- Ogara said the indiscriminate and arbitrary defections that characterised Nigerian politics are spurred by lack of ideologies among politicians and ruling class
A member of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon Harrison Ogara, has disclosed why he remained in the Labour Party despite the decision of six of his colleague to dump the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Recall that six members of the State House of Assembly elected on the platform of the Labour Party quit their membership of the party and announced their defection to the PDP.
The defected lawmakers cited purported internal wrangling and crisis bedeviling the party for their decision. Consequently, the move made the PDP, the hitherto minority party, the majority.
Speaking on the matter, Ogara said it would be stain on his conscience for him to leave the Labour Party that made it possible for him to become a lawmaker for PDP where he was denied the opportunity of actualising his ambition of becoming a state legislator.
Speaking in an interview with THE WHISTLER, Ogara said the indiscriminate and arbitrary defections that characterised Nigerian politics are spurred by lack of ideologies among politicians and ruling class.
He said, “I did not join in the decamping because it would be a moral burden upon me. I was in the PDP, and contested the election under the party. But midway into the contest, I was told I was not good enough for the position. I left the party and found a place in the Labour Party and won. Morally, it will be a burden for me to jettison the party that provided me the platform, and join the same party that rejected me to even contest because the primary was so skewed to favour a particular candidate. If I will move away, let it be known that, maybe, LP is no longer working to gain power in the next election. There is no crisis in the LP, and even if there is, no party in Nigeria does not have crisis. You must wait to see to the end before you make a move.”
On whether LP lawmakers that decamped should be categorised as betrayers, Ogara said, “If you call it betrayal, you are not far from the truth. If you call it the Nigerian way of politicking, you are not far from the truth. An average politician in Nigeria has no ideology. That is the reason why somebody can move from one party to another arbitrarily. Wherever he finds a favourable space, he goes there. This is unlike what we have in saner climes such as the US. There is nothing that can make a Conservative to change to another side, or a Republican to decamp to Democrats. In Nigeria, anything goes. What played out in Enugu House of Assembly is a combination of many factors.”
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