As it was in 2014, so it is in 2018. At the last count, three Governors, National Assembly members and the Senate President and some other political leaders have moved from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)  to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and vice versa. As expected all of them gave several reasons for leaving their former abode to the new one ranging from alienation by factions in their parties, inability to get rewarded for investments into the party, political persecution among others.

What baffles me is that none of these individuals cross carpeted for the inability of the government to fix the rot in the education sector, inability to fix the health sector, poor minimum wage, insecurity in the country and none left his party for absence of good governance. What dominated their reasons were more personal than general interests which shows clearly that it was never about the people.

As Professor Akinwunmi Ishola once said jokingly in the movie “saworo-ide” political parties in Nigeria only exist for throwing parties and not about the people. Today in Nigeria, the reality is upon us that what we have as parties are special purpose vehicles for winning elections. The manifestos of these parties are not available to be perused to monitor their effectiveness, rather they are all championing poor governance laced with personal interests.

Today, more than twenty states in Nigeria are owing one form of salary and pension and it cut across all political parties. These parties care less about the welfare of the citizens so far their bread is being buttered by the same masses. The state of education in Nigeria today can be seen in the mass failure of students in WAEC, NECO and JAMB which has not received the attention of these politicians. What we are seeing is the cross carpeting of both saints and sinners into parties that once condemned the sinners and the saints.

At this moment, it is important to state that governance has been suspended for politics. Once again, it’s about the politicians and not the people.

tosin adesina