Ojo M. Maduekwe questions the political implications of some of the recent Peoples Democratic Party rallies personally led by President Goodluck Jonathan

Since late 2013, the Nigerian political atmosphere has been awash with disgruntled politicians moving from one party to another, in what has been termed the season of defection by the media. It was initially thought that the defections would favour the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) by giving it majority in the National Assembly. But that's yet to be seen. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hasn't been any luckier and has lost key politicians, including incumbent governors and serving lawmakers to the APC.

For starters, defectors are those who have lost to their original party following a feeling of betrayal and decided to switch to another party for a chance to realise either realise the ambition denied them by their former or remain relevant in the scheme of things. Take note, if they were relevant in the scheme of things, they would not have been easily sidestepped.

With nothing to give to their new party other than swell the party's number with hired crowd, they are regarded as liabilities. As it stands in today's Nigeria, you can find defectors in both the ruling PDP and the opposition APC. The only difference between defectors of the two parties is that those of the APC enjoy the power of incumbency, either as governors or lawmakers and their relevance remains until they leave office. In the last few weeks, President Goodluck Jonathan had welcomed defectors from three different states of Sokoto, Imo and Kwara into the PDP. On those three occasions, he was accompanied by major actors in the party including Vice-president, Namadi Sambo; the PDP national chairman, Adamu Mu'azu; Senate President, David Mark; PDP Board of Trustees chairman, Tony Anenih and a host of other party big weights.

According to a television report, the Kwara rally was attended by a large crowd. "There was an overflow at the 30,000 capacity metropolitan square as those who could not access the venue were far more than those inside." It remains unclear if the crowd were supporters of the defectors or they came to have a glimpse of President Jonathan and the PDP national leaders. Astonished at the huge turnout, which Anenih claimed was overwhelming and a confirmation of the presence of the PDP in the state, Mu'azu assured them that PDP remained a populist party and charged them to "Repeat the feat of returning the party to power in the state next year."

Those who had defected included the governorship candidate on the platform of the defunct ACN, Mohammed Dele Belgore; governorship candidate of the defunct CPC, Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq; governorship candidate of the defunct ACPN, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, and former senatorial candidate for Kwara Central under the defunct CPC, Princess Bilqis Gambari. The three governorship candidates had been defeated by the incumbent governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed in the last election. Ahmed who became governor under the PDP, along with his godfather and the acclaimed godfather of Kwara politics, Senator Bukola Saraki, recently defected to the APC.

Surprised at the reception given to the Kwara defectors, political analysts wondered what benefit such defection would offer the ruling PDP. According to them, these are politicians who lost to Ahmed, and judging from the shape of politics in Kwara (citing the political structure of the Saraki), would lose again.

For the losers, they wondered why the president of Nigeria, accompanied by many of the PDP heavy weights would leave the issue of policy making and governance to travel to Kwara and welcome some politicians considered inconsequential. They thought the leadership of the state PDP was enough to receive them.

At the Imo rally held at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, former governor of the state Chief Achike Udenwa, Senator Chris Anyawu, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, Chief Mike Ahamba, Chief Cosmas Iwu, Chief Lambert Iheanacho, and Hon. Independence Ogunewe, were welcomed back to the PDP. Udenwa was Imo governor from 1999 to 2007. Critics said part of his failure as a politician was his inability to leave a successor of the PDP extraction. This challenge wasn't made easy by the overbearing influence of his then arch political enemy, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume. During the Imo PDP primaries in 2007, Araume emerged the party's standard bearer but substituted with Charles Ugwu, courtesy of Udenwa. The Supreme Court would later declare the substitution unconstitutional and returned Ararume as the PDP candidate. It is rumoured that Udenwa's PDP decided to play the anti-party card and supported the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Martin Agbaso. From Agbaso to Ikedi Ohakim of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), who later won the election and became governor, the ploy was to edge out a PDP candidate. Suffice it to say that before clinching the PPA ticket, Ohakim was a PDP member. But Udenwa would later fall out with Ohakim and together with one Dr. Alex Obi, formed an alliance with Ararume against Ohakim, by which time Ararume was allegedly involved in propaganda to discredit the administration of Ohakim and was therefore happy to have an ally in Udenwa.

Midway into his administration, Ohakim re-joined the PDP and outwitted both Ararume and Udenwa in the struggle to control the PDP in Imo State. This led to the duo defecting to the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Thus, during the 2011 election in Imo, Ohakim became the governorship candidate of the PDP, while Ararume became that of ACN and Udenwa ran for Orlu Senatorial seat under the same ACN but lost to Senator Hope Udenwa of the PDP.

Udenwa was accused of betraying Ararume during the election by allegedly working for the incumbent Governor, Rochas Okorocha, under the APGA. It was surprising to many observers that a man with such antecedence would be welcomed back into the PDP with the president in attendance.

To them, it was belittling of the office and person of the president of Nigeria to go to such extent of entertaining the needless only to spite the opposition APC. Mu'azu recently boasted that the APC taught the PDP how to poach members, but experts reckon that if the PDP must copy from the APC, then it should copy well and poach politicians still considered relevant and not jobbers.

The Sokoto raly being the first was not as different. Although Attahiru Bafarawa was a former governor of the state, not only was he unable to install a successor of choice, he has always been in the opposition. As such, if without his input, the governor, Aliyu Wamakko, returned to office, observers hold the view that he would be of no consequence, regardless of his boasting. The three rallies attended by the president came at a time the country was being attacked by members of Boko Haram who's many mass murders such as the despicable killings of innocent pupils and their teachers in Yobe State had plunged Nigerians into mourning. Critics of President Jonathan said he could have busied himself with finding solution to terrorism.

Aside the fact that there are better issues of national importance to occupy the president's time, observers thought the president's welcoming party was uncalled for and a waste of the nation's resources. As well, they cited the power of incumbency which both the governors of Imo and Kwara States enjoy, as a pointer to the fact that the defectors had nothing to offer.

Beyond swelling its numbers with politicians who only saw the PDP as a second choice and platform for achieving personal ambitions, since they couldn't market their ambition on the back of the APC, experts said what the ruling PDP needed were quality personalities who could deliver in 2015.