Aaya Ram Gaya Ram: how defection is bad market for Senator Bent

 Aaya Ram Gaya Ram: how defection is bad market for Senator Bent

By Felix Samari

One of the exciting histories of defections is the Indian experience that resulted in the promulgation of the anti-defection law in 1985. Before the anti-defection law was enforced, in 1967 a term was born associated with a renown carpet-crosser Gaya Lal, a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Hodal in Haryana; because of his frequent defections the political jargon "Aaya Ram Gaya Ram" was coined. 

Aaya Ram Gaya Ram means: Ram has come, Ram has gone. It is an expression in politics of India that refers to "frequent floor-crossing, turncoating, switching parties and political horse trading in the legislature by the elected politicians and political parties." 

In Nigerian since 1999 we have witnessed floor-crossing and political horse-trading that on many occasions did not go down well. We saw Ram going and Ram coming.  Several unholy alliances backfired, yet we have continued to see it outpouring. 

Recently, APC have been harvesting big shots from the PDP as if to say the harvest time is now. Nothing new, yes, but so much is yet to be clear. Be that as it may, the game changers are still in charge at both ends. 

I am interested in the fact that "Aaya Ram Gaya Ram" is not a mere imagination but it will come to pass sooner we will see some defectors carrying their bags and baggage back to their base. Let us watch and see. 

While I worry that the unholy alliance cropping from the crosscarpeting will soon unfold and the losers will suffer. Here I don't wish to spell doom for anyone anyways. I am just concerned that people like Senator Grace maybe trading the path of political oblivion in Adamawa State. Because politics also has DNA, therefore, no matter how offended you may be at home, the best place is always home.

Why do I think so? Goggo have been a PDP from inception (That is why she was bestowed with the exhalted office of being a Board of Trustee member) how could she now find a home in APC which throughout it's stages of metamorphosis never was close to becoming like PDP? I think there will be bigger drama soon to be staged.

Some places are no home for some persons, I think this explains to some extend why even the Biggest Nigerian political juggernaut Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the most powerful vice president  that Nigeria ever had could not remain himself under the broom. He had to return home because PDP is his DNA. 

I can go on to say that Distinguished Senator Grace Bent has nothing in common with the broom bearers. Making matters worse is that she is from the Numan Federation a section of Adamawa South that APC is disadvantaged. APC there is left for the not-so-powerful few. Within the APC in Adamawa South Mrs Bent can be trapped down to irrelevance because there are almighty big hands like the former Senator representing Adamawa South, Senator Mo'Allah Idi, former deputy Governor Engr Martin Babale not to talk of the renown political kingmakers of repute and the Jadawa Mafia. Tell me, where would Grace Bent fit in? 

I may be wrong in my analysis but I am sure, there is much space for Grace Bent in PDP than in the APC. But if in the PDP where she was a BOT member she lost primaries to supposedly new entrant into politics, what would become of her if she is the new entrant in to a political party? 

You see I may be risking the vindication of time, I am commiting my ink to paper so that if the future comes it will be that we said it, but if it goes that she made headway in the APC, I won't be ashamed to say that I was wrong. 

To this end, let me say that it is not too late for Goggo to reconsider her steps and draw back to move forward. In the spirit of good sportsman I wish her well on her sojourn in the APC. But all these as we wait, time shall tell.