By Donu Kogbara
My dear friends, Nasir and Hadiza El-Rufai, have lost two children in three years.

First (in 2011), their beautiful daughter, Yasmin, passed away after suffering a seizure in the bathroom of her residence in London, where she was studying. Then (last month), their darling son, Hamza, died in a car accident in Abuja.

Both children were in their twenties and I’d known them since they were small, long before Nasir became the FCT Minister and an APC big-wig. And they were such sweet kids, as well as being highly intelligent like their Mum and Dad.

El-Rufai

When people I have known and loved – or simply admired from afar – die, I normally compose tributes to them within days of their passing. And readers might recall that I wrote about Yasmin on this page shortly after her demise.

But I have struggled for weeks to find appropriate words with which to express my sadness about this latest tragedy that has befallen the El-Rufais.

I can’t get my head around the fact that Hamza has joined his sister or the fact that two vivacious youngsters from the same family have left us, just like that, within such a short period of time. What a terrible and unusual misfortune!

Ah well. Never mind. God has His reasons. And I am sure that Yasmin and Hamza are resting in peace and that their grief-stricken parents and siblings – whom I will always remember in my prayers – will somehow manage to cope without them.

By the way, I hear that several people left cold-hearted and mean-spirited messages on Nasir’s Facebook page when he announced Hamza’s death; and I’m told that some of these shameless internet trolls lashed out at Nasir so viciously because they bitterly resent his criticisms of President Jonathan.

This kind of behaviour shocks me to the core. I wouldn’t taunt my worst enemy under such circumstances! And though I’m not in a position to speak for Mr President, I’ve met him, regard him as a basically nice man and suspect that he would not want his supporters to be so nasty to ANY recently bereaved father.

Cross-carpeting grandees

Last week, we were informed that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the ex-EFCC boss and APC’s former presidential flagbearer, was decamping to the PDP.

This week, Chief Tom Ikimi, a former Foreign Affairs Minister and founding member of the APC, issued a lengthy epistle in which he revealed his decision to ditch his Opposition cronies  and return to the ruling party.

CHIEF Tom Ikimi

Ikimi is following in the footsteps of onetime Governors like Attahiru Bafarawa, Ibrahim Shekarau and Brigadier-General Mohamed Marwa (retired).

Meanwhile, various other APC grandees such as Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the former governor of Borno State, are said to have similar plans.

Sometimes, the cross-carpeting traffic goes in the opposite direction when politicians like my Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, decide to leave and fight the PDP.

OK, so it’s a free world and everyone is entitled to reject colleagues who have annoyed them and link up with people they reckon will be better partners.

And I think that it’s fair to say that most – and maybe all – of the above have valid grievances against the parties they have dumped or intend to dump in the near future…whether these grievances pertain to their personal interests or to genuine principles that revolve around issues like lack of internal democracy.

Ribadu, for instance, was betrayed by the APC leadership in 2011. Ikimi, for example, did not receive the level of respect that his considerable contributions entitled him to. And I’m certain that Amaechi wouldn’t have abandoned the PDP if its mandarins had handled their differences of opinion with him more adeptly.

However, while I have no objections to relatively youthful politicos like Ribadu and Amaechi jumping ship when they have a legitimate axe to grind, I do wonder why oldies like Ikimi bother to jump ship, especially when they have done this dramatic, attention-grabbing, ship-jumping thing more than once!

Ikimi was a PDP chieftain who took off to Tinubu’s camp and has now run back to PDP. And, sure, he may, a la Shekarau (who has been appointed Minister of Education) be handsomely rewarded for this flip-flopping and zig-zagging.

But Ikimi’s online Wikipedia entry states that he was born in 1941, which means that he is over 70. And I feel that he has reached an advanced age at which a complete departure from active politicking would have been more dignified.

In his statement, Ikimi made the following comments:

“I have no current or perceivable ambition to contest for executive power. My quest for an alternative political platform in the country is basically in pursuit of a credible political structure that would guarantee the vital checks and balances in the system so that our people may enjoy the benefits of alternative choices of National Government from time to time…

“… While I have always regarded the entire country as my constituency, I am not oblivious of the reality of my circumstance as a South- Southerner, a Christian from a so-called minority stock who will continue to align with the forces of change that would guarantee justice, prosperity, peace and happiness for all our peoples. The forces that have now seized the APC in a stranglehold are on a mission very much against my conscience and indeed my very being…

“…I have always viewed a political party as a congregation of like-minded persons who become welded together in a close-knit brotherhood…I need to be, at this time of my life where I have friends who share a common vision with me and where my freedom, respect, honor and dignity would be guaranteed…”.

Stirring words indeed! But sudden conversions can inspire skepticism! And I’m finding it difficult to believe that Ikimi now honestly views the PDP – which he was ready to fatally undermine until he failed to secure the APC Chairmanship slot – as a credible outfit that is full of decent fellows who share his vision.  I’d have quietly exited from the public stage if I were in his shoes.