Jumping from One Party To Another - A Case Study Of Senator Igbeke’s defection to PDP

Do you still remember Chief Alphonsus Igbeke? He was that man whom the Senate refused to swear in even after the Appeal Court, in March, nullified the election of Senator Joy Emordi (of the Peoples Democratic Party) and ordered that he be sworn in as the member representing Anambra North senatorial zone.

However, after much public outcry, the Senate late May finally administered the oath of office to him. The duo contested the senatorial seat on April 28, 2007 and the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Emordi winner, thus allowing her to return to the Senate a second time.

However, Igbeke (then of the All Nigeria Peoples Party), a member of the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2007, headed for the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Awka to challenge her victory. After losing at the tribunal, he proceeded to the Court of Appeal and eventually got justice. The court on March 25 nullified Emordi’s victory and declared him winner.

Emordi, it will be recalled, contested the nullification in the court and the Senate used the opportunity to buy time for her.

During that period, Igbeke became a star of some sorts, receiving rave reviews in the media and enjoying a lot of goodwill. Nigerians rose to the occasion and cried out from all angles against the injustice that was being meted out to Igbeka. At the end, however, reason prevailed and justice was done.

Just before his swearing in, I blogged that the only way he could pay back Nigerians for their support was to always stand for justice and not to, like Emordi, squander the goodwill he had garnered.

I recall vividly that one of the readers who commented on the blog predicted that Igbeke was like every other Nigerian and that one of the first things he would do in the Senate was to defect to the PDP.

And less than two months after he was sworn in, my reader’s prediction came to pass. Igbeke defected to the PDP.

According to a national daily, Igbeke who had not made a major contribution on the floor of the Senate since taking the oath of office declared his intention to join the ruling party in a letter to the Senate President on Tuesday July 13.

Why do Nigerian politicians believe that they need the win elections? If the aim of joining politics is to serve one’s country with one’s strength and intellect, why should one be jumping from one party to the other without any good cause? When will our politicians stop seeing public office as an opportunity to serve and not an opportunity to rape the country?

The only way to put an end to all these absurdities is to participate fully in 2011 elections. We should turn out en masse and vote for those with good track records not those with bogus manifestoes whose only aim for vying for elections is to feather their nests.

The act does not speak well of the Jumpers.

This is what Hon .Patrick will rightly described as 'Political jingoism and atavism'.

Its a sign of not really knowing what to do except otherwise.