he was elected as Nigeria’s Senate President under the platform of the PDP. In 2015, he defected to the APC and retained his seat as the Senate President. However, in an interesting dramatic twist, he defected back to the PDP repudiating everything he stood for while in the APC. In 2013, four governors from Adamawa, Kano, Rivers, and Sokoto, together with 37 representatives and 11 senators left the PDP and defected to the APC.
Many of these politicians eventually returned to the PDP as strong party members. In August 2018, 15 Senators, 37 representatives and 3 governors from APC defected to other political parties with the PDP getting the lion share. As these politicians aimlessly roam Nigerian’s political realm, they make spirited efforts to enrich themselves and enlarge their coasts while such matters as the development of infrastructure, the rehabilitation and renovation of public institutions, the building of human capacity with an emphasis on youth development all suffer.
Today, I am beaming my critical searchlight on Imo State, the most popular state in Nigeria since the beginning of the year for obvious reasons. It is no longer news that the Supreme Court nullified the election of Emeka Ihedioha and declared Hope Uzodinma as the winner of the last gubernatorial election in the state.
That pronouncement from the hallowed chambers of the apex court has revealed the typical Nigerian politician as a desperate, self-seeking, mindless opportunist. Immediately the Supreme Court made the pronouncement, nine lawmakers in Imo State House of Assembly defected to the APC following Mr. Hope Uzodinma’s pyrrhic victory. Four members of AA, two from APGA and three from the PDP have all joined the APC which did not have any single seat in the State Assembly before the Supreme Court howler. These politicians, without regard for their constituencies and any form of honour, jettisoned their parties, switching allegiance to where the grass is ostensibly greener.
The electorates must know the kind of personalities they are dealing with, people who lack prestige or respect for themselves. In the magical whirlwind that is Nigerian politics where anything is possible, what happens if Emeka Ihedioha approaches the Supreme Court with a request for a review of the judgement and is restored to his position as governor? I am sure these politicians will quickly make a reverse and return to their vomit. If these are the kinds of people who we call representatives, then it follows that there are no genuine political representatives in Nigeria.
Dr. Adiele teaches in the Department of English, Mountain Top University via [email protected]