A former presidential aspirant and the publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu has said the wave of political defections to the All Progressives Congress (APC) may be giving President Bola Tinubu a wrong impression of his administration’s performance and Nigeria’s progress.
Momodu stated this on a programme on Soni Irabor Live, a programme on News Central, on Saturday, criticising the “lack of ideological grounding in Nigeria’s party-switching culture”, saying it contributes to public antagonism.
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He said, “But everywhere you turn in Nigeria, people are crying. I have never seen this level of bitterness and I hope the president is taking this criticism in good faith.
“I hope people are telling him the situation of things out there because there is no way he can feel or know it. He who feels it knows it.”
Momodu expressed doubt that the president might not know the actual situation on the ground, suggesting that the gale of defection hitting the opposition parties might have given the president the wrong impression of progress.
“I’m not sure that the president actually knows what is going on. If you see all the governors decamping to your party, won’t you think you are the greatest thing that happened to Nigeria? You can’t blame the man if he feels that way,” he said.
The former presidential aspirant also raised legal and constitutional issues surrounding defections, emphasising that Nigeria’s constitution clearly states that any elected official who defects should vacate their seat, but this is rarely enforced.
“But you know that we’ve thrown our constitution to the Atlantic Ocean long ago. The constitution has been thrown overboard, which is unfortunate.
“The constitution says clearly that if somebody elected on the platform of the party decides to decamp, then he would have to vacate that seat.
“So any man who is tired of his political party should be ready to forfeit everything and take it in good faith. You cannot continue to live as if you are still in power.
“The party in power is the one who has the right to define who will represent them.
“But today, people cross carpet. You can wake up with APC, and in the evening, you are in the PDP, then the following morning, you are back to APC. It’s just unfortunate,” Momodu said.
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