Umahi’s Defection and the Unfolding Game of Political Musical Chairs

Magnus onyibe, an alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Massachusetts, USA and a former cabinet member of Delta state government carries out a detailed investigation on the Igbo quest to grab the presidency of Nigeria

What started as an act of defiance by former Senate President, Ken Nnamani in 2016 when he withdrew his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), before joining the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2017, and an unusual step taken in 2016 by Orji Uzo Kalu, former governor of Abia state , when he exited All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the APC, has now crystallized into a ‘bold step’ as President Muhammadu Buhari recently characterized the defection or cross-carpeting of David Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi state from the main opposition party , PDP to the ruling party, APC.

Ostensibly, unlike Orji Kalu who joined the APC to contend for the post of Deputy Senate President after the APC unseated the PDP and became the ruling party in 2015, Ken Nnamani defected because he was given a bloody nose by the PDP, a party on whose platform he served as Senate President between 2005 and 2007.

And his loss of influence in PDP stems largely from the role that he played in ensuring that the third term agenda of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, as reported in the media, was scuttled in the National Assembly which he led.

Having stepped on powerful toes, his path back to the senate was blocked by the powers that be in then ruling party, PDP.

Now, political realignments in Nigeria’s political space is as old as the advent of party politics, so it’s not an anathema.

Every republic since the first in 1963 to the current 9th Republic has had a fair share of carpet crossing in the South-west, Southeast8 and in the north. Jumping ship in politics is part of the so called horse trading which politics is all about.

So it came to be that, arising from the fertile imagination of some politicians, and building upon the initiative of a former governor of Kaduna state, late Mallam Balarabe Musa, who was the first to promote the concept of coalition of opposition political parties against the ruling party, a political avalanche in 2013/2014 took place in Nigeria’s political landscape . That was when several governors and ex governors in lgboland joined forces with fellow politicians in then major opposition parties such as the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) , All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and part of APGA in a coalition to supplant the PDP which had been ruling at the centre for 16 successive years since Nigeria’s transition and transformation from military dictatorship into a multi party democracy in 1999.

With Umahi’s defection last week , the game of political musical chairs is now on.

Significantly, it dovetails or it is a presage of the comment by the late political activist and media entrepreneur, Mallam Isma’ila lsa Funtua, who before his passage in July this year had earlier in January, on ARISE Television stated that if the lgbos want to be the ethnic stock that produces Nigeria’s president in 2023 , “they should belong.”

Of course it is not lost on most discerning Nigerians that the exhortation for the ‘lgbos to belong ‘is a sort of euphemism that our compatriots who occupy the eastern flank of our country should get out of their cocoon or bubble and sow their political seeds afar.

It may be recalled that the charismatic political activist, Mallam Funtua, of blessed memory, was responding to the agitation of the easterners that an lgboman should succeed President Buhari in office when his second four years tenure ends in 2023.

Remarkably, in that interview, the respected northern political leader, Mallam Funtua encouraged the lgbos to emulate the former Vice President, Alex Ekwueme, (May his soul Rest In Peace) who reached out of his lgbo enclave by literarily building political bridges across the country from the west to the north. A feat or phenomenon that facilitated his emergence in 1979 as Vice President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari , the President of Nigeria in the Second Republic.

Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi is the latest conscript or if you like, the most current to ‘see the light’ amongst lgbo politicians on the need to enlarge their coast. But if the motivation and ambition of Governor Umahi for joining the ruling APC is so that he woulda be the President or Vice Presidential candidate of the ruling party in 2023, he must be miscalculating because Ebonyi state does not have a significant population of the lgbos-only about three million and 1.5% of Nigeria’s population. Also governor Umahi appears not to posses the political followership to inspire the horde of voters which the ruling party craves.

Who knows, Umahi may just end up being like Senator Orji Kalu who defected to the ruling party, APC in 2016 with the intention to clinch the coveted position of Senate President of the 9th Assembly and unfortunately, perhaps to his greatest surprise ended up in jail.

At best, Umahi can be like Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly Church who was propped up to serve as the running mate to candidate Buhari in 2011 as a ploy to garner the votes of Christians for the Muslim /Christian candidacy which political strategists had concluded was a winning formula and a sure path to the presidency of Nigeria for Buhari who had tried twice to weave his way to Aso Rock Villa and failed.

Following the discovery that the strategy couldn’t yield the desired dividends, simply because, although Pastor Bakare and Latter Rain Assembly are both a Pastor and a Christian church respectively, they did not have enough clout to harness the Christian votes that the Buhari campaign needed. So the Buhari campaign decided to cast their fishing net farther into the sea of politics.

Smarting from that disappointment, but obviously more determined to clinch the presidency in 2015, the Buhari campaign realigned and sought partnership with the Pastor Enoch Adeboye led Redeem Church (the largest Christian denomination in Nigeria) and that’s how a senior pastor, Yemi Osinbajo an associate of former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu , (who had served as Attorney General of Lagos state) was tapped for the role.

In my estimation, unlike the 2015 episode, the 2023 presidential race, would be a different ball game.

That much has been projected in my new book: “Isma’ila Isa Funtua: A Bridge Builder. The Chronicles of a Political Activist and the Jostle for Nigerian Presidency In 2023.”

In a chapter titled “Decoding The Encoded Comments “Nigeria Is Not Turn By Turn Nigeria Ltd” and “The Presidency Should Be By Merit And Not The Place One Comes From, ” l made a case that since wisemen speak in riddles and parables, the comments needed deep scrutiny in order to decipher the real import .

Then l proceeded to do so with facts and figures in the book.

To the unsuspecting observer, it may sound naive , but Nigeria’s political space is gradually being constricted into a one party political system instead of multi party democracy that it was at inception in 1999 which is 21 years ago.

The assertion above is reinforced by the claim by Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, that more governors from the main opposition party would defect to the ruling party. That is if the claim were to be taken seriously.

It may be recalled that in an interview on national elevision, the Kogi state governor reportedly made the following comment.

“I said it long ago, not today when the party (PDP) was going through some challenges; I did say that there are 10 governors from the opposition parties that will join APC.

“We have seen one; one that is even as equal as 10, he has joined us, nine to go. Just mark my words; I don’t lie, I will never lie, and I will never deceive anybody,”

Frankly, wise people know that statements by politicians are not to be taken seriously, but with a pinch of salt.

And given the antecedents in other climes , particularly American politicians such as President Donald Trump and senate majority leader Mitch McConnell who are serial culprits in the art of double speaking and spinning of yarn, lying is not peculiar to Nigerian politicians.

Talking about Governor Umahi’s defection from the PDP to the APC which his antagonists are characterizing as political macabre dance, he too appears to have mastered the art of deception as he is on record to have vehemently denied nursing any plan to defect to the ruling party, APC.

According to media reports, Governor Umahi had in 2018 stated the following:

“Mr. President or any APC person has never asked me to come to APC, and they will never ask me. And there is no reason for me to leave my party, PDP, of which I was the party chairman, deputy governor and now governor.

“People that jump from one party to the other should examine their character, except if there is any problem within your party. As of today, till tomorrow, until Christ comes, there is no crisis in the PDP. Even if there is a need for me to leave the PDP, I can never leave the PDP to the kind of APC in Ebonyi State because with the kind of leaders in Ebonyi APC, leaders that have failed Ebonyi State, I can never be on the same political platform with them.”

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com