[OPINION] Nasir El-Rufai’s Defections: PDP, CPC, APC, SDP – Reuben Abati

“This should not be surprising to students of Nigerian politics though. It is usual practice for Nigerian politicians to move from one political party to another. They are driven not by ideological beliefs, or principles, but convenience, expediency or wherever they think they can easily realize their ambitions. There are Nigerian politicians who since 1999 have been in different political parties. This is Nasir El-Rufai’s fourth. He must be given credit however for the forthrightness of his defection statement: he is calling on opposition politicians to unite and get the APC out of power in 2027. He is not quite mouthing those pretentious cliches about saving Nigeria. He has drawn a line in the sand. His exit from the APC is the equivalent of the declaration of political war.

This was a strategy that worked in 2015. But there is no guarantee that it would work again this time around. Nonetheless, it is clear that El Rufai is not alone. He has been seen visiting and meeting with other politicians who many have an axe to grind with President Tinubu and the APC, and there has been so much talk about a Grand Coalition to unseat President Tinubu in 2027. This is easier said than done. It may not be so easy to intimidate Tinubu out of office, and certainly not by the likes of politicians who were once beneficiaries of his own method of politics. They know him. He knows them too. Those who do not know anybody are the hapless masses in whose name the politicians commit atrocities, and settle their differences when it suits them.”