After months of rumors, speculations and repeated denials, former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, aka FFK, made a spectacular volte-face, decamping from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which he once called an “Almajiri Peoples Congress” of “cow-lovers and corrupt treasury looters.” Seven years after leaving the APC to become a fierce critic of President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, Fani-Kayode, former spokesman of the 2015 PDP Presidential Campaign Council was presented to Buhari at Aso Rock, Abuja, by Yobe governor and APC caretaker committee chairman, Mai Mala Buni, who was accompanied by his Zamfara counterpart, Bello Matawalle. Anticipating a barrage of criticism to follow his defection, Fani-Kayode, who explained that he was a founding member of the APC, said he returned to the party for the unity of Nigeria and had neither regrets nor apologies to his detractors and critics. His penchant for controversy followed hints that he was working to woo the governors of Oyo, Bauchi and Enugu states, Seyi Makinde, Bala Mohammed and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi respectively to also decamp to the APC. In the countdown to the 2015 general elections, FFK’s defection, perhaps better dramatizes the growing contradictions of Nigeria’s 4th Republic, than the theatre of political absurdity which the nation has become. This shameful political prostitution is made more painful because this is the time Nigeria needs men and women of character.
Though he had lately been skirting around some APC leaders, it was not anticipated he would defect after his strident and scathing criticisms of President Buhari and the APC. FFK claims his decision was hinged on the need to join other stakeholders to build bridges in the midst of the prevailing palpable disharmony among Nigerians. “This country, in my view, is on the brink of war and disintegration and so we have to join forces together, set our differences aside and ensure that we build bridges of unity and peace. In a couple of weeks, I will be joining the party in FCT and not in the Southwest…I believe in moving the country forward together with everybody that believes in Nigeria and wants Nigeria to progress. We must come together to make sure Nigeria is a better place, regardless of party affiliation,” FFK told Channels television “Politics Today” adding that he was joining the APC to effect change from within, and also because the APC leadership has changed. “There is no point having any principles without power. You must have power in order to ensure that whatever principles you have you can affect them. Without that, you will simply be talking and nothing will change. I have discovered in the last few months that I can work with people within the APC and elements within the government to effect a change.”
If the defection of FFK and the on-going crisis in the two major parties has taught any lessons, it is that, in theory and in practice, democracy is no vanity; you either believe in democracy and practice it; or you corrupt it for as long as you wish only to have that grand deceit implode, sooner or later. While the crisis has engendered debate about the future of the two major political parties and the democratic process in Nigeria, it has also exposed the fact that the so-called parties and politicians are not bound together by any lofty ideology; rather, political parties are nothing more than special purpose vehicles for political contractors and sundry jobbers and predators for acquiring power for its own sake, amassing wealth via the route of government as the biggest business, and impoverishing the people so mindlessly they have neither chance nor voice to dissent. This is the main takeaway from FFK’s defection. But as is always the case with all houses of cards, FFK will eventually, have to face his own demons and self-contradictions. FFK is the quintessential stomach politician with no sense of integrity or shame and no matter how hard he tries to rationalize his defection, no one believes him! Nigerians are not fools.
At a time when the nation’s political experience needs sound footing in democratic governance, the absence of any identifiable ideology and internal democracy testifies to the lack of character in all the parties. Judging by the frenetic struggle over political positions, it is clear that gluttonous accumulation of wealth, and other spoils of office are the primary motivations of politicians, not service. Power and money have become instruments of statecraft in the hands of the ruling party, while vanity or indiscernible ideas characterize the opposition. Nigerian democracy has been so much debased and rendered meaningless; and it is indeed unfortunate that political parties continue to foster a recruitment process that allows the worst to access public offices. Generally, the field is tainted with defections from one party to another in ways that underline the ideological poverty of the parties and the self-centeredness of politicians. From defections to counter-defections, to rival factions holding rival primaries, poverty of leadership is evident everywhere with perilous implications for democracy in the country. Politics is now an all-comers affair of contractors, lawbreakers, political hangers-on and sundry jobbers, all lacking in the requisite knowledge and temperament for governance. The situation is so deplorable and so scary that helpless Nigerians are wringing their hands in anguish, as they watch the intrigues, backroom deals, and horse-trading amongst the self-serving political class. If this odious political state is not a reflection of the way Nigeria is, what is?
The dog-eat-dog politics symbolized by the defection of FFK to the APC is a disgrace of immeasurable proportions. The fact that President Buhari will roll out the red carpet to welcome a man like FFK to the APC is a shameful phenomenon that graphically retells the odious rat race, ideological vacuity and mundane craving that typify Nigeria’s political life. Lacking in any principled intention to develop the structure and content of partisan politics, FFK’s defection is nothing more than self-seeking, whimsical and disdainful political opportunism. To this end, it calls to question the capacity, moral integrity and character of those who are ruling or aspiring to rule this country. With everything that FFK has said of the President and the APC, Nigeria, indeed, does not need this kind of egg on her face. The political class as a whole has shown impetuous and irresponsible behavior at the expense of the people. Amid the intrigues of who is up that should be brought down; and who is down that should be crucified and buried, sinister plots are hatched and negotiations simmer down to questions like: “This is our time to chop, should we trade the governor’s ticket for the Senate?” All these raise the question: what is the character of the Nigerian politician? What, in their thinking, is the whole purpose of a political party?
Unless he has the memory of an elephant, Buhari and his party cannot pretend not to remember some of the vilest and most toxic pronouncements that FFK made against them. Just for the records, in 2014 less than a year after announcing his defection from the then ruling PDP to join the yet-to-be registered APC, FFK returned to the PDP. Explaining the reason for dumping the APC, FFK claimed some APC members were sympathetic to Boko Haram. He said the APC was “working hard silently” and “behind the scenes” to produce an all-Muslim pairing for the 2015 presidential election and accused the party of being unfair to Christians. In 2016, as then spokesperson of the PDP presidential campaign, FFK said he would rather die than join the Buhari-led APC. He made the comment after spending more than 60 days in detention, following allegations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he laundered money to the tune of N4.9 billion. In 2019, he described the APC as an “Almajiri Peoples Congress” dismissing reports that he had decamped as “false and insulting.” “The suggestion that I joined the APC is false and insulting. Those that are peddling this fake news should bury their heads in shame. With what we have witnessed I would rather die than join a filthy, rat-infested sinking ship like the Almajiri Peoples Congress (APC),” FFK said.
FFK’s social media feeds are replete with inflammatory and vitriolic attacks, against the APC and one must marvel at the fact that the APC leadership developed amnesia over the bile and vituperative aspersions ornamented with harmful grandiloquence, that FFK had cast on the APC in the past. He once twitted: “Those that claim that I have joined them & that seek to link my good name to such a bloodthirsty, blood-lusting, accursed political association of Boko Haramists, Fulani herdsmen, genocidal maniacs, ethnic cleansers, mass murderers, ethnic supremacists, religious bigots. I am committed to opposing the APC and those that are in their ranks for the rest of my natural life and I will NEVER join them no matter what! They are nothing but darkness whilst I stand for the light of God and truth: there can be NO fellowship between light and darkness.” In a sense, the present state of political cannibalism is merely a reflection of the pitiable national life to which every Nigerian is being continually exposed. While few would dispute the abysmal level of understanding of Nigerian politicians when it comes to the majesty of democracy; many are not surprised at their lack of sophistication in its practice.
The defection of FFK and the reasons advanced for the decision signify a self-indictment for political opportunism which underscore the travails Nigeria’s democracy has had to endure and how democracy has been bastardized to have a peculiarly Nigerian definition, making a mockery of the beautiful ideal. Party structures have been hijacked by governors, political godfathers, and money bags, all because they want people’s political fortune to be tied inextricably to their persons. The battle for the control of party structures is fierce, sometimes threatening the peace of the polity and its beleaguered people who are traumatized by hunger, poverty, decrepit infrastructure, receding fortune, medieval diseases, corruption and above all, inept government. The restiveness that cuts across virtually all the political parties today is a consequence of the fight for the control of the party structures at all levels of political leadership. The stress and distraction which it constitutes to governance and efficient delivery of democracy dividends cannot be over-emphasized. Rabid loyalty to supposed party leaders and not to the party itself is the order of the day. This breeds sycophancy, indiscipline, corruption, mediocrity and insensitive leadership which governance has come to be identified with today in Nigeria. Unfortunately, in all of these, the Nigerian people are the ultimate losers.
