One of the most discussed issues under the present political dispensation is that of political defections. In recent months, the matter became so widespread that the National As­sembly was almost torn apart by it.

The excitement and hoopla over the issue was ignited then by the defection of five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors in one fell swoop. Governors Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State and Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State left the PDP for the rival and newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC). The development set the polity agog. The mass defection was taken to mean that PDP had lost its hold on power. Bookmakers imagined that the ruling party would soon become the opposition.

The matter was then to be taken to its logical conclusion when some 37 members of the lower chamber of the National Assembly went for broke. They left the PDP for APC. This sparked off debates bordering on change of leadership. APC claimed that it had become the majority party in the lower house and was jostling to sack the House leadership formed by the PDP. The controversy was still raging when the polity came under the spell of counter defections. The APC also began to lose some of its members to the PDP. After weeks of defections and counter-defections, the PDP had no cause any longer to feel threatened. It had regained its hold on the National Assembly.

But that did not end the story. The governors who left PDP had begun to make inroads in their various states. Many of the House of Assembly members began to pitch tent with their governors. Naturally, some others did not. The game of defection was on and watchers of the polity enjoyed the side attractions.

However, the issue went a notch higher when some political heavy weights, most of them ex-governors, joined the defection train. Prominent among them were former Governors Attahiru Bafarawa of Sokoto State, Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State, Achike Udenwa of Imo State and, lately, Buba Marwa, who was former military governor of Lagos State. The defections of Bafarawa, Shekarau and Udenwa to PDP was a big event. President Jonathan personally went to Sokoto, Kano and Owerri to receive the former governors. The ex-governors were either of the APC or the parties that came together to form the APC. Their defection was therefore a loss to the new party.

Since these defections took place, politics in the affected states have continued. But the permutations are different. There have been claims and counter claims of political superiority. In Rivers State, for instance, Governor Amaechi is insisting that he cannot be succeeded by a PDP governor. The PDP, on its part, does not see Amaechi installing his successor. How this will play out is of interest to watchers of our polity. In Imo State, the APC government of Rochas Okorocha feels encircled by the opposition. The Udenwa camp which worked for him in 2011 is set to work against him in 2015. Again, the outcome of this changing scenarios will be of interest to political pundits.

When we do not take interest in state by state case studies, we find a situation where PDP will be insisting that the defection of its former governors would not help the APC as it (the PDP) is insisting that it would retain those states. All of these make politics exciting and challenging.

However, in all of this, there appears to be an exception. Whereas other states which were struck by the defection fever have gone to sleep, expecting the affected politicians to perform their magic in 2015, Sokoto state has chosen to remain tense and acrimonious. Here, the issue is not that Governor Wamakko left PDP for APC. It is that ex-governor Bafarawa left APC for PDP. An associate of mine who enjoys reviewing political developments across the country took interest in this and called me up recently to offer perspectives on this curious development. He had asked me the following question. "Is political defection a vice? If it is, why is Bafawara being singled out by some people as the only culprit?".

I had a good laugh when he posed this question. But I told myself quickly that it was not a matter for laughter. So, I had to begin my elucidation by telling him that defection in politics is really not a vice. If it were, all politicians would plead guilty to it. I cast his mind back to the famous cross-carpeting that took place on the floor of the Western House of Assembly in the First Republic. The deft move by the Action Group was considered politically expedient at the time and nobody demonized anybody for it. Since then, defection has become synonymous with Nigerian politics and it has come to be accepted as the norm.

To situate the matter properly, I had to take my associate back to Sokoto state. I reminded him that it was in this state that an Aliyu Wamakko who was in ANPP and was duly nominated as the governorship candidate of the party suddenly left for PDP and was hurriedly drafted to become the party's governorship candidate for the April 2007 elections. Today, the same Wamakko has left PDP and is incubating in APC. My associate then hollered from his end thus: "Why is it that nobody is talking or complaining about this?" I laughed out heartily and told him that it was all politics.

But the politics we are talking about here is not the normal type. It is one underlined by two factors, namely, bitterness and fear. "How?" my interlocutor thundered. Then I had to take him on a short excursion into the politics of Sokoto State and how it gave rise to the present acrimony over Bafarawa. I reminded him of the strained political relationship between Bafarawa and Wamakko which led the latter to lose his job as Deputy Governor under Bafarawa. Having lost favour with Bafarawa, Wamakko was left in the cold. He fought spiritedly to regain political relevance. He took refuge in ANPP while Bafarawa was using the platform of the newly formed Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) to realize his presidential ambition and also install his successor. But ANPP could not provide Wamakko the leeway he needed. He had to defect to PDP and, somehow, emerged as governor through a well-oiled political coup masterminded and executed by the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo.

In saner settings, Bafarawa and Wamakko ought to have settled the rift between them. But the problem here is that Wamakko is insisting on a pound of flesh. He has been tormenting his former boss since he became governor in 2007 using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Sokoto State Judiciary.

The two political rivals have been feathering their political nests separately until the APC brought them together. Wamakko who regained political relevance through the PDP dumped the party without qualms. He found refuge in APC where Bafarawa had been holding sway. That was an odd situation. Bafarawa, evidently, would have put up with the oddity except that the leadership of the APC decided to put him on collision course with his former deputy once again. It took what belonged to Bafarawa and handed it over to Wamakko. Bafarawa had to leave so that APC could have its way.

This was the bitter background that foreshadows today's worry over Bafarawa's new political camp. "So how does fear come into it?" my man asked. The issue here, I told him, is that there is palpable fear in the air within some entrenched circles that Bafarawa is about to seize the stage in Sokoto again. It is believed that Wamakko is a product of the establishment. The Presidency made him and the same Presidency has been sustaining him ever since. But the man has, in a fit of anger and hubris, decided to fight against the establishment that anointed him. His fall is therefore imminent.

But he cannot just fall without a whimper. He has to blame someone for it. Bafarawa is the ready whipping boy. He has to be demonized as a defector so that the unwary would think that there is something he has done which other politicians have not done. The fact, I told my man, is this: Both Bafarawa and Wamakko are defectors. I do not condemn any of them for it. But those who think that there is something wrong with it should not single Bafarawa out for vilification. They should also throw Wamakko into the mix. That way, the debate can begin.