By DAN OWEGIE

THE gale of defections from the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, to the All Progressive Congress, APC has been received by many commentators with mixed feelings. While some brazenly wave the defectors aside with uncouth commentaries, others have seen it  as the desired light at the end of the tunnel for Nigeria’s chequered history. The PDP has suffered very serious depletion lately and the gale has not ended. Many more are warming up to dump the party that has prided itself for too long as the largest political party in Africa. Some of its members had boasted to citizens that the party will rule Nigeria for sixty unbroken years.

The nation’s  political landscape is daily becoming interesting with increasing dumping of the PDP by its erstwhile loyalists. In the PDP of today, there is apathy, distrust, hatred, oppression, favouritism, impunity,   and several other negative attributes.

But  events of the last six months have seen the PDP already  jittery as we approach the 2015 general election where the APC hopes to take over the leadership of the nation.  From the letter of  former President / PDP BoT Chairman, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan and the reply of the letter by Mr. President , and all the letters that followed thereafter  indicate a PDP House of Commotion with several cracks.

To stave off the obvious catastrophe of the dipping party, President Jonathan  plans to change his cabinet any moment from now.  Last week, he had to sack his entire service chiefs and the Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur  whose tenure was largely characterised  by unlimited crises  of various  shapes and sizes was also pushed away. All who had defected from the party had insisted on the ouster of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur but a defiant Jonathan had insisted on keeping him on as his  core ally whom he  believes will give him the much sort after second term. But  the rest today is history.

Before President  Jonathan could spell Jack Robinson,  the party under his watch had broke into two factions- One led by Bamanga Tukur and a splinter group led by Alhaji  Abubakar Baraje.  From one litigation to another and from one  funny court verdict to another, the new PDP moved en masse into the APC. Five Governors of Kwara, Rivers, Sokoto, Kano, and  Adamawa and their loyalists  soon after defected to the APC. This shook the PDP to its foundations. Two other Governors of Niger and Jigawa who were part of the G7 Governors offered to tarry awhile.

Only recently,  49 members of the  House of Representatives formally dumped the PDP and joined the APC which has altered the equation in the House. Today APC stands majority! A similar scenario is playing out in the Senate where more than 22 senators had gone to court to challenge the plot to declare their seats vacant should they defect to the APC. The consequence of bad leadership and greed in the PDP is now face-to-face with all card carrying members of the party, including those who had boasted of it being the alpha and omega of the nation.

The reasons for what has brought the PDP to this sorry path are not farfetched.  Leaders of a party in power ought to have listening ears , this seems to be  lacking in the crisis-ridden party.

Those who left the PDP had told  Nigerians that “In gross violation of the PDP constitution, which stipulates that the NEC meeting must hold at least once in a quarter, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and a few people had ran the party like a personal fiefdom without recourse to that important decision-making organ of the party.” Another issue is that the  PDP leaders have no regard for the party’s constitution. Several incidences abound where national officers were removed  by a state chapter with the support of the National secretariat and the presidency.

Again, the Supervising  Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike  has been accused by the defectors of riding on the back of the President to unleash mayhem in Rivers State. The Presidency have continued to deny involvement in the madness in Rivers State where, even the Nigeria Police Force, Rivers State Command appear to be the official head office of the PDP! What a shame!

But assuredly, the APC  is set to take over the affairs of this country as it is gaining popularity by the day. More and more Nigerians are pouring into the party as its nationwide membership registration gets under way.  The APC is already  showing to Nigerians that it has the x-factor to take over the governance of the country from the  PDP. More importantly, the  APC will throw up candidates with  experience in governance,  candidates with energy, candour  and spirit to surmount the nation’s myriad  socio-economic and political problems.

Unarguably,  the APC is already  providing the right alternatives in the states it is currently in control of. In Edo, ably led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, there are ample evidence of good governance and accountable leadership. Lagos is  being properly transformed  by Babatunde Fasola,  Imo is being remodeled by Chief Rochas Okorocha  and so on.

Clearly,  APC’s  emergence is  for all Nigerians to get away from unfulfilled promises  of the PDP, a clean break away from  abject poverty, disease and squalour and return  of confidence to citizens.  The APC is  committed  to  putting  the nation back on the track of development to catch up with the rest of the world in infrastructure,  science and technology, democracy and governance as well as  social order in a globalised world.