By Jibrin Okutepa, SAN
One of the cruellest betrayals of Nigerians is the conduct of politicians who profess loyalty to one political party while working to secure another party’s victory, retain membership, claim privileges, influence decisions and demand recognition within a party they actively work to defeat. This is calculated dishonesty that weakens democracy and turns public trust into an instrument of personal advantage.
There is nothing inherently wrong with changing political convictions or leaving a political party. Freedom of association includes the freedom to reconsider an allegiance. But honesty demands that those who no longer believe in a party’s direction should openly leave it. Remaining within its ranks to frustrate its activities, undermine its candidates and serve another party’s interests is a betrayal of the members who continue to trust them. The hypocrisy becomes more offensive when such politicians describe themselves as defenders of democracy.
They demand loyalty from followers while practising disloyalty themselves. They invoke party supremacy when seeking nominations but dismiss party discipline when it obstructs their ambitions. They condemn sabotage when directed against them and celebrate it when it advances their interests. Their principles change with the location of political advantage. This conduct reveals the selfishness—and, in its consequences for ordinary people, the wickedness—of a ruling elite that treats political institutions as disposable property.
While citizens seek security, employment, functioning schools and accessible healthcare, these politicians concentrate on preserving their access to power. Party members become bargaining instruments, candidates become expendable, and voters are left wondering whether the opposition they support is actually working for the government they wish to replace. Democracy suffers when political competition becomes a private arrangement among elites who publicly disagree but privately cooperate to frustrate genuine alternatives. A party cannot effectively scrutinise a government when influential figures within it are committed to protecting that government. Nor can members make meaningful choices when those entrusted with organising their party are quietly engineering its failure.
The damage reaches beyond elections. Political hypocrisy destroys the connection between promises and accountability. Politicians who can undermine one platform while negotiating protection through another have little incentive to explain their failures. Their survival depends on appeasing a wide range of interests, while the citizens’ welfare receives less attention. Nigerians must stop excusing this behaviour as political wisdom. Deception does not become statesmanship because it succeeds. A politician who betrays those who entrusted him with responsibility has demonstrated a character defect that should concern every voter, no matter which party benefits today.
Political parties must insist on fair, consistent discipline, transparent decisions and genuine participation by their members. Citizens must demand clear allegiances and judge politicians by their conduct. Loyalty to a party must never override loyalty to Nigeria, but neither should patriotism become a convenient disguise for secret political bargains.
Those who wish to serve another party should have the courage to say so and move openly. Democracy cannot flourish where political leadership rewards deception, and good governance cannot grow from the deliberate betrayal of public trust.
