…There is every reason for the thumbs up to Otumba who expresses delight following the defection he considers as a light signifying success…
By Adamu Muhammad Dodo
PDP, the ruling party was the first to issue the alleged ruining opposition party story, coloured in defection. “There’s no opposition party”, “APC is dead,” went the statements and the reports of mass defections from the opposition parties to the ruling party at the state level in Adamawa.
Some of the major stakeholders in the major opposition party, the APC in the state, the Periscope Global interviewed, would simply ask about the “who and what killed the opposition parties or in particular, the APC; who buried or who will bury the opposition party? And if the latter, what is the burial arrangement?”
The futurists would simply smile in response, saying only the time will tell. While seeking for an update some months previously, they simply responded, “this is the time. Does it seem to you that APC is dead?”
One of the most considered projections was that to be able to defeat the ruling party at the state level, the opposition parties must merge; to form a mega kind of allied party.
However, far from what could seem to be obnoxious projection, the opposition parties kept individually springing up or could it be said to be resurrecting, perhaps from the tomb they were buried, even if the by who could not get to be established as much as the question who killed them could not be answered?
The members of the minor opposition parties, to have gone extinct, are said to be products of disappointment, disenchantment and disaffection with what they could consider distasteful to their interests, hence what would amount to the internal party wrangling was wished away with defection with a view to hit the common target; getting the state out of maze.
Coming back to the headline, there was the rumours going round about the New Nigerian People’s Party, NNPP merger with the Labour Party, LP, to produce a formidable team that would effectively wrestle power from the ruling party.
It was not a rumour per se, one of the leading LP members would disclose to the Periscope Global that the failed merger would have been at the national, presidential level and that the parties should produce their independent governorship candidates.
“Instead of the merger is the defection happening with the parties to have merged for a credible and capable governorship candidate to have emerged,” The LP member would say.
According to the viral news reports, no fewer than 700 members of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) in Yola South local government alone defected to the Labour Party, LP in Adamawa State, even when, as the Labour Party’s governorship candidate in the state who received the decampees said, the party was yet to start any political activity.
The NNPP chairmen in five wards of the local governments have jointly led other executives with an overwhelming members to the Labour Party in a ceremony held on Thursday, few metres away from the NNPP state secretariat in Yola North local government area of the state.
Leader of the decampees, Lady Maryam Alhaji Sale revealed that they transferred their unflinching support to the Labour Party, considering the party’s constructive manifesto aimed at not only carrying along her members but salvaging the state from dysfunctional governance.
Lady Maryam formally presented herself with other members to the Labour Party’s State Chairman, Comrade Nicholas Christopher who afterwards presented the decampees to the LP governorship candidate.
Political pundits would ask, could the NNPP in Yola South grow such an intimidating population of members?
Seven hundred is more than a substantial number for a political party membership. Yet these were sourced just from the five wards of a local government.
There is every reason for the thumbs up to Otumba who expressed delight following the defection he considered as a light signifying success.
“Ladies and gentlemen, today as you can see, we have received Decampees from NNPP.
“From Yola, we have about five local governments ward chairmen that have decamped along with their executives cut across all the eleven wards of Yola South. Here we’re receiving about 700 people from NNPP.
“We’ve not even pasted even one poster. We’ve not placed our billboards. We’ve not started any commercial activity. We have not started any political activity yet, our people are beginning to see the light in our party. People are seeing the future in our party and they are coming forward.
“We must therefore ensure that we institutionalise this success. We must be able to maintain this success and forge ahead.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I want to seize this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for committing his time, leaving his home and place of work to come here. We’re happy because the Labour Party is no longer a small party. It is a party to beat. All the so-called bigger parties are now away.
“By the time we’re on speed, they’ll have no space to breathe. We’ll send them back to where they belonged,” Otumba said.
Commenting, the Labour Party state chairman, Comrade Nicholas Christopher would say that “the defection happening at this time, before we could get to start any political activity, as our governorship candidate, Dr Umar Mustapha Madawaki, Otumba of Ekiti has rightly observed, is a pointer that Labour Party ‘ll labour less to win the support of the electorates”.
I tried to reach out to the leadership of the NNPP to have the party’s input on the development. However this would have to take another story with the favorable response.