By Andrew Agbese
Within 2025 alone, no less than four governors have defected from the PDP to the APC.
In most instances, they were received with pomp and panoply by the ruling party at the center because of what their defections symbolise.
In Nigeria, the party a state governor belongs to is counted as the party with the majority support in the state even though in many cases, that is not the case.
There are cases where the difference in votes is so insignificant that it would be scandalous to attribute majority status to the party on which platform the governor won his election.
For instance in the governorship election in Sokoto State in 2019, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal defeated his opponent with a funny margin of only 342 votes.
The near 50-50 split could not in any way have implied that Sokoto was a PDP state more so as it was the APC that won in the presidential election in the state. But that is the way the mind of the electorate has been conditioned to believe.
Going back to the main issue, I see no reason why Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State should not be allowed the privilege of changing parties if he so wishes.
For a long time, there have been reports that the governor wants to defect to the APC. Rather than welcome him, APC leaders in Plateau State have shown that they do not want him near their party.
From most of the comments I have read, those opposed to his joining the APC hinge their arguments on three major points:
1) That he fought the party in 2023 election when he contested against the current APC national chairman 2) that Mutfwang has contributed nothing towards build the APC on the plateau hence cannot come and harvest what has been built by others and 3) that it was his non-accommodating style of leadership that made the PDP lose its key members and that he may import same tactic if allowed to come to the APC.
The other reason not been canvassed openly but which everyone knows is because the national chairman of the party, Prof Nentawe Goshwe Yiltwada is from Plateau State hence party members feel they can leverage on that to win the governorship and other elections in 2027 without the assistance of the governor.
All the points are valid but people forget that in politics it is safer not to take unnecessary risks.
Even if there are assurances that the PDP and their candidates could be defeated in 2027, the fact that the governor’s movement to the APC would enhance such chances should have been a welcome development as it would make the task easier.
What people are hiding while making such projections, is that they’re not necessarily talking about the interest of the party per se but their own selfish interests.
The real issue is not about defeating the PDP thereby making the APC the ruling party in Plateau, but to ensure that “my candidate” wins and that is where all the hoopla is generated.
But if the APC leaders in Plateau are concerned about winning the state for their party and enhancing the chance of their presidential candidate winning the state in 2027, then they have no option but to accept the governor, as, like I’ve said earlier, it lessens the tasks involved.
Plateau APC can learn from what happened between former governor of Bauchi State, Ahmadu Adamu Muazu and his successor, Malam Isa Yuguda in 2014 when the national chairman of the PDP , Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was forced to step down.
Then president, Goodluck Jonathan, had settled for Mu’azu to replace Tukur as PDP national chairman but the only problem was that getting the endorsement of his state governor appeared an uphill task due to the bitter rivalry between Mu’azu and Yuguda.
Recall that in 2007, Mu’azu as the sitting governor in Bauchi State and had invested all he could to frustrate Yuguda from taking over from him.
He denied him the PDP ticket compelling Yuguda to move to the defunct ANPP and since then, the two, to put in tritely, never saw eye to eye.
Yuguda understanding he couldn’t swim against the tide since Jonathan was behind Mu’azu, was compelled to do the needful by personally standing up to nominate Mu’azu himself thereby clearing all doubts that he was not in support of the decision.
Nentawe and his supporters should do the same, having the sitting governor in their party is politically expedient.
Even if they say he is coming to reap where he did but sow, they should know that in politics, things don’t always go in the manner the crow flies.
There’s a retired millitary general in Nigeria who had retired from politics but was ordered to leave his farm by the then president to take the PDP governorship ticket in his state even against his initial will but went ahead to become the state governor.
In Plateau, there was also a governorship aspirant who lost in the primary of the PDP went to a rival party and fought the PDP but by the next election returned to the party, became its candidate and went ahead to govern the state for eight years.
Abek, Mutfwang should be allowed to move if he wants to, na politics him dey play no be say him kee pesin.
@AgbeseAndrew
