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What is a year without Nigerian politicians giving us some comic reliefs amid growing insecurity and economic hardship?
Even in 2020, when COVID-19 kept the world at home for most of the year, Nigerian politicians managed to pull dramas and controversies.
Expectedly, the year 2021 is not bereft of noteworthy moments that sparked political conversations nationwide.
Here is the rundown of the big moments in Nigerian politics this year.
Femi Fani-Kayode and PDP’s Wave of Defections
The year 2021 produced a wave of defections the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not like to see happen again.
In September, the party lost Femi Fani-Kayode, one of its very outspoken members to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former minister of aviation, who once said he’d rather die than join the APC, said God led him back to the political party he once labelled Almajiri Peoples Congress.
Fani-Kayode’s defection rubbed salt on PDP’s wounds, because prior to his defection, a former governor, two governors and a serving senator had dumped the party for the APC.
The wave of defection that hit the PDP in 2021 started with former governor of Ogun state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel joining the APC in February.
Daniel, who was the Chairman of the party’s presidential campaign in the 2019 general elections, said his defection is in the best interest of “our people.”
In May, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River state shocked Nigerians when he announced his defection from the PDP to the APC.
Talks about the governor’s controversial move had not completely died down, when his counterpart in Zamfara state, Gov. Bello Matawalle dumped the opposition party, citing insecurity as one of the reasons why he dumped the party for the APC.
Again, the PDP had not yet recovered from Matawalle’s blow when Senator Stella Oduah, the lawmaker representing Anambra North, announced her defection, 55 days after Matawalle left the party.
Like other defectors, Oduah dumped the PDP because of her love for the people she represents in the Senate.
The Trips to London
In July, the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, left Nigeria for the United Kingdom.
Several weeks later, the politician’s disappearance began to spark death rumours in some quarters. But to prove that Tinubu is neither dead nor sick, his publicists dropped some ‘proof of life’ images of the politician chatting with Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
It was later revealed that the politician was in the UK to undergo a knee surgery in a London hospital. However, following the surgery, the mansion where Tinubu was housed in London started receiving political visitors from Nigeria.
From President Muhammadu Buhari, to governors, lawmakers and political loyalists, the mansion, where Tinubu stayed in London while recuperating, turned to a Mecca of some sorts for APC politicians and loyalists.
Pandora Papers
In October, some Nigerian politicians were indicted in a global tax evasion scandal and investigative reporting carried out by more than 600 journalists in 117 countries.
The investigation called ‘Pandora Papers,' revealed how powerful Nigerians set up businesses in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, as well as in countries like Switzerland and Singapore.
Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, and the incumbent Governor of Osun State were accused of setting up secret companies abroad, while failing to declare them as part of their assets.
The investigation also revealed that a mansion at 32 Grove End Road in London, where Bola Tinubu was housed while recovering from his knee surgery, was reportedly acquired with corruption and money laundering proceeds.
Other Nigerians exposed in the series of investigations are Bishop David Oyedepo and his offshore company, Senator Stella Oduah and the properties she bought for N5b in London, Governor Dapo Abiodun’s secret business and foreign accounts and over 130 other Nigerians who acquired 233 properties in the UK via offshore companies.
Gov Ortom the Sprinter
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State allegedly demonstrated one of the reasons why a politician must be physically fit to run for a political office.
Ortom ran for his life in March when a gang of gunmen attacked his convoy at Tyo-mu along the Makurdi-Gboko Road.
Following the incident, the governor narrated how he ran for more than one kilometer to escape assassination.
Despite the governor’s security personnel repelling the gunmen’s attack, Ortom believed he was saved by his fitness level.
“I thank God for my fitness to have run for more than one and a half kilometres without stopping. It means that God has given me strength and I am grateful to God,” Ortom said.
Secondus Suspension and the Legal Acrobatics
The controversial suspension of the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, and the legal back-and-forth that followed it was simultaneously funny and embarrassing.
Following a suit filed against Secondus by some members of his party, a High Court sitting in Port Harcourt granted an order of interim injunction stopping him from parading himself as the National Chairman of the biggest opposition party in the country.
Four days after his suspension, another High Court in Kebbi reinstated him.
But Secondus’ victory was short-lived as another High Court sitting in Cross River granted an interim order banning him from resuming office hours after his reinstatement.