The APC’s Voyage In South East

The ruling All Progressive Congress APC,APC made its entry into the Southeast political hemisphere through the spontaneous defection of the former Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha,ORO of Imo State .And, recently the decamping of yet another ailing Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State from the PDP to the APC was another tentacle of the ruling party extended to the region of the Southeast. Of a subtle, but somewhat politically significant is the carpet crossing of Governor Prof. Ben. Ayade of the Cross River State from the PDP to the APC. Also, without ignoring the mention of the most recent sins of party prostitution committed regrettably by the incumbent Deputy Governor of Anambra State few weeks penultimate to the just concluded governorship election of the state.
All these abnormal horizontal political movements and bandwagon phenomenon are testamentary to the awkward situation and obtuse political geometry in Nigeria generally. In most cases, compelling reasons were adduced to buttress the crazy oscillations between the two sides of similar political platforms–the APC and PDP mainly.
This is not the denial of the fact that the numerous other extant political parties do not experience the turbulence of the vicious vertical or horizontal crises cross of the political actors in the polemics game of politics. Of course, they do, but, oftentimes at the receiving end of it as ,either victims or landing and launching pads. Evidences abound, that the smaller political parties in Nigeria served the curious purposes of the entry port or last resort, for the bigwig political elements who use and eventually dump them.
In the Imo State, the former Governor ORO utilized the platform of the Oriental All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA as the launch pad for his debutant to the mainstream, and actualized the lifetime aspiration to become a governor, and finally abandoned the APGA to the APC party afterwards. That historical trip, did not alter much in Imo State, because, it has since become apparent that the state is not an APC state ,though under the government of the party. The others, including the Ebonyi, Cross River States and Anambra State Deputy Governors, did theirs under political compulsion. Obviously, there were compelling forces(visible and invisible) behind there disposition.
Meanwhile, history has taken records for the posterity.
The fact remains, that, as usual, there is the truth that there is no smoke without fire. For one selfish arrogant reason or the other, prostitute and prodigal politicians either abandon the party or are implicitly dumped by the party that nurtured them into the political power limelight.
Which ever perspective it is viewed, the development is not only distasteful, but, fraught with shortcomings, though, few dividends thereof may be entailed.
The ease with which inter-party defections are made in Nigeria is actually enhanced by the virtual absence of political ideology. The numerous political parties available evolve with no definite political ideological backgrounds. They borrowed ideological appendages like the ‘progressives, democratic, Republican, etc ‘,which are all mere lip-services , and window dressing dispositions . That the political parties are bereft of sound political ideological principles enables the recurring oscillations between the different party platforms to achieve selfish political goals.
The reasons in the foregoing makes it possible for the ruling party at one time or the other to dominate the political scene by hook or crook, sometimes through the use of implicit and explicit coercion or outright hoodwinks .And this gambits of compulsive defection bandwagon, become seriously abated because, the political characters in question are oftentimes dubious with lots of skeletons in their cupboards. Their defection sometimes do not convert the states to the party favoured by such defection.
The money bag politics that has been systematically in vogue adds feathers to the drives towards party prostitution. Of course, most of the vertical and horizontal political carpet crossings are chiefly motivated by pecuniary advantages .Money ,in the ‘Ghana must go bags’ do change hands brazenly in most cases, just to do the magic.
But, the adventurous incursions, explorations and exploits of the ruling APC is not only phenomenal but purely tentatively sinister, and loosely gripping. The abysmal failure to convert Anambra State to an APC state is a great source of relief that lends credence to the preceding statement. And that assertion gets more impetus from the truth that even the outstanding APC States of Imo State and Ebonyi status quo maintained partially by hook and crook only fillip by the compulsive peculiar situations that founded the bandwagon exodus. In the guise of hooking their States to the national political grids , the defecting Governors as cited did so for obvious selfish arrogant political reasons.
In a nutshell, the APC do not really have any strong grip on the Southeast, despite desperate political voyages to the region .The recent show down to the ruling APC in the just concluded and widely acclaimed free and fair governorship election in Anambra state vindicates the syllogism. Soon the remaining southeast states grabbed by political hoodwink and coercion will be restored to the Oriental folds.