₦airaland Forum

Our people have a saying, to wit: Someone
who chanced on a lost item says he will
rather die than part with it; what does he
want the person who lost the item in the
first instance to do? This saying aptly
describes the cry-baby posturing of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) over the
defection of some of its legislators and
other party leaders, including a sitting
governor at the last count. Many of those
defecting from the APC are only returning to
whence they came from.
.
.
Around this time in 2014 and 2015, many of
today’s defectors played with the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and its leaders the
same hide-and seek they are playing today
with the APC and its leaders. Seven APC
governors had started holding, at first
clandestine meetings, but later they came
into the open, disparaging their party and
romancing with opposition figures. In the
end, five of the governors and a coterie of
lawmakers and other party leaders quit PDP
and pitched their tent with APC.
.
.
The
defectors rebuffed all efforts to placate and
keep them within PDP’s fold. They played
“b’oju b’oju” games while at same time
inflicting grievous damage on PDP. They
stayed within and pissed within. When they
felt that had inflicted enough damage on the
then ruling party and there was no way it
could recover from the damage, they
jumped ship. The rest, as they say, is history.
APC saluted the defectors as patriots and
nationalists. Their very act of tearing their
own party in shreds was praised to high
heavens and the defectors were celebrated
to no end.
.
Without the defectors, it was
doubtful if APC could have succeeded at the
2015 polls.
.
For reasons which are well
known and which, therefore, need not
detain us here, the tide has changed. APC,
which rode on the crest of CHANGE to
power, is now swimming against the tide.
CHANGE is charging and APC is at the
receiving end.
.
.
A party that benefitted
immensely from defections to coast into
victory is now not only railing at defectors
but is also trying hard to criminalise
defection. APC cry-baby! Its leaders are
whimping and sulking. They are also
threatening hail and brimstones against
defectors. APC is letting loose its attack dogs
of security forces and the EFCC on defectors.
But they should be told that ex-President
Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP did no such
despicable things in 2014/2015.
.
.
Aminu
Tambuwwal, as Speaker of the House of
Representatives, played as much hide-and-
seek with his party, the PDP, as Bukola Saraki
and Yakubu Dogara are doing today with
the APC. Tambuwal was never dragged
before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. He was
never put under house arrest; and neither
was he framed up on robbery charges. After
he had pleased himself dribbling Jonathan
and PDP, he decamped into the APC. He
contested governorship election under APC
and won. Today, he is the sitting governor
of Sokoto State. Interestingly, Tambuwal is
one of those being fingered as a soon-to-
defect leader of APC!
What goes around comes around! Many of
those who defected from the PDP in
2014/2015 are today defecting from APC
back to the PDP. Saraki is one of them. Also his godson,governor of Kwara. Another defector is
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue who
moved from PDP to APC and, after a brief
period of prevarication, has now returned
to whence he came from. Many more are
said to be marking time and may soon
follow suit. What poetic justice!
.
.
But it is not
the defection that is the issue for me, it is
the amateurish and childish way APC leaders
are handling it. They make embarrassing
and contradictory statements that confirm
their jitters and lack of coordinated
response to the crises tearing their party
apart. They chase shadows while leaving the
substance. The problems tearing their party
apart are not being addressed but are being
swept under the carpet. They prefer instead
to embark on rhetoric, arm-twisting tactics
and chest-beating. Cold comfort! They
delude themselves! They make the same
statements that the PDP made in 2015 – that
the defectors are paperweights and APC has
already won the 2019 election hands down.
Worse is that they speak from both sides of
the mouth on same issues. They are
confused and in disarray, lacking
coordination and composure in their
approach. Who is in charge is not clear any
more. Some party leaders are lost in transit,
like the party spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi,
and the indefatigable Lai Mohammed
himself, leaving new party chairman Adams
Oshiomhole the latitude to run his mouth.
He surely will ground the party the way he is
going.
.
.
.
Read more https://newtelegraphonline.com/2018/08/cry-baby-apc/

"Once Upon A Time..."

Cry-baby APC!


. . Have they forgotten we were all here when this same game played out four years ago?
. Did we not see how they gloated over the implosion of PDP?
Did we not witness how they encouraged defectors to abandon PDP and join the APC bandwagon?
. Since the 2015 election, which they purportedly won, have we not lost count of how many legislators, national and local, as well as other party leaders, including ex-governors that have defected from other parties into APC? Did the APC raise constitutional issues about those defections?
. Even when the PDP and other parties protested, did the APC not tease them and make light of the complaints of their opponents?
. And now that they are at the receiving end and are demanding that defectors lose their seat or office, the same . .
APC still employs double-standards. They receive defectors into their own fold without asking such defectors to lose their office or vacate their seat but insist that those defecting from APC must suffer precarious liabilities.
What kind of logic is that? He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. The same set of rules must apply to APC and the other political parties. APC will not be allowed to have its cake and eat it. What is sauce for the goose must also be sauce for the gander. APC must now be compelled to gobble the same bitter pills it forced down the throat of others.


. . . No constitutional provisions compel Saraki and Dogara to vacate their seat or resign their office if they defect from APC.

The law does not say so. Practices, conventions, and precedence also do not demand it. Tambuwal, we have said, suffered no such liability or disability.
. There is also no law that says the head of either the Senate or House of Representatives must come from the majority party.
. . The law simply says he or she must be a member of the house elected by his or her peers. An outsider cannot be senate president or speaker of the House. Simple majority of members of each chamber elects its head while two-thirds majority removes it. It is so straight-forward and simple.

. . . Why APC leaders heating up the polity cannot understand this is a function of their desperation and commitment to arbitrariness. We have seen this anti- democratic grandstanding in their one- sided anti-corruption war and in the many selections in the name of election they have manipulated the INEC to undertake since 2015.

AskProf:
"Once Upon A Time..."

lalasticlala.... Is this not good for front page?