Main opposition Peoples Democratic Party says it pities Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress, insisting that his political troubles are self-inflicted, having willingly taken the path that led to his current predicament.
In a statement, on Tuesday, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, said the Rivers crisis exposes a broken democracy where powerful individuals overpower institutions and use federal machinery to crush their opponents.
After his meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Aso Rock, Abuja on Monday, Fubara announced in Port Harcourt on Tuesday that he, along with some appointees and supporters, had left the PDP for the APC.
The Rivers Governor said the move was driven by their decision to back President Tinubu, adding that they did not receive the protection they expected from the PDP.
But the PDP National Publicity Secretary in his reaction, said he hopes Fubara does not fall into Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim becomes attached to his oppressor.
According to him PDP, “The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has received the news of the formal defection of His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, the Governor of Rivers State, from our Party to the ruling party. This news, as pitiful as it is, is an exemplar of the old legal maxim Volenti non fit injuria, meaning to one who is willing, no harm can be done.
“Everyone who has followed the developments that culminated in this uneventful defection will recall that the Governor willingly travelled the path that took him to this destination. Having done so voluntarily, he cannot turn around and accuse our party, or any other person or group, of abandoning or not protecting him.
“Whilst a person who is at a crossroad of threats of existential proportion will most likely suffer from temporary amnesia caused by trauma, the Governor should have nothing less than praise for our party, civil society organisations, and all Nigerians who freely stood up in his defence since this crisis started until he capitulated. It is our prayer that the Governor should not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim falls in love with his captor. In all, despite these, we pity the Governor and wish him well.
“Furthermore, the Rivers situation is a testament to the dysfunctional nature of our democracy, where individuals are bigger and stronger than institutions and can use the apparatus of the Federal Government to obfuscate political life out of their opponents and bring them to their knees.”
The PDP spokesman warned that Nigeria’s democracy is in danger, stressing that the ruling party’s push toward a one-party system and shrinking of the political space poses a serious threat.
The statement added, “Democracy is terribly threatened by acts of this kind, and all of well-meaning people should unify in condemning this progressive decline of democratic norms.
“Finally, we reiterate to Nigerians and the global community that with the unrelenting disposition of the ruling party towards the attainment of a one-party state, and the constriction of the political space, democracy is under severe attack in Nigeria. Everyone must rise together to oppose this ignoble trip toward electoral authoritarianism.”
