The embattled governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki has resigned from the All Progressive Congress (APC) after meeting with Buhari on Tuesday. Last week, he was disqualified by the party from contesting for a second term. It is not news that he and Oshionmole, the national party chairman have not been on good terms for months.

Now that Obaseki has resigned from APC, what next for him? There have been indications that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has tried to woo him. In fact, it is suggested that he will defect to PDP to contest for second term. Upon his disqualification to contest for second term last week, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar reportedly called him and urged him to defect to PDP.

Source: The Nation

Under the PDP constitution, a party member seeking to contest for any elective office must have been a member for a minimum of 18 months. However, waivers are granted in exceptional cases. Should Obaseki defect to PDP, the party may grant him that waiver to contest for second term.

Politically speaking, it’s expedient for Obaseki to defect to PDP. However, logically, is that right? We do not think so. A political party is an association of people with a common political ideology who seek to win elections so as to implement their ideology in society. 

In Nigeria however, there are no fundamental ideological differences among our political parties. The only noticeable differences are their names and logos. There are no fundamental differences between APC and PDP which is why our politicians find it extremely easy to defect here and there.

In America for instance, it’s hard for a Democrat to defect to the Republican party. This is because there are marked fundamental differences between the two parties. Elizabeth Warren cannot say because she has lost the party ticket she now wants to defect to the Republican party. It’s preposterous. 

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has defected from APC to PDP and PDP to APC a number of times. Ditto Senate President Bukola Saraki. This has not helped our politics in any meaningful way. For the sake of integrity, Obaseki should not defect to PDP. He should serve his one term and resign to private life.