Nigeria, Nov. 25 -- Before US President Donald Trump's threat to invade Nigeria over alleged Christian genocide, the nation was already gripped by defection fever. The mass abduction of students by terrorists - eerily reminiscent of the Chibok girls' tragedy - has revived painful memories of 2014, when insecurity contributed to the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. That episode, too, bore the fingerprints of foreign interference, amplified by international governments and media.

Meanwhile, when Ifeanyi Okowa, former Delta State Governor and running mate to Atiku Abubakar under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), defected to the ruling APC. His move reverberated across the country. Few expected such a prominent figure to cros...