By Ephraim Sheyin
For Gov Caleb Mufwang, the last few months must have been the most challenging and critical in his political career.
The ebullient Lawyer has, over the months, been torn between staying in the PDP or jumping ship like his counterparts in Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Taraba, Rivers, Delta, among others.
The options have been straight forward – he stays in the PDP and risk the deadly thorns, or jump into the APC considered structurally assuring and politically more correct.
There is, indeed, a clash here between Mutfwang’s heart and the head. Here’s a governor whose heart is deeply with the PDP. And rightly so. It has offered him a lot of oppotunities. Through this fold, he became the Chairman of the Mangu Local Government, one of the largest areas in Plateau.
His colleagues saw a leader in him and made him their chairman. As the head of that platform, he led his colleagues in the fight to regain their seats when Simon Lalong, who became governor after Jonah Jang, sacked the elected local government councils long before the expiration of their tenures.
Mutfwang fought a good fight. He couldn’t regain the mandates, but he earned his colleagues’ confidence.
Interestingly, the former council leaders formed the nucleus of the team that propelled Mufwang to the governorship seat to succeed Lalong that sacked them !
Unfortunately, his beloved PDP is currently whacked by a terminal illness and can no longer perform the basic functions of a political party. It is no longer a sane platform for any political contest.
This has thrown up a huge challenge. It is a tough nut his head must seek to crack.
In effect, there’s a clash between what his heart naturally loves, and what his head, custodian of the reasoning faculty, knows to be safe and appropriate, which Mufwang must listen to.
Between remaining in the deadly chaos or moving on, he has opted to move and there are reports that he has resigned his membership of the PDP and will be officially welcomed into the APC January 17.
Incidentally, even his worst enemies sympathise with his situation – his supporters don’t want him to leave the PDP while many in APC can do everything to keep him out of their fold.
Practically all analysts have opined that Mufwang, in a normal setting, can secure his re-election bid in 2027 on any political platform but, faced with grim political realities and the sordid and galling political, historical and judicial realities that swept his PDP colleagues out of offices they genuinely won, the man, though with PDP deep in his blood and heart, has had to really use his head, put on his thinking cap, and adjust so as to avoid galling political consequences.
President Bola Tinubu’s reported interest in having Mutfwang in the APC appears to have made the ship-jumping more compelling.
That the candidate of the PDP was recently left out of the list of candidates seeking the Ekiti governorship seat further justifies why Mufwang cannot remain in the platform that has destroyed itself.
He cannot risk a similar fate.
It’s a difficult decision, but analysts trust that his supporters will understand that anyone opting for bitter leaf instead of sweet sugar, does that not just to hurt the taste buds. The goal is usually to protect the larger system and keep the body – and the buds – alive and healthy.
Like a friend noted recently, Mutfwang’s defection appears to be the only way to beat his political opponents at their own game.
Ephraim Sheyin is the immediate past Editor-In-Chief of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
