Though, he has consistently denied or dispelled the rumours making the rounds that he will ditch his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and join the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, former President,Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is being closely watched by his party and Nigerians since the rumours began.
It is said that in politics, there is no permanent friend or permanent enemy but permanent interest. This is why our contemporary politicians are bereft of any political ideology, their interest is how to be in power or remain relevant within the political space.
Since the return of democracy in 1999, Nigerians have been witnessing frequent defection or cross carpeting of politicians from one political party to another. Even those who were elected into power suddenly changed their minds and ditched the party in which they rode to power.
It will, therefore, not be a surprise if the former president joins the ruling party. Jonathan is a bonafide member of PDP, a party which spent 16 years in power before it lost in 2015. He is also the beneficiary of the party’s magnanimity. It was through the party that he rose to the zenith of his political career.
Since the defeat of PDP in 2015 and 2019 general elections, the party, which tasted power for many years, is yet to find its voice and play the expected opposition role. The party has been enmeshed in leadership crises with Governor Nyesome Wike of Rivers state and his lackeys in total control of the party’s structure. Does Jonathan’s defection rumours have to do with how the party treats him?
It has been reported that most of the party’s decisions are taken without the former president being consulted or involved. If it is true that the former president has been relegated from the party’s activities as being insinuated, he is right to look for recognition and respect from another party.
Besides, in the run up to 2015 general election, a splinter group emerged and opposed Jonathan’s re-election. The group, known newPDP, comprised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, former governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, etc. The nPDP coalesced into APC and worked against Jonathan’s re-election.
Ahead of 2019 elections, most of the members of the newPDP left APC and returned to their former party. In fact, one of the defectors, Atiku Abubakar, emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP but lost to President Muhammad u Buhari.
Can Jonathan forgive the splinter group that led to his defeat and now in the same umbrella? The Bayelsa state gubernatorial election which held on November 22 2020, in which PDP lost the election to APC before it got it through court ruling, indicated that the former president was no longer with his party.
Since he took over the as interim national chairman extra-ordinary convention of the APC, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state has been reaching out to many big politicians in a bid to woe them to join the APC. Luckily, under his watch, three governors and some members of the National Assembly cross carpeted.
Also, Buni had visited the former president but refused to open up on what actually transpired. However, the recent interview granted to Channels TV by the secretary of the extra-ordinary convention, Senator John James, said a lot about Jonathan’s defection rumours.
Senator James said “former President Jonathan can be granted waiver like any other candidate to contest the 2023 election if he joins the party. If the APC successful woes the former president into its fold, it is strategically weakening the crises-ridden PDP ahead of 2023 general elections and building strong alliance with South-south, in case it does not zone the party’s ticket to South-west.
As the 2023 general elections draw nearer, the defection of Jonathan to APC will shape or change the political permutations of both the ruling and opposition parties.Ibrahim Mustapha,Pambegua, Kaduna state081690569
