The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has reacted to the defection of Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, describing his exit from the party as a consequence of his own decisions.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, and signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Ini Ememobong, the party said the circumstances surrounding the governor’s move to the ruling All Progressives Congress aligned with the legal maxim volenti non fit injuria.
According to the 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’.”
The party stated that Fubara embarked on the political path that led to his exit of his own volition. “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,” the statement noted.
The PDP added that it had consistently defended the governor throughout the political crisis in the state. “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,” it said.
The party also used the opportunity to criticise what it described as the weakening of Nigeria’s democratic institutions. “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. Democracy is terribly threatened by acts of this kind, and all well-meaning people should unify in condemning this progressive decline of democratic norms.”
The PDP warned that the ruling party’s political strategy posed a threat to multiparty democracy in Nigeria. “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.”
