A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Wenenda Wali, says the lack of ideology of political parties in Nigeria is the major reason politicians, after getting elected or appointed, neglect their parties.
Wali stated this in reaction to the rejection of the principal officers of the National Assembly by the All Progressives Congress.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas last week Tuesday, announced the principal officers of the National Assembly.
But, Wali, in his reaction noted that majority and minority leaders of the Assembly are the spokespersons of the party and are there to protect the interest of their parties.
The APC Chieftain, in an interview with Newsmen, also said the same actions are taken in the state assemblies but such actions do not take centre stage.
“I’m not surprised by any stretch of the imagination that what happened in the National Assembly happened.
“Some of it happens in the state Assemblies but because it is a sub-national group, nobody is hearing about it.
“When you have a minority leader or a majority leader, it is something that has to come from within the party. It’s party specific.
“So, you cannot tell me that the party has no say in who represents them, because the majority leader is the spokesperson of the party in the Assembly. That is my understanding of it unless somebody tells me something else.
“We would have just gone with the Senate president or the Speaker of the House of Reps if there was no need to have the party’s interest protected.
“But it’s not the first time it’s happening, so it’s becoming a tradition where people go against party interest or party position and do whatever they want to do.”
The APC leader said the relationship between the political parties and the politicians is just transactional.
Wali suggested that politicians only rally around the parties during elections while the party officers support its wealthy candidates and neglect the faithful ones.
He said, “People have come to see political parties as nothing but the special purpose vehicles for achieving power.
“Once they get to the corridors of power, party means nothing, they completely jettison the party.
“You can hardly distinguish between party A and party B, which is why, if somebody leaves party A today, the next day, he jumps to another party. He comes back to that party he left.
“And every time they leave and come back, they welcome them. When it gets towards the election now, you see people now crowding the party.
“Because the party officers know that immediately after the election, these people will just leave them high and dry. And so what they just do is, they support those who have money.
“If they went out there to represent the party, there is no justification for what is happening in our politics today.
“I don’t even know who is in APC, I don’t even know who is in PDP quite frankly. There is no party discipline, there is no party loyalty, it’s just pure transactions.” He added.