By Ahmed Bello
Politics is no stranger to selfish and self-serving narratives. Over the years, Nigerian politicians have become much like Nigerian football fans. Whenever their team loses a match, they are quick to blame the referee for cheating them.
Now, nobody is saying that referees do not cheat. There are indeed occasions when officials influence outcomes unfairly. However, the mindset that every defeat must be blamed on someone else has turned Nigerian politics into a toxic cycle of accusations and counter-accusations. Rather than reflecting on their own mistakes, many politicians prefer to cast themselves as victims of grand conspiracies.
The recently concluded party primary elections have once again reignited these conversations. While we must acknowledge that some of the primaries conducted across states and political parties fell short of acceptable democratic standards, the fact remains that many politicians entered those contests with the expectation that they would be preferred over others in a manner that was anything but democratic.
The height of this expectation of preference often comes from politicians who defect into new parties and, within a short period, begin to demand privileges that long-serving party members have spent years working for. They arrive with the assumption that their political weight alone should override loyalty, sacrifice, and years of commitment by those who remained in the party through difficult periods.
A case in point is Senator Garba Musa Maidoki, who represents Kebbi South Senatorial District in the Nigerian Senate. Since the All Progressives Congress (APC) concluded its primary election in which Senator Maidoki was defeated, he has been running helter-skelter, insisting that the process was rigged against him.
Particularly, Maidoki, who has now defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), claims that he left the APC because of internal crisis and lack of leadership. Interestingly, this is remarkably similar to the tune he sang when he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) roughly a year ago.
In a recent interview on Africa Independent Television (AIT), Maidoki claimed that after winning his senatorial election on the platform of the PDP, his tenure in the Senate was characterised by internal crises within the party. He presented this as justification for abandoning ship and joining the APC.
One burning question, however, remains unanswered: why did Maidoki leave the PDP during its hour of need? Should he not, after benefiting from the party’s platform and support, have been expected to join others in steadying the ship through turbulent waters?
This is without prejudice to the fact that every politician has a constitutional right to change political parties. Defection, after all, is not a crime. However, when a politician chooses to join a new party, he is expected to acknowledge the realities and dynamics within that party. He cannot simply arrive and expect the entire structure to reorganise itself around his ambitions.
Like many politicians before him, Maidoki appears to have expected that the APC senatorial ticket would be handed to him on a platter of gold. At least, that seems to be the logical conclusion one can draw from his conduct after the primaries. His current barrage of criticism against the APC stems largely from the fact that he failed to secure the ticket he expected.
If indeed Maidoki expected to be handed the ticket, then that was a thoroughly unreasonable expectation. This is because, long before his defection to the APC, there were numerous loyal party stalwarts who had already indicated interest in contesting for the Senate seat. Some of them had remained steadfast through the party’s difficult moments. Others had even contested against him during the 2023 elections.
To expect that this retinue of party loyalists—people who, unlike him, did not abandon ship at the first sign of turbulence—would be overlooked in favour of a recent entrant is the height of audacity and injustice. As far as I am concerned, there is virtually no APC primary election in which Maidoki could reasonably expect to be preferred over such loyal party members. Seen from that perspective, his claims that the process was rigged become entirely predictable.
We witnessed a somewhat similar scenario involving former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami. Pantami shouted from the rooftops that the APC was unjust because it did not give him what he considered a fair opportunity during its primary process. Imagine my shock when the same Pantami crossed over to the PDP and became the beneficiary of a process many observers considered deeply flawed, with loyal party members allegedly muscled aside to facilitate his emergence as the party’s governorship candidate.
This recurring pattern speaks to a broader problem in Nigerian politics. Many politicians only discover flaws in a political process when they are not the beneficiaries. When the same process works in their favour, they suddenly become enthusiastic defenders of it. Principles become flexible, and standards become situational.
There is also Maidoki’s subtle threat regarding the re-election prospects of the incumbent Governor of Kebbi State, Dr. Nasir Idris. To me, such remarks amount to little more than the wild thrashings of a drowning man.
The ADC in Kebbi State may be loud in its propaganda, but one would expect a politician with Maidoki’s experience to know better. When Governor Nasir Idris won the governorship election in 2023, all three senatorial seats in the state were won by the PDP. That reality demonstrates that electoral outcomes are often more complex than the simplistic calculations now being advanced.
Consequently, I do not believe that Maidoki’s presence in the ADC significantly improves the party’s chances of causing an upset. If anything, the ADC itself is grappling with serious credibility challenges. Many of the prominent faces now associated with the party carry political baggage of their own. Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, for instance, has recently found himself confronted by public criticism and hostile chants of “barawo bai mulki” in some political gatherings.
Ultimately, politics is about honesty as much as it is about ambition. Politicians owe the public the truth, especially when explaining their actions and decisions.
As far as I am concerned, Senator Garba Musa Maidoki should focus on campaigning quietly for re-election. However, if he must continue speaking publicly about his political misfortunes, then he should have the courage and spine to tell the people the whole truth. He should admit that he entered a party where many loyal members had stronger claims to its ticket than he did. He should acknowledge that political defections come with consequences and that loyalty still counts in party politics.
Perhaps, by embracing that honesty, he might yet salvage what remains of his increasingly battered credibility.
Ahmed writes from Birnin Kebbi