Mass defectors to APC may dilute change – TMG

punch.com

The Transition Monitoring Group has expressed concern over what it described as “whirlwind of opportunistic defections” currently gripping the polity, warning that it signals a dangerous trend towards a one party state in which an opposition is non-existent.

This was contained in a statement by the Chairman of TMG, Mr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, in Abuja on Friday. According to the civil rights group, the unrepentant members of ‘Any Government In Power’ would stop at nothing until they overwhelm the incoming administration. “It is the patriotic duty of all Nigerians to ensure the people own the incoming government and dictate its direction,” it said.

The organisation said it was most disconcerting that members of the Peoples Democratic Party, whose party was defeated by the All Progressives Congress in the recent Presidential election, were currently abandoning their platform and “moving in droves to join the victorious party.”

TMG explained that it had become imperative that the President-Elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), should ensure that they recruit a good team to run the government in a manner that would reflect the popular will of Nigerians as expressed on March 28.

He said, “This is a direct blow to the very heart of Nigeria’s evolving democracy. This unprincipled act of shameless ship-jumping is an attempt to thwart or irretrievably dilute the change, which the Nigerian people voted for on March 28.

“TMG is discomfited by the curious logic that informs this mass exodus of politicians from the PDP to the APC. Are these not the same sworn adversaries, who bandied words, heated up the polity, and went for each other’s jugular during the election period?

“What has suddenly changed in an ideological sense to warrant this new found attraction and the marriages being consummated through the defections?” According to Zikirullahi, this kind of tendencies has led some people to conclude that there is no particular difference between the APC and the PDP.

The claim, TMG said, was further buttressed by the reality staring the citizens in the face because “a democracy without a strong and viable opposition, is nothing but a smokescreen for dictatorship.”