Without equivocation, carpet-crossing or defection is a recognized feature of Nigerian politics right from the First Republic to the present political dispensation. And from the historical defection in the defunct Western House of Assembly that saw Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Action Group (AG) forming the majority overnight over Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe's National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) that was poised to form the government in the region having won majority of the seats during pre-independence election, to the recent defection of five governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the emergent opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), there is no doubt that carpet-crossing has come to stay with Nigerian politics and no politician should be crucified or ostracized  because of it.

The defection of governors Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), which hugged the headlines of most Nigerian newspapers, expectedly led to rash of defections of their loyalists both in the affected states and in the National Assembly to the extent that the APC was warming up to assume the leadership of the lower chamber of the National Assembly when some 37 members left the PDP to APC.

However, the assumption of leadership position in the lower House by the APC was truncated with counter defections of some APC members to PDP which enabled the ruling party to have the majority. Up to the time of putting this piece together, politicians are still cross-carpeting from one party to another citing one reason or the other for their action and it appears the polity is agog with it and nobody is complaining or rather should complain because it is has become permanent feature and a norm in Nigerian political praxis. Therefore no politician, especially those that engage in such exercise, should begrudge another on account of political defection.

Since the defection of the five PDP governors to the opposition APC, other landmark defections of some prominent politicians to the PDP that may likely determine the texture and shape of 2015 politics have equally taken place in the polity and they enjoyed tremendous media coverage. These include the defection of ex-governors Attahiru Bafarawa (Sokoto), Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano), Achike Udenwa (Imo), and lately Buba Marwa (former military governor of Lagos State) and a major stakeholder in Adamawa State politics.President Goodluck Jonathan went to Owerri, Kano and Sokoto for the defections of Udenwa, Shekarau and Bafarawa to the ruling party and personally welcomed them. There is likelihood that he will do more of such receptions before the 2015 campaigns kick off.

As we approach the 2015 general elections and with the way things are going in the country politically, there will be no end in sight to carpet-crossing. It will continue to feature in the nation's politics unabated unless there is a law that bans it in its entirety. But in the absence of such a legal proviso, and coupled with the fact that there are some legal conditions under which politicians can indeed defect to another political party, Nigerian politicians will always leave one political party for another offering one excuse or the other that suit their fancy.

But at times, I tend to think that defection is the beauty of Nigerian politics. I think so because it allows one the freedom to choose the party of his choice at all times. And if the hallmark of democracy is the freedom to make choices, then carpet-crossing should be a necessary ingredient of the nation's democracy. Besides allowing one the latitude to move away from a crisis-torn party to another, it also allows one the freedom to move away from people with differing ideologies and mindsets. Moreover, Nigerian democracy should have its peculiarities that can distinguish it from other democracies while still maintaining the major tenets of democracy-freedom, justice and equal rights for all amongst others.

The defections so far has polarized the nation's politics as being a keen contest between the ruling PDP and its main rival opposition APC. At the national level, the presidential contest will likely be between the PDP and the APC. For instance, in Rivers State, Governor Amaechi supporters will slug it out with whoever will carry the flag of the PDP at the gubernatorial level come 2015. In Imo, the battle line is between incumbent governor Rochas Okorocha and the Udenwa-led PDP. A similar scenario will likely play out in Kwara, Adamawa, Kano and Sokoto states hence some politicians are jittery in Sokoto over Bafarawa's defection.

While the defections in Rivers, Imo, Adamawa, Kwara and Kano have been taken by their stakeholders and supporters as part of the political game and went ahead with their normal activities, the same cannot be said of Sokoto State where there is bickering or a situation some commentators referred to as being tense and acrimonious because the former governor, Attahiru Bafarawa left APC for PDP.

The acrimony over defections in Sokoto State, especially by one versed in the praxis of defection is needless and therefore unnecessary. I say this taking into cognizance that the two major political actors in Sokoto State, Bafarawa and Wamakko have come a long way politically. Wamako was deputy to Bafarawa until one thing led to another and they fell apart. Wamakko's political career has seen him in ANPP, PDP and now APC. In the same vein, Bafarawa has been a member of the ANPP, Democratic People's Party (DPP), APC and PDP. Bafarawa left APC when the party handed over what rightly belonged to him to Wamakko. No one should under this arrangement expect both politicians to remain in one camp.

The point being made here is that both politicians are defectors and no defector should accuse each other of defection. There is no pinot to demonize or victimize one defector. The political landscape is large enough to accommodate them and their differences. Nobody should be witch-hunted due to his political beliefs. On no account should one political actor be condemned for defection or singled out for vilification because of defection.

Those who indulge in such judgement are just being selective. What one can deduce from the entire Sokoto scenario currently is that there are fears that the power pendulum appears to be swinging to Bafarawa's side which is not unexpected and the opposition will have to blame someone for their imminent fall from power and that person is no other than Bafarawa.