- Samuel Ogunnaike,
SIR: The People’s Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress have wielded massive influence in the Nigerian polity and politics. As a matter of fact, since the military excused itself from the business of governance, Nigeria has been uninterruptedly piloted by either of these big political birds. Each has clinched power on the complicity, incompetence, and maladministration of the other. We won’t forget in a hurry how one would vilify the standard bearer of the other. While both are renowned for throwing pebbles at each other, for us, the promise of Nigeria is yet to be realized and made ubiquitous. As a nation, we crawl economically, and have only managed to skirt around development in several decades.
Both parties have contributed to our worsening and unhealthy economy. Neither can be absolved from the neglect and collapse of our delicate and vital institutions such as health, education, and infrastructure. Both are best likened to room and parlour. To accept one is to accept the other. Get the PDP into the corridors of power; you find that those who run the agenda are most likely to be former compatriots of APC. Reverse the case, you are ruled by the ex-PDP loyalists. There has never been an unalloyed or strict APC, just as no thoroughly distinguished PDP. Both parties are infamous for their characteristic defection. More than half of the APC candidates have the PDP blood running in their vein.
The Edo governorship election offers us an exemplary case study. In 2016, Governor Godwin Obaseki (APC candidate) defeated Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the PDP. Just four years later, both had switched parties with relative and uncommon ease. In 2020, Ize-Iyamu had become the APC gubernatorial candidate, the same man that suffered a dose of vilification from the APC, with Governor Obaseki, in his rival party as their main man. Songs immediately changed. Loyalty quickly switched.
Why was this high profile defection uncomplicated? The parties only differ in name. Think of the former senate president and former governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki; the narrative is the same – a journey from PDP to APC and back to PDP. Two thirds of our current politicians have been dashing in and out of both political parties unhindered. Who cares if either emerges? After all, they are birds of the same feather.
Regarding where we are as a nation, ask both parties. For the successes, each has played a key role, too. In retrospect, however, they are room and parlour. You can’t have one, without the other. May God save this country from the two “big birds”. Continue Reading
