By Lawrence Olaoye
Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State has said that only desperate politicians devoid of ideologies move from one party to another without justification.
The governor made the declaration yesterday while fielding questions from State House Correspondents over the defection of his erstwhile political ally and former Minister of state for Industry and Trade, Mr. Samuel Ortom from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue.
According to him, Ortom had no moral justification to quit the PDP after benefiting from it, arguing that all defectors lack ideologies and principles.
The governor expressed the fear that the country would not grow politically owing to the politicians’ desperation for power which, according to him, is for selfish reasons.
“This kind of politics comes out of desperation for power. It is out of desperation that they move from one party to another. If you are not desperate, what is it? You have been a Senator before. Later, you became a minister, you have been an auditor and you have been everything. Why will you defect from the party that has done so much for you? It is because they are desperate for power for selfish reasons, not to serve the people. With this trend, I do not think that politically, we will grow in this country.
“You know that Nigeria’s politics is rather funny. People have no principles and ideologies; they just go into politics for what they can get. I find that very unfortunate. The minister in question (Ortom) has been a great beneficiary of the PDP. And the most transparent primary was held in Benue State. That is why no one is complaining about the primaries. Some people just want position and once they do not get it, they swing. So, I find that very unfortunate. That is why we are having the problem we’re having with politics in Nigeria.
“The other parties just wait for the other parties to conduct primaries so that when they have problem, they will just take them in. If we continue to practice politics in that manner, I don’t think we can grow. We will not get anywhere because there is no philosophy behind what we do. We are just operating like pendulum. It does not work this way” the governor said.
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