Trivia How many times can a defector re-join PDP in Abia?

When a party chieftain is excited his opponent may win election

The governorship primaries of political parties have come and gone but some of the experiences are worth retelling.

In a particular state in the North Central part of the country, a former governor of the state who only recently defected to the PDP, proved how possible it is to run with the hare while hunting with the fox.

In this particular state, the prevailing sentiment was that there should be power shift.

But since the governor insisted on imposing his nephew as the PDP candidate, other chieftains of the party decided to play along.

The former governor, was at the venue of the primary when the results were announced.

Immediately it turned out that it was the governor’s candidate that emerged, he stepped up the game of playing along by running to the declared winner to give him an embrace with repeated chants of “congratulations!”

Immediately he was done with that, he also ran to the governor and hugged him.

But what he did next was what has amused the few that overheard him.

Moving few yards away from where the governor and the PDP candidate were sitting, the former governor placed a call to the candidate of the APC who is a very close friend and long-time political associate of his.

“Simon, Simon, congratulation! he called and continued in Hausa “Ai ka ci zabe” meaning you have won the general election.

The ex-governor was obviously trying to make capital out of the prevailing sentiment in the state.

But like somebody remarked, that action of the former governor has shown that it was possible to run with the hare while hunting with the fox. Former governor of Abia State Orji Uzor Kalu must be wondering by now how many times a man has to re-join a political party after defecting before he is so recognised.

Last week when the President Goodluck Jonathan campaign train arrived Abia, Kalu was received into the fold of the party. Observers said that would be the third time Kalu would be re-joining the PDP since his defection to the PPA in 2007.

The story of Kalu and how he tried to return to the PDP is a long one. Kalu had to leave the PDP when it was obvious that then President Olusegun Obasanjo would not allow him run in the presidential race of the PDP nor have him decide who picks the PDP ticket in his state.

He resolved that issue by forming the PPA and running as its presidential candidate while giving the guber ticket of the party to his then chief of staff, Theodore Orji, who later won and became governor.

But before 2011, godfather and godson parted ways politically and the latter dumped the PPA.

In the build up to 2015, Kalu must have done a quick assessment and decided that it would be better for him to return to the PDP. He first announced his defection, but the state chapter of the PDP denied receiving him back.

He later went to his ward and obtained a membership card and form to run as a senator but seeing the hurdles placed on his path by his estranged godson, decided to as they say in Warri “respect himself ’ and pulled out of the race.

Now that he has been received in the presence of the President, what many are asking is if the current action would be recognised by the leaders of the party in the state and if Kalu is now a member of the PDP.