Hello,

How are you?

It’s been a hectic week for me. So, today, I thought it would be nice to take a break from the book I have been reading and talk about a critical issue that anyone thinking about going into politics should note. I have mentioned this same issue in the past. But it bears repeating as we approach the 2023 elections.

I am talking about loyalty.

Looking at the Nigerian political landscape on the surface, it would seem that politicians are not loyal. One day they are in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the next, they have decamped. This can be confusing, especially when you are not a politician and are looking at things from the outside.

For example, you may be someone who is loyal to a party – and so when the party you support accepts people from another party you don’t like, you may feel very bad.

On the other hand, if you are loyal to a person, your leader decamping may be easier on you. You will just follow them to the new party.

But we have a third group of people who are loyal both to the party and the person. For these, loyalty is based on the fact that the person they care about remains within the party they care about.

Well, this email is not meant to condemn any set of loyalists or criticise anyone for their choices. I am looking at the type of loyalty that ought to be rewarded during elections.

I have often said that our politics in Nigeria has not developed to the point where our political parties are guided by firm ideologies. When we grow to that point, it will be nearly impossible for anyone to decamp from one political party to another without their political career taking a major hit. We will not have a situation where a party is held to ransom because of the movement of a political candidate.

However, what we can see is an emerging ideology which clearly distinguishes the PDP from other parties. As I would always say, we need to compare Nigeria’s economic trajectory under 16 years of PDP to where we are now after 7 years of APC.

So, when we look at where we want Nigeria to be in the next four years, we should be asking which party is most likely to ensure that we get back on the path to economic prosperity. It is imperative to reward the party that has shown Nigerians that their economic prosperity and well-being are important to them. That is the party we should vote for in 2023.

Yes, politicians will again realign after the PDP delegates decide who will be our candidates in less than ten days. Some will be aggrieved because things did not go their way. They might go somewhere else to pursue their ambitions.

But Nigerians must never forget, that in as much as we all have a right to vote however we choose, the only party that has the spread and capacity to rescue Nigeria in 2023 is the PDP.

We must all come together to reward the party, the PDP, that has remained loyal to the prosperity of Nigerians.