Nigerian political transfer window

In football, transfer window is open and common at a specific time of the season. The major motive is to enhance personal and team formation. With the perceived benefits in football transfer window, Nigeria politicians are now applying the tactics in this opportunity.

The essence of transfer window is not to please the football fans. Players and team who get involved do this to take advantage of a perceived gain. Like football transfer window, a noted challenge of political transfer window is that it is a time when there are unsettling remarks which breed panic in the system. In addition, it may cause a level of noise within the media space as well as create a level of disfavour for some.

In politics and especially in developing countries like Nigeria, where there are no ideologies, politicians are like prostitutes who change affiliation based on envisaged gains. Anyone who understands this will never be bothered by the unsettling political environment Nigeria has found itself in the past few days.

Ideally, politics and political parties should rest on ideology. But like they say, a wide gulf exists between ideal and reality. The current gladiators in Nigerian politics are like football players who constantly seek better opportunities in platforms instead of playing the game based on cherished values.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian electorate and the populace are like Nigerian foreign football teams’ fans who daily argue or occasionally maim one other. The foundation of this illusion is that they think they have much to gain on whatever happens to their player or team. This only shows how short-sighted they are and we do think many of them are suffering from amnesia. If not, why do they always forget history or fail to learn from the past?

From the 1960s till date, the Nigerian political scene as well as the politicians have not changed much. Though it appears the situation was better in the past than now. The fourth republic till date has been most chaotic. A cursory look at our governors, federal executive as well as national assembly members has shown many of them had crossed carpet many times. The most significant time of doing this has always been months before the elections.

Political observers who understand what really took place in 2014 will know that a new season in political transfer window has just begun. Unfortunately, the then APC which is now the ruling party got it all wrong when it refused to close its doors to ‘wolf and hyenas’.

The 2014 political transfer window brought together strange bed fellows. What APC had then was not a team. The party explosion brought together people who were ambitious and cared less about ideology, team spirit and service to humanity. The populace on the other hand forgot so soon that transfer window is never to please the fans but to take advantage of perceived gains by the gladiators.

Not too long after the election, the boat started rocking. APC bigwigs called it ‘family affairs’ but we all knew what the party was covering up was beyond family affairs but a time bomb.

The hijacks and defection galore which began immediately after the 2015 election like a child play reached its peak yesterday. Based on my own research, never in the history of Nigeria have we ever had such a huge political migration in a day within the national assembly. I stand to be corrected.

The Nigerian populace and especially the youth are yet to understand this interplay of greed amongst their so called leaders. They are carried away by the camouflage. Many are still blindly supporting their players instead of ‘borrowing themselves brain’ like we say here in Nigeria.

Every time there has been mass defection, the popular song is ‘marginalization of interest’. Have we ever asked whose interest? Many of the electorate are blinded by the previous gift of five thousand naira or other stipends they receive from these selfish players who pocket millions every month.

Is it possible to entrench in our constitution closure of political transfer window within a political regime? Is it possible to say if a political regime starts, no one can transfer until such season elapse? Many had said this may not be possible as relationships must not be forced.

But is it possible for the electorate to become enlightened to the level where they can see behind the smokescreen reasons given for carpet crossing by our political players? Is it possible for the electorate to refuse to join the bandwagon of ethnic and religious persecutions the players always dangle before them?

Can the populace come to a conclusion that impact, service, love for fatherland, ethics, values and adherence to strong shared ideology should become the yardstick for engagement with our political gladiators instead of sentiment and godfatherism?

Everyone knows answers to the above questions can be in the affirmative. Only that strong will, education and value reassessment will be in great demand if we must arrive at this plateau. It is these latter factors that are lacking in our system today.

Until we the populace can come to this point, there will be no difference between the Nigerian electorate and the so called Nigerian foreign football teams’ fans who maim and daily assault one other at the newspapers’ vendor stand every morning.

When all is said and done, many of these football fans remain poor, never share in the transfer window fee neither are they consulted when decisions about the fortune of the team will be shared. In most cases, most of these teams they claim to love never know they exist in a corner of the earth. This is the tragedy of many of our populace in Nigeria.