- Says Action Giving Tinubu False Sense of Progress
By Kolawole Ojebisi
The publisher of Ovation Magazine, and a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Dele Momodu has said politicians easily defect to other parties, particularly the one in power, because there are no consequences for their action.
Momodu lamented the rate at which politicians dump the political platforms on which they’re elected for the ruling party, stressing that the position of the Constitution on the matter has been ignored.
The journalist, who is also a chieftain of the PDP spoke on Soni Irabor Live, a programme on News Central, on Sunday, adding that party-switching in Nigeria is not underpinned by ideology.
He suggested that enforcing the stipulations of the Constitution on the vexed matter is the only way to regulate the development.
“But you know that we’ve thrown our constitution to the Atlantic Ocean long ago. The constitution has been thrown overboard, which is unfortunate,” he said.
“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.”
Momodu maintained that public officeholders who defect should be prepared to relinquish their positions.
“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,” he said.
The former presidential hopeful said also added that it should an exclusive right of political parties to determine who represents them.
“The party in power is the one who has the right to define who will represent them,” he said.
“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.”
The publisher also stated that the recent massive defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may have the unintended result of giving President Bola Tinubu a wrong perception of his administration’s performance.
He added that Tinubu may have lost the common touch based on the jaundiced understanding of the situation in the country informed by the defection to his party.
“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.”
“So I am not sure that the president actually knows what is going on because if you see all the governors decamping to your party, won’t you think you are the greatest thing that happened to Nigeria?” he asked.
“You can’t blame the man if he feels that way.”
“If you are joining a new party, you should be able to tell us what that party has done for the people and then it becomes a lot easier for us to follow you so that even the doubting and unbelieving Thomases can follow you and say ‘oh, this party has done extremely well’,” 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.
