Prof. Steven Wordu is a political sociologist and expert in Government Studies at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. In this interview with ANN GODWIN, he examines the problems of defections and the case of Rivers? dirty politics. Wordu said, given the recent gale of defections by politicians, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has become partisan and a dangerous tool in the hands of public officeholders.

Can you give us a sense of the motivation behind the recent gale of defections across party lines, especially those in Delta and Edo states?

The major driving force for the gale of defections we see today is the weaponisation of the anti-corruption policy. For instance, what the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is expected to be doing is to investigate, arrest, and prosecute people who have used their positions as government officials to loot the public treasury.

That is the idea. But we have seen that many of the political office holders in Nigeria since 1989 have been trapped in serious corruption, and since the era of former President Muhammad Buhari, when the government weaponised the anti-corruption battle to intimidate, harass and then force politicians to defect to the ruling party.

So, once a corrupt politician defects to the ruling party, all the charges and allegations and punishments they are supposed to face will be ignored the moment the defection happens. The trend now is to use anti-corruption policies to weaken the opposition.

Instead of being prosecuted and returning public money, they now defect to the ruling party to be shielded. For example, the gale of defection in Delta State was purely to evade the anti-corruption traps.

There?s a huge amount of money hanging on the neck of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, but because he is the controller of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) structure in Delta State, and to save him and make things safe for the incumbent governor, that necessitated the mass defection we saw.

That defection was not because of ideology, achievements of the government in power, but to avoid being prosecuted for corruption. That is a non-ideological defection; it is just an empty, timid defection.

Are you saying that the anti-corruption agency has derailed, or is it not independent enough?

The anti-graft agency itself has become politicised and partisan, because its leadership is paying loyalty to whoever appointed them. So, it is no longer the kind of anti-graft agency that was not a respecter of any government in power. They cannot do anything. The EFCC cannot bite. The sanity of setting up the EFCC has failed.

So, what is the way out, or who can salvage the situation?

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot redirect Nigeria, and the APC cannot even solve Nigeria?s problems, because it is the same group of people. It is a circulation of politicians and cronies.

I don?t believe that there is an opposition party in Nigeria, because there is a difference between ruling parties and non-ruling parties. Non-ruling parties are supposed to be what we call the opposition parties. But when there is no formidable offering of alternatives by the opposition to the government, then there is no opposition.

The oppositeion party is supposed to be providing critical alternatives to what the government is doing or not doing. That is why in countries like Britain, the opposition parties form what we call a ?shadow government.?

They appoint ministers, pursue policies by looking at what the ruling party is not doing, thereby, during elections, they capitalise on those weaknesses of the ruling party to present their own agenda and manifesto for the next election. So, if that is the criterion of judging parties in opposition, then there is no opposition party in Nigeria; what we have are just parties that didn?t form government.

Are you pronouncing opposition parties dead?

Yes! That is the difference between party politics as a major philosophy of democracy and political parties. Political parties refer to a group of politicians who form a political association, get it incorporated to win elections, form a government and control resources.

And in Nigeria, that quest to control resources is self-aggrandisement. So, politicians in Nigeria are just investors, businesspeople ? their mindset is not on serving the people, but on controlling power and satisfying their own needs.

It Is a very sad situation because it is contrary to the ideas, principles and practice of democracy. Once that is the trend, it shows that there is no democratic political culture in Nigeria. That is why we are just tumbling; there is no structure arising from a formidable, substantive opposition party that can redirect the country. It is quite sad.

You said neither APC nor PDP can champion a change. What is the alternative?

In political sociology, we say that politicians in Africa will always behave like politicians in Africa. Politicians in Africa are not committed to the development of Africa, and politicians in Nigeria are the same, the way they are in Kenya, Uganda; they are the same all over Africa.

So, anyone believing that the crop of politicians we have in Nigeria, Africa, is going to bring the much-needed change is not going to be possible. They are not politically educated; they don?t have the virtues of democratic education. Only the emergence of a new crop of followers, an uprising of intellectuals, made up of media experts, academia and other intellectuals that can set a new agenda in Nigeria?s political landscape. That?s when we can champion a change, though it?s difficult to drive this.

Do Nigerian political parties practice party politics?

Party politics is the structural basis for building a democracy. Meaning that, democracy is based on competition, arising from political groups, having their ideology, manifesto and having the principles to serve the public. That is the structure of democracy. A political party is different because it is driven by the greed of politicians instead of the pursuit of service to the people and the national agenda. So, Nigeria doesn?t practice party politics.

Recently, you condemned the senate committee set up to monitor the activities of the Rivers State?s Sole Administrator. Why?

What is the committee coming to do in Rivers State? Are they coming to do fact-finding, check if they will end the emergency declaration or what? If you follow the constitutional provisions, this committee ought to have been set up to do fact-finding before declaring emergency rule. But the Senate failed in that aspect.

Now, after several months, the sole administrator admitted that there is no violence in Rivers State, no problem, and all the stories about blowing up pipelines were not substantiated, and no investigations have been conducted to prove that pipelines were being blown up.

And anyone living in Rivers State would notice that the state is peaceful. Why are you setting up a committee? That is completely unnecessary. The recen? surge in protests, especially what I call ?harmless, handkerchief protest? by women who were merely dancing and waving handkerchiefs, is because of the way the Sole Administrator has acted.

So, I can conclusively say that the sole administrator is provoking protest in Rivers just for him to be retained, otherwise, his stay in Rivers State ended the moment he arrived, discovered and confirmed that there was peace in Rivers State.

The suspended Governor Siminalyi Fubara recently said he was not desperate to resume at the Government House. Do you think the governor is being intimidated and subjected to certain conditions?

Well, Fubara?s recent talk is a sign that something is going on that he does not like and would not want to succumb to. And that is why, no matter how people misunderstand that speech, he is saying he is not desperate to succumb to any pressure.

What is playing out with Fubara is what we in political sociology call ?state capture?. State capture is an experience where a few powerful politicians decide to hijack power, install themselves perpetually, such that even when they are in and out of government, they are still controlling things.

Their target is the state resources. The present problem in Rivers State has the trend of State capture. It is what made the Minister of Federal Capital Territory recruit Fubara against the interest of all other PDP stalwarts in the 2023 elections. It is to place somebody he thinks he can control, but unfortunately, Fubara did not succumb.

It was on this note that we described what is playing up between Wike and Fubara as State capture, apart from intimidation, it may get worse into assassination. That has been part of the ugly history of Rivers State politics. The State capture is obvious, but what we are praying is that it does not get to the worst dimension, where those opposed to the State captors may be eliminated.

In the case of Rivers State, we can say that it is the State capture that led to the assassination of AK Dikibo, Marshal Harry, and Monday Ndo. The penchant of a politician to remain in power perpetually, directly or indirectly, has grave consequences.

Fubara?s declaration seems to have deflated his followers.Followers of Fubara should have an ideology, a democratic ideology, which is that Fubara was elected and should therefore be allowed to run a democratic government.

There are people who follow politicians without ideology; those ones will easily be frustrated by the governor?s statement, but those who are committed to the democratic ethos and the need to rectify the crisis in Rivers State through the reinstatement of the elected governor will stay on.

You know, the challenge we have in Nigeria is that people follow politicians for stomach infrastructure. I don?t know Fubara and do not intend to benefit from him, I am only defending the principles of democracy.

I expected the governor to behave like a man. Now, instead of succumbing to inhuman intimidation, he could have thrown in the towel, but I wish he had been impeached rather than being subjected to this harassment.

It?s too much for a person. Forcing him to throw in the towel through suspension is not part of the democratic process and principles. The suspension is unconstitutional, and that is why they are trying to squeeze him into being intimidated to accept certain conditions, but his speech suggests his unwillingness to succumb to such conditions.

Despite Fubara?s professions that his spirit is out of Government House, do you think the President can still adhere to the constitution and democratic principles?

It is justiciable and constitutional for the President to reinstate Fubara as the governor. All the conditions stipulated in the Constitution for a State of Emergency to be declared were not met; the National Assembly also did not follow due process, which required that they set up a panel to investigate what was happening in Rivers State before permitting the President to declare a State of Emergency.

Let me talk to the President by saying that if he (Tinubu) is the democrat we all know who fought the military, he should not be the one to bring disrepute to the democratic ethos.

The governor of Rivers State should be reinstated, whether he likes it or not; it is not about him, it?s about the people of Rivers State. It is a matter of sovereignty, Fubara can say, ?I am weak?, but the people of the state are saying, ?let justice be done?. And the one who can bring that justice is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Let him return to the democratic character we know. (The Guardian)

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