What does Dogara’s return to APC mean to his constituency and Nigerian politics?

John Webster, an English dramatist, who lived between c.1580 and c.1632, said: “A politician imitates the devil, as the devil imitates a cannon; wheresoever he comes to do mischief, he comes with his backside towards you.”

The return Friday, July 24, 2020, to the All Progressives Congress (APC) of a former speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was not surprising to the watchers of the Nigerian brand of politics.

Dogara was one of those who decamped from the APC to PDP in 2018 in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.

The former speaker was a strong ally of the immediate past Senate president, Bukola Saraki. He had emerged speaker on June 9, 2015, after a keenly contested election. He defeated Femi Gbajabiamila, who represented and still represents Surulere federal constituency, Lagos State. He scored 182 votes against Gbajabiamila’s 174.

He represented Bogoro/Tafawa Balewa federal constituency in Bauchi state, as the speaker of the 8th Assembly.

He emerged the speaker against the wish of his party, the APC, which had earlier conducted a mock election to choose Gbajabiamila as the party’s official candidate.

But he and his supporters ignored their party and stated that they preferred to be beaten at the floor of the House.

Recall that his chances to win the post received a boost when the opposition PDP adopted him as its candidate and advised its members to vote for the Bauchi lawmaker en masse.

Following the contentious manner he emerged as the speaker, he became a pariah to his party and aligned with Saraki, who also emerged in similar circumstances, and became a thorn in the flesh of the APC-led government, as it were.

Although he got re-elected last year to represent the same constituency, he has been largely quiet in the house now being led by his “arch-rival”, Gbajabiamila.

Critics say that having watched the affairs of government from the sidelines without reasonable recognition and responsibility committed to him either from the leadership of the National Assembly or the Aso Rock Villa, he decided to take the biblical prodigal son’s option of returning to his father in penitence.

It has also been insinuated that the former speaker must have taken the decision to evade prosecution over some alleged sleaze that may have been traced to his regime in the House. Those who hug this allegation point to the speed with which Dogara ran to the Villa to see President Muhammadu Buhari shortly after he dumped the PDP.

But the lawmaker said he decided to jettison the PDP over the failure of governance, financial impropriety, among others in his home state of Bauchi, which is ruled by the PDP.

Dogara listed his grievances in a letter of resignation which he addressed to the Chairman of Bogoro ‘C’ Ward of the PDP, in Bauchi State. The state is governed by Bala Mohammed.

He said that he could not effectively raise his questions about the poor governance in the state and still be regarded as a loyal member of the party, hence his decision to leave.

He pointed out however, that it was his responsibility to say the truth to authorities in Bauchi State, as he had done to previous administrations of former Governors Isa Yuguda and Mohammed Abubakar.

His defection to the APC was first disclosed on Friday by Mai Malla Buni, the governor of Yobe State and chairman of the APC Caretaker/Convention Planning Committee, when he led Dogara to meet with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Anthony Odi, a political analyst, believes there’s more to Dogara’s decision than what is being told the public. He said there could have been high level discussion and carrot dangled before him, to lure him back to the party.

“His defection was made known last Friday and the same day he was taken to see the President. I think there must have been a premeditated arrangement,” Odi said.

The Accountant, by profession, noted that Nigerians have been bitten several times by the bugs of unfaithful politicians who recycle themselves, jumping from one party to the other.

On the likely benefit of his move back to the APC, Odi said: “We have seen them over the years jump from one party to another. They are jumping for their own selfish interest and not for the people. How, for instance, would his return to APC benefit his people? He just wants to remain politically relevant, having spent a whole year in the cold.”

But Deola Abioye, a grassroots politician, said Dogara’s latest move would benefit his constituency.

“It is the person that wears the shoe that knows where it pinches. Politicians must be relevant. Any politician that is not in close contact with the powers that be is a loser, and they know it,” Abioye said.

According to him, “Going back to the APC would help him launch back to reckoning. He will no longer be a back-bencher and through him, his people would now begin to feel the federal presence. Some of these moves are not just made for the sake of it.”

As interesting as the defection appears, some analysts believe it is a sad commentary in Nigeria’s political development.

“Nigerians must not be carried away by the antics of politicians. In 2018, they complained that the APC was a bad party and that they could not serve the country well on account of certain policies or tendencies of the ruling party.

“These were the same words that they employed when they dumped the PDP in 2014 for the then newly formed APC. At that time, they saw opportunities that were offered to them on a platter. And because they said unprintable things about their former party, they became hot cake to their new-found friends. They leveraged on this to become governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives. Today, Dogara has gone back to his ‘vomit’. In all of this, the poor masses are the losers. They are the ‘fall guys’ I must say. Nigerians must awake from their slumber and resist these ungrateful opportunists,” a university lecturer, who craved anonymity, said.

Lashing out at Dogara over his movement back to the APC, Senator Walid Jibrin, chairman, PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), said the former speaker left the party because he wanted to become president or vice president of Nigeria in 2023.

Jibrin urged Nigerians to disregard the reasons given by the former Speaker for returning to the ruling party for the second time.

Jibrin said: “I am beginning to suspect that the former House of Representatives speaker Mr. Dogara has a plan of becoming President or Vice President in 2023 which he knows he will never achieve in PDP. I want to assure him that the People’s Democratic Party shall continue to be very strong and united and its doors remain open to all Nigerians; therefore, PDP will never accept any plan by anybody to destroy the party.”