The gale of
defections currently rocking the opposition parties in
Nigeria is explicable in terms not of the desire of the
defectors to render service to their constituents but in
terms of the essential mercenary character of the typical
Nigerian politician. With few exceptions, the typical
Nigerian politician is a mercenary to the core who sees
politics as both systemic and systematic moneymaking
business; a get rich quick adventure and an advanced form of
419 clothed with the veneer of legality and due process in
officialdom.—Franklin
Otorofani
In every nation may be found a clan of alarmists who seek to
exploit the innermost fears of the citizens to further their
political ends. This they do by misrepresenting and
deliberately blowing out of proportions certain existing
socio/political conditions that might be considered
deleterious or have the potentials to negatively impact the
lives of significant groups in the society. Nigeria is home
to a burgeoning clan of alarmists whose members regularly
harangue the nation with doomsday scenarios existing in
their demented minds. They’re those who have already written
off the 2011 elections as unmitigated disaster that would
even be worse than Iwu’s 2007 elections.
This is to assure the wise and thoughtful reader who might
chance upon this piece that I do not belong to Nigeria’s
clan of alarmists. The caption of this piece, though
screaming and somewhat foreboding, is not intended to scare
or frighten the reader about an impending Armageddon in
Nigeria, because, let’s admit it for once, Armageddon is
there already in Nigeria.
To begin with, Nigerians are not known to be chicken hearted
wimps and, therefore not easily scared or frightened. Those
who have written off Nigerians as wimps for tolerating bad
leaders might wonder which Nigerians I had in mind when I
said that. I had in mind the activist nation that faced down
and drove out of power, literarily with bare hands, a
brutal, despotic and murderous military dictator in the
early 90s. I was witness to that epochal triumph over
dictatorship in my undergraduate days in Nigeria.
What else is out there to scare or frighten Nigerians,
anyway? It’s got to be something scarier than just
Armageddon to frighten Nigerians because if Armageddon is
real as the Bible says it is, Nigerians have been living it
and taking it regally in their strides every waking day of
their lives with uncommon equanimity that amazes the rest of
the world. What, with the deaths and destructions regularly
visited on them by religious fanatics and arsonists who
regularly torch public buildings to destroy records,
crumbling buildings without earthquakes, and the daily
carnage on our roads and highways; if these are not the
features of Armageddon, I don’t know what is.
Yes, Nigeria may not have suffered tsunamis, mudslides,
typhoons, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, storms and
flooding disasters as happen regularly in other parts of the
world. She appears immune from these natural catastrophes
that have decimated whole cities and populations in several
parts of the world. After recent floodings that claimed
several lives, China just got hit again with mudslides that
have inflicted a death toll of more than 700 unfortunate
souls and still counting with more than 1,100 missing as I
pen these lines. May their gentle souls rest in peace.
Fortunately enough, Nigeria is spared such natural
calamities that have become almost daily staple in China.
But deaths and destructions she has suffered periodically,
nonetheless, nearly all of which are man-made. However, it
would appear that Nigeria has been spared these natural
disasters for a reason. Nothing happens in the universe by
chance. God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, is a God
of justice and fair-play. He has spared Nigeria these
natural catastrophes because Nigeria already has more than
its fair share of human disasters in the persons of her
leaders. It would amount to double whammy to add natural
disasters to their burdens.
Therefore, whatever natural disasters that are headed
Nigeria’s way are divinely deflected and rerouted to other
lands that are blessed with good leaderships that are
capable of handling such huge emergencies except of course,
the disasters are purely punitive in nature in which case
they could hit anywhere regardless of the quality of
leadership available therein.
Nigeria’s disasters are the human beings in positions of
leadership whose collective actions and inactions have
brought man-made disasters upon the nation. The yearly
harvests of deaths and destructions unleashed on the nation
by religious fanatics coupled with the graveyards in our
highways and hospitals are testaments to the human disasters
that have been ruling the nation. But Nigerians are a tough
breed and that specially reinforced, gritty constitution of
theirs, which has evolved over time has served them well to
weather the storms of life in that part of the world that
could sink other nationals at first contacts. Yes, the
conditions in which Nigerians survive and thrive as human
beings could sink vegetative citizens of other nations like
rocks thrown into the ocean.
Is it Biblical purgatory following Armageddon that would
frighten them?
That’s hell. Purgatory is hell in the hereafter for
unrepentant sinners. But Nigerians have already been
acclimatized to hell itself without knowing it.
The essence of Armageddon is the meting out of endless
punishment in the hereafter for our moral and ethical
indiscretions whilst here on earth for unrepentant souls.
And it is supposed to be just desserts for our sins. In
other words, we deserve it as just punishment for our sins
much like the just punishments meted out to wayward and
unruly children by their parents. Forget for a moment that
this right has been taken away from parents in some
countries including the United States, thereby denying
parents one of the most potent tools in parenthood. The net
result, by the way, is the siring of incorrigible,
uncorrectable and uncontrollable broods.
If Purgatory is deserved punishment, Nigerians have long
been undeservingly living in hellish conditions that
citizens of other nations cannot pass through and come out
whole with their sanity intact. Many would flip, crash, and
burn themselves and others to ashes as has just happened in
the United States. A man who lost his job butchered his wife
and murdered his own children before taking his life. A man
fired from his job in Connecticut returned with a gun to
murder seven of his former co-workers and was heard in his
chilling 911 call lamenting his inability to take down more
people. Such things are unthinkable in Nigeria with her
hardened, created-for-Nigeria broods. For example, hot and
humid weather conditions with temperatures of 95%F and above
over a period of days is termed “heat wave” that had
resulted in the deaths of several Americans, who have no
access to air-conditioners forcing the government in
affected cities to provide “cooling centers” for the
vulnerable, including children, pregnant women, the sick and
the elderly. It happened a few years back in the US and it
happened again this year. It happened in France and other
parts of Europe a few years back with similar reports of
deaths from the heat waves.
To put in context in case the reader starts wondering how
come many American citizens don’t have access to
air-conditioners in God’s own country, (as if there are no
poor, beggars and homeless people in the US), it’s not
necessarily because they cannot afford air-conditioners per
se in their homes some of which low cost units could be
bought for less than $200.00 per unit at Wall-mart, but
because many can’t afford the high monthly operating cost of
the units in terms of electricity bills, forcing many to
choose between putting dinner on their tables and installing
and running air-conditioners in their homes. It’s reason why
many in the urban cities with good public transportation do
not own private cars due to the high running and maintenance
costs, not necessarily the cost of the cars. The choice is
an obvious one and they wind up enduring the oppressive heat
or get help at cooling centers at the behest of their
municipal governments.
Now from Moscow comes this report from the Associated Press
regarding the multiple fire outbreaks that have created
severe smog conditions in the city of Moscow, resulting
difficulty in breathing—a serious health hazard:
“MOSCOW –
Moscow authorities say they have opened more than 120
anti-smog centers as wildfires around the capital suffocate
residents and ground dozens of flights.
Municipal
official Vladimir Petrosyan said Sunday that exasperated
Muscovites could "get their breath back" in 123
air-conditioned rooms that have opened to the public in
government buildings and hospitals.
Most
apartments in Moscow lack air conditioning…”
The reader would notice similarities in the weather
conditions in Russia on the one hand, and in the United
States and Europe described above, on the other, albeit in
varying degrees with particular reference to absence of
air-conditioners in most apartments and the government
responses to their needs in times of emergencies. That’s
evidence of caring and responsive governments that place
high premiums on the welfare and wellbeing of their citizens
that they’re elected to serve. People’s welfare is the
reason for the existence of government in the first place
and it’s taken quite seriously in all democratic nations,
except of course, Nigeria.
The same attitudinal orientation of governments in those
countries informs their respective policies of public
assistance to the needy in societies. These governments’
commitment to public welfare that even oil producing, third
world nations like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, provide for
their people, is scandalously and criminally wholly absent
in Nigeria. Nigerians have always been on their own no
matter what happens to them individually or collectively, as
if there are no governments in the land at any level.
Now, if people are temporarily dying of heat wave in the
United States and parts of Europe, that is their Armageddon,
right there. It’s their hell fire! But that is precisely
what Nigerians have had to endure in permanence in the
roiling, tropical cauldron for decades without end, with no
electricity to power their fans or air-conditioners and no
government “cooling centers” either to provide for the sick,
pregnant women, children, and the elderly. They’re on their
own and can’t even sleep at night under the sweltering heat
wave because their own government, the very people they put
in power to cater for their welfare, and who are meanwhile,
enjoying air-conditioners in their homes, offices, and even
in their chauffeur driven, posh automobiles procured with
the people’s money, don’t give a damn about their
conditions. Obviously and without a doubt, that is the
attitude of a government that places zero premium on the
welfare and wellbeing of its citizens. This is a general
indictment of the Nigerian political class as a whole.
Please don’t tell me Nigeria is tropical and Nigerians are
used to heat waves. No one deserves to suffer heat wave
whether in the tropics or in the temperate world due to the
absence of electricity to power their cooling gadgets for
those who manage to have them, because it is brutal,
unhealthy and dangerous to life. Heavens know how many
Nigerians have died of heatstroke or from generator fumes
innocently in their sleep. Whether it is the death zones or
hospices called “hospitals” or more appropriately “mere
consulting clinics” ala Mohammadu Buhari, or the graveyards
that our gullied and cratered roads and highways have been
converted into, or the perpetual darkness that Nigerians
have been condemned to live in by their leaders, or the
muddied, bacteria infested stream and well waters they have
been forced to drink by their leaders, and the generally
short, nasty, and brutish existence Nigerians have been
condemned to, the DNA of hell shows she is unquestionably a
Nigerian by birth and nationality.
Therefore, irredeemable and unrepentant sinners who wish to
acclimatize themselves to the conditions in hell whilst
still here on earth before crossing over to the other side
to face the real deal, are hereby advised to relocate to
Nigeria in their own interest for their hell-acclimatization
training much like athletes do before major tournaments. It
is also open to those who are not necessarily irredeemable
sinners seeking to acclimatize but those who just want the
taste of hell for the heck of it as part of their life
experiences.
Call it “hell tourism” if you like and you would be right on
the money. They will not be disappointed and satisfaction is
guaranteed. The only condition attached to this is staying
clear of the Government Reservation Areas (GRA)—the
apartheid colonial relics that were originally designed to
separate white colonial overlords from the local black
populations, inherited and now used to separate the haves
and the have-nots in society in urban areas.
You think the idea of hell tourism is kind of wacky. Don’t
you? Think again. Ever heard of death defying “extreme
sports” where people dare death itself in the name of
sports? Trust me, there’re many whackos out there
particularly in the western world that would sign up for
this new idea of “hell tourism” much like “space tourism”
because there’s no telling what tickles the fancy of the
unfathomable, restless human mind. People want to pay
millions of dollars to go on tour to the red planet Mars
with no guarantee of coming back to earth. It’s amazing what
humans can do to themselves. Human beings have been known to
starve themselves to death, blow themselves up in suicide
bombings and willfully inflict extreme pains on themselves.
Hell tourism in Nigeria would be no big deal for such
people. And who knows, it could be the next big thing to oil
in Nigeria when the whackos starts flying in with plane
loads of Euros and Dollars to burn before they keep their
appointments with the real hell, not its man-made equivalent
in Nigeria.
What has all of this got to do with PDP run-away one party
train? The reader might want to know how it all fits in.
What is the nexus in the foregoing with the PDP and
political parties generally in Nigeria? Everything, because
these are the very conditions that these parties, especially
the PDP, were contracted to fix 12 years ago but they’re in
breach of performance, particularly the PDP for obvious
reasons.
This is indicated in the worsening state of insecurity to
lives and properties, epileptic power supply, endemic
corruption, dilapidated infrastructure, poor healthcare
delivery services, ineffective law enforcement, and host of
other severe shortcomings. But for the progress in GSM
telecommunication, it would have been an unmitigated
disaster. But for a few bright spots in Lagos, Akwa Ibom,
Cross Rivers, Enugu, and a handful of states, it would have
been a totally blighted firmament enveloping the nation. But
for a few business players who are making a difference, all
hopes would have been lost in Nigeria. But Nigerians should
tarry a while longer because help is on the way.
While Nigeria has been spared natural disasters that have
reduced whole nations to rubbles as indicated earlier,
Nigeria has been visited with its own disaster in the form
of the PDP and the other clueless political parties that
don’t even know how to spell their own names to begin with,
and always aping and mimicking the monstrous PDP all the
same. They don’t hold their conventions until the PDP does.
They don’t nominate candidates until the PDP does. They
don’t adopt zoning until the PDP does. They don’t do
internal democracy either until the PDP does. They don’t
give accountability until the PDP does. In short, they don’t
provide leadership in any shape or form in any area of our
public life until the PDP does. And if the PDP fails to do
it as is often the case, that’s it. Isn’t that pathetic?
Has anyone heard of any of the opposition parties referring
its governor or party leader to the EFCC for prosecution for
fraud? PDP leaders did just that in Delta state with
ex-Governor Ibori now languishing in Dubai jail awaiting
extradition to Britain to face trial over there. And there
are many Iboris in the PDP who have been referred to the
EFCC for prosecution by their own party or government. What
about the opposition parties? Or, are they telling us
corrupt governors and party leaders only exist in the PDP?
Whenever a PDP governor or party chieftain is referred to or
nabbed by the EFCC, opposition loud mouths are quick to dub
the PDP corrupt while they look the other way about
corruption in their own party led governments in the states
they control, as if they’re all saints. Such an attitude
shows their abject lack of commitment to the anti-graft war
which cannot be fought only by the party at the center, but
by all parties and governments from top down.
Therefore, if opposition parties in the states are presently
exhibiting ambivalent and lukewarm attitudes to the
anti-graft war in their own little domains only to scream
their heads off from the roof tops when a PDP chieftain is
nabbed, they have no moral right to castigate the PDP after
shielding their own from public scrutiny. And they equally
stand condemned for cuddling corruption in the land. To
prove their mettle, they have to show that they are better
than and not like the PDP. This they have failed to
demonstrate in the past 12 years of the present democratic
dispensation.
They also stand condemned just like the PDP for indulging in
god-father politics at the expense of internal democracy.
Again, has anyone heard of internal democracy in any of the
opposition parties? It’s unheard of, and I would venture to
add that imposition of candidates is the norm rather than
the exception in the opposition parties. Witness how General
Muhammadu Buhari emerged ANPP candidate in the two previous
elections, and how Abubakar Atiku emerged in the AC in the
last election! There wasn’t any pretension for party
primaries. At least the PDP put up a façade of party
primaries where Yar’Adua emerged. Chief Okorocha even came
second to Yar’Adua in the primaries. There wasn’t anything
of the sort with Buhari and Atiku. Both were merely adopted,
end of story. In other words, these parties are very poor
imitations of the PDP. They copy the PDP and make their
copies looking worse than the original images they copied.
They’ve become the flotsam and jetsam of the new political
order that need to be skimmed out to make way for more
vibrant, energetic, and resourceful entities to do the
people’s business even in opposition, because as Chief
Awolowo had demonstrated, there’s honor and service even in
opposition.
At a point, you’ve got ask yourself: Seriously, are these
the parties wanting to take over power from the PDP or we
are expecting something else to emerge from the woodworks?
It’s extremely disappointing, and indeed scary. A highly
resourced nation is denuded of sound leadership materials
both in the ruling party and in the opposition. Look at what
Donald Etiebet has made of the once promising ANPP reduced
from 9 states to an empty shell today and fast becoming a
regional Sharia party. No wonder Buhari abandoned it like a
sinking ship. And look at what Bisi Akande has made of the
AC formerly AD, reduced from 5 states to a regional hollow
drum today, obsessed with politics of personality rather
than of ideas. No wonder Atiku bailed out of it like a
sinking ship. Both have become shrunken old dresses. And
look at what Orji Kalu had made of the PPA today, turned
into a family estate before it imploded and evaporated into
thin air. And I ask again: Are these the Messaiahs Nigerians
have been waiting for or some other beings will drop down
from heaven to salvage the nation from the current PDP?
To be fair Tunde Fashola of the AC is a performer in Lagos
but I don’t know about Adams Oshiomohle of Edo state.
However, a tree does not a forest make and even the much
despised PDP too has star performers at the state level as
in Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and Cross River states, for example.
But party evaluation goes beyond the performance of
individual governors alone but the totality of the entire
party package. How is it that a performer like Fashola is
being threatened by Almighty Tinubu in Lagos state and might
not make it back for a second term if Tinubu is not called
to order? And no one will call him to order because he is
the Alpha and Omega of the party. The Nigerian opposition
deserves better image and better leaders.
Therefore, when disaffected Nigerians are bellyaching about
the PDP, the AC, ANPP, APGA, PPA, or whatever contraption
that is out there donning the garb of opposition should not
join the PDP bashing bandwagon because Nigerians’
dissatisfaction with the PDP does not and cannot
automatically translate to their affection for the
opposition parties that are in worse shape than the PDP
itself. Therefore, they should shut up when we bash the PDP
and quietly take away appropriate lessons to get their acts
together and make amends. Dr. Usman Bugaje of the AC, (now
ACN) put his finger right on it when he was quoted as saying
at its party’s convention “as we modify our name, we must
also modify our ways and improve on our ways of doing
politics.”
Good talk, Mr. ACN Secretary. That’s a breath of fresh air
and some home truth that your party chieftains need to be
told in blunt terms. But words alone do not cut it. It takes
action and I don’t see the Tinubus and the Akandes who own
the AC or ACN changing their colors anytime soon. Until that
is done and demonstrably seen to have been done, please do
not join us in bashing the PDP because your party is worse
than the PDP as it is at the present with one man, Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu, calling the shots and all else groveling before
him. The AC is one-man dictatorship that needs to shed its
old clothes.
PDP—Failed Organization
Nigerians have every reason to bash the PDP for lack of
performance. But opposition parties are not welcome to join
me as I take the party to the cleaners for its failure of
leadership as the ruling party at the center. So much was
riding on the performance of the party upon the departure of
the military in 1999. That the PDP has failed to live up to
its billing is a gross understatement. It’s almost a total
disaster and that is being charitable to it in due
recognition of its little achievements in certain areas
including telecommunication and EFCC which I would not deny
it because fair is square.
But in spite of that the party is about seeking a renewal of
its unfulfilled contract with Nigerians all because it’s the
only viable national political contractor available to
Nigerians at the moment to do business with, the opposition
having gone under into bankruptcy and self-liquidation. For
want of viable alternatives therefore Nigeria is now stuck
with a party that’s behaving and acting like a
performance-challenged husband who is unable to perform his
conjugal obligations to his wife but yet refuses to let go
off her and continually pleading for understanding and
cooperation, and asking for more time to perform. And the
poor wife has no choice but to remain in the unproductive
marriage relationship all because there are no better
suitors out there in the drained out field of institutional
impotence. Nigeria is in such unproductive marriage with the
political institution called the PDP that needs to be
reviewed.
A political party must exist for a purpose that transcends
itself. Even ordinary social clubs and organizations exist
for purposes that transcend themselves and their
memberships. And they do their very best to actualize their
aims and objectives not only for the benefits of their
members but of the larger communities in which they operate.
You name a social club or organization that is not
fulfilling or at least working to fulfill its aims and
objectives and I’ll show you a dead social club or
organization. And this so whether we are talking about the
People’s Club of Nigeria, Rotary Club or the Red Cross or
Red Crescent. It makes no difference. They’re all committed
to certain social goals and work their butts off to
actualize them. And we see the results of their activities
which justify their existence in the first place.
However, a political party is more than just a social club
or organization. It is a socio-political organization that
recruits and provides leadership for the nation at various
levels of governance. It’s the nation’s clearing house for
political leadership recruitment. As such, the nation relies
on the good faith efforts and sound, professional judgment
of political parties to present competent and credible
individuals for leadership positions as a corporation would
expect from its Human Resources department or hiring
managers when hiring to fill vacant positions, which is what
elections are all about.
But even more than the above function, a political party is
not just an assembly of human beings but an assembly of
ideas; an aggregation of developmental ideas, philosophies,
visions and the very embodiment of the goals and aspirations
of the nation/state it wishes to provide leadership for.
Those ideas, philosophies, visions and aspirations are
properly and rigorously fine tuned, conceptualized and
articulated in a party manifesto and presented to the nation
for endorsement by the people at regular intervals by way of
periodic elections.
When a party is voted into power like the PDP in Nigeria,
the Democratic Party in the United States, or the
Conservative Party in Britain, for instance, it means the
majority of the peoples in these countries have vetted,
endorsed and adopted the ideas, philosophies, visions and
policies of these parties, and justifiably look forward to
their implementation without fail. And that is the basis of
the contract with the people that is sacrosanct and ought to
be treated with the seriousness it deserves as it is in fact
done in established democracies. Election promises are not
mere verbal diarrhea or empty promises of convenience but
binding, politically enforceable contractual commitments
undertaken by those who voluntarily made them. How is it
then that regular contractors are held to their contractual
obligations and political parties are left off the hook with
blatant contractual breaches? Why is it that contractual
standards are not equally applied to parties in breach of
performance in both cases in Nigeria, because I know they
are in other democracies? How could PDP governors like
Ibori, Igbinedion and Kalu, just to name but a few, who left
their respective states poorer than they met them ever get a
second term in the face of their woeful performances in
their first terms? The usual culprit is election rigging but
that’s only part of the answers. The full answers may be
found in lack of political education and enlightenment on
the part of the Nigerian electorate. The Nigerian electorate
is still willing to sell its votes to the highest bidders.
Now, how much do Nigerians know of the ruling party or other
party’s manifesto? I would venture to say, next to nothing.
How much do PDP members themselves know about their party’s
manifesto? I would also venture to say, next to nothing and
would even go to the extent of saying many of them haven’t
even seen a copy of it, for crying out loud! What is in the
PDP manifesto and how much premium does the party itself
place on its own manifesto? Here again, I would say, next to
nothing, which is a shame.
This party has been in power for twelve years and it is well
past time to present its report card to the nation for
evaluation and that evaluation is drawing nigh. To what
extent can the party tell that it has left Nigeria better
than it met it at the beginning? Sure, it could point to a
few achievements here and there, but what radical difference
has it been able to bring to bear on the material and
spiritual conditions of the citizens? It is not enough to
point to a few road projects; a few hospitals projects; a
few educational projects, or a few water or electricity
projects, for that matter. The nation should see beyond
concrete and mortar projects, important as they are. What is
the overarching, driving force, developmentally speaking,
that is propelling the PDP as a ruling party at par with
similar parties in the rest of the world? What is the
governing philosophy or the ideological construct
underpinning the PDP phenomenon as a ruling party? What is
its contract with Nigeria? What are its value propositions
on the lives of Nigerians? What are the minimum standards of
living the party would prescribe and guarantee to all
Nigerians? Are Nigerians worth anything at all to the party
in the first place, or it is only out to look out for its
members? If not so, how is it that the PDP is growing fatter
and fatter while Nigerians are growing leaner and leaner?
Shouldn’t a serious party be bothered about that, that the
people it leads are getting poorer and poorer while its own
members are getting richer and richer at the expense of the
people? And shouldn’t such a party, faced with such grim
realities look itself in the mirror and have a serious
conversation with itself? How is it that the shortest road
to sudden, unearned wealth passes through the PDP, and not
through legitimate means? How is it that the PDP, which
prides itself as the biggest party in Africa and the hope of
Africa would allow itself to become a fraudulent
organization? How is it that the party is not boasting of
being the best, most democratic, focused, and principled
party in Africa, but simply pounding its hairy chest like a
chimp as the biggest party in Africa?
It’s got to ask itself, biggest in what? Biggest or largest
has to be put in a meaningful context. The party has to be
the biggest in something meaningful, not just its population
size because size alone without value added is meaningless
achievement. Is it biggest in fraud and embezzlement of
public funds or biggest in ideas and development resources?
Is it biggest in electoral rigging or biggest in delivering
dividends of democracy to the nation? What are the metrics
the PDP uses to evaluate and score itself? Is it just
winning elections to corner state resources for itself and
its cronies or delivering on its promises to the electorate?
Is the party actually committed to moving Nigeria forward or
only committed to moving its members forward and leaving
Nigeria behind?
These are some of the nagging questions that must dog the
path of the new PDP leadership that call for serious soul
searching on the part of the PDP. After 12 years in power
doing nothing but “chop, chop”, it is time for the party to
redefine and chart a new course for itself in alignment with
the wishes and aspirations of the nation.
Road to Self-Discovery
And I’m cautiously encouraged that its new chairman, Dr.
Okwesilieze Nwodo appears to have seen the light and
sounding rather philosophical since he assumed office as to
the new direction he is taking the party. Hear him,
reproduced verbatim as reported by “The Sun” newspaper,
August 3, 2010 online edition:
“In spite of my directives on my inaugural day that people
should not bring “Ghana-must-go” bags to our office, they
are still doing that. Anyone, who tries it again, I’ll
disgrace him publicly.
“I have told our governors not to come to my house. If they
want to see me, let them come to the office. Aspirants
should not come again to the secretariat. Let them go and
campaign, win the people’s hearts. Our primary elections’ll
be transparent. You don’t need to see anybody, and nobody
will change your result.”
“We now want to win their hearts– no more a winning machine,
and running civilian dictatorship.”
“We want people to know the meaning of the colours of the
party, its manifestos, and the umbrella symbol.
“We chose the colour white because this country has seen
blood through colonialism and civil war. We want peace. We
chose red because of the sacrifice of our leaders past, who
fought and died for its unity.”
“This is the covenant we have with the people. Time has gone
when all those things happened. All they had was a mandate
to line their pockets, to remain in office at whatever cost,
and to settle their godfathers.
“We are working with experts to reform and update our
manifestos, to make it workable. We have to make a change.
There’s nothing absolutely impossible to do in this country.
PDP has resolved to call upon courageous men and women, who
can do it.”
“because elections were no longer competitive, attention was
focused on how to get into the cabal and share the resources
of our nation.
“No one can run this party anymore as a personal property,
choosing, who to belong to the party and who will not.”
This man has had an epiphany of sort like the Biblical Saul
on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, which is an
apt comparison because Nwodo had been part and parcel of the
PDP mal-administration before he left and came back to the
fold. He surely knows what he’s talking about in the PDP
having been its national secretary in the past. He has, in
effect, placed Nigeria’s problems, whether it is corruption,
electoral woes, and ineffective governance, at the doorsteps
of his own party. This is clearly a party that has totally
lost its bearings now seeking to rediscover itself.
I’m not privy to the reasons Nwodo left the PDP in the first
place and why he came back in the second. I do not recall
him fighting for any cause in the party as say, Nnamani and
his reformist group has been doing in the PDP recently. But
this much I would say. It takes an uncommon courage to
publicly disclose these things in a partisan atmosphere a
few months to the general elections. The man is publicly
admitting his party’s failure and that takes candor and
honesty. It’s like the PDP is having some catharsis or an
ablution of sorts. I mean this man has exposed the
putrefying innards of his own party for the world to see—no
cover ups, no sweet talking Nigerians, no buck passing, but
a blunt, unvarnished, no holds barred assessment, and a
damning verdict on his own party. What more could one have
asked for from a party that got so much but delivered little
in return?
Now, not only that he is doggedly charting a new direction
for the party that focuses on the welfare and wellbeing of
the citizenry rather than those of the party chieftains, but
a party where all belong on equal footing rather than
governors and moneybags hijacking the party to feather their
own nests to the chagrin of the generality of the people. In
short, it is a party that appears poised to reinvent itself
otherwise there would be no point disclosing these things if
it was going to be business as usual and changes were not in
the air. I don’t hear the ANPP or AC mouthing such rhetoric.
Yet as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Nwodo and Jonathan must move beyond mere declarations and
statements of intent to actions by actually delivering on
promises to the very best of their abilities. And I know
they can do it if the will is there. As Nwodo himself has
pointed out, “There is nothing absolutely impossible to do
in this country!” And that is so true but the will must be
there and the commitment must follow the will.
I am indeed encouraged by the courage of the Chairman in
telling moneybags who come to his house with Ghana-must-go
bags obviously to buy favors from him to go to hell with
their obscene cargo else they would be publicly exposed and
shamed. That to me is matching words with action. Was he
just blowing hot to get cheap popularity or he is for real.
It’s hard to tell. But I have no reason to doubt the
veracity of his expose. He didn’t have to say it if he
didn’t mean it. And he didn’t have to reveal it if he didn’t
do it. Besides, he’s not contesting for any elective
position. He has got the position already so there’s no
incentive or need to for him wax popular. I want to believe
therefore Nwodo appears to be a man with a mission to
cleanse and rebrand the PDP going forward. Time will tell if
he is just a pretender. However, there’s more evidence yet
that telegraphs Dr. Nwodo’s commitment to remaking the PDP
in the image of its founding fathers by supporting only
performing state chief executives of the party who are
actually delivering the goods in their states to their
peoples as promised.
Here again is the PDP chairman:
“Such governors are asset to the party and must be given all
the necessary support as they fit into the PDP’s
re-engineering aimed at restoring its old glory.” (Tribune
080810)
For the PDP leadership to do this, however, it must have had
some kind of machinery on the ground to monitor and evaluate
the performance of its governors rather than just anecdotal
evidence. Such machinery if it exists and its findings must
be made public to inform the citizens of the performance of
their governors as part of the “re-engineering” process.
I would therefore doff my hat for the new PDP helmsman if
he’s able to follow through with his agenda, no doubt with
the active support and concurrence of the presidency.
Fortunately, the president was the first to sound this note
of change and reforms and Nwodo seems to have taken his cue
from the president’s message, which is all well and good.
However, the reformist promise held out by Nwodo’s
leadership could be vitiated by emerging disclosures that he
had held secret meetings with Abubakar Atiku, his
longstanding friend, with a view to helping him secure total
control of the Adamawa chapter of the PDP in aid of his
presidential ambition—a development that’s reported to have
caused some disquiet both in the presidency and in the camp
of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida for different reasons. If there is
any truth to these reports, Nwodo’s reformist agenda sounds
like a hollow drum and should not be taken seriously. But I
would defer judgment for now since all that could be part of
political smear campaign again him. We should watch for
further revelations on this issue.
Regardless, Wadata House and Aso Rock must get together and
clearly spell out their contract with Nigeria. After 12
years on the saddle the PDP needs to show results not plans
in all the departments of life that are troublous to
Nigerians otherwise it would be courting a bloody revolution
against itself, because Nigerians have no one else to blame
but the PDP.
This is because for better or for worse, the party has
managed to transform itself into a potential or veritable
target of a potentially bloody mass revolt. History has
shown that a people cannot bear their hardships indefinitely
no matter how pliable and suppliant they might be, more so
in this day and age where communication and information
travel at the speed of light and Nigerians are daily exposed
to what’s happening in other parts of the world particularly
in countries that are less endowed than Nigeria.
This then is a wakeup call to the PDP to get its acts
together before it winds up on the wrong side of history.
Its membership success must be positively translated into
dividends of democracy not for its members as its presently
the case but for ordinary Nigerians in the streets. If the
party cannot manage its success, it’s a sign of failure
itself. Yet failure is not even an option anymore at this
point in time. Either the PDP performs or face the
consequences of mass revolt with all that it entails. To put
in legal terms, specific performance is what is being
demanded of the party now else something might give.
Nigerians have invested too much of their hopes and
aspirations on the party that it cannot afford to fail again
if given yet another chance to deliver.
Withering Opposition
But where does that leave the other political parties? When
I posed this question to myself, I found myself wondering
which political parties we’re talking about in the first
place. There are no political parties in Nigeria besides the
PDP. PDP is the only game in town and that’s a terrible
indictment on the Nigerian opposition. The much touted, much
hyped mega party to challenge the PDP couldn’t fly as
predicted by this writer due to personal ambitions of Atiku
and Buhari as it indeed happened in the follow up to the
2007 elections. History is about to repeat itself in 2011.
They will all be confronting the PDP beast fragmented and
yet expect to win. It is sheer daydreaming and they will all
be back to square one whining about rigging.
And this begs the question: how in the world did Nigeria end
up with one party in a country with one of the most liberal
constitutions and electoral laws that permit virtually free
for all party formation and registration? How in the world
did a nation supposedly with over 50 registered political
parties become a de-facto one party state? Here is the
answer:
Ø
Atiku Returns to PDP
Ø
Kalu
Returns to PDP
Ø
PDP woos ANPP with 3 ministerial slots •As FG plans new
unity govt
Ø
Chukwumerije, supporters return to PDP
Ø
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)---to defect
to the PDP
Ø
Ohakim Returns to PDP
Ø
PDP woos Abia State Governor
Ø
Senator Igbokwe of ANPP set to defect to the PDP
And the list goes on and on ad infinitum. Everyday heralds
the defection of notable opposition chieftains to the PDP.
And whole parties are dissolving into the PDP as did the
PPA. The gale of defections currently rocking the opposition
parties in Nigeria is explicable in terms not of the desire
of the defectors to render service to their constituents but
in terms of the essential mercenary character of the typical
Nigerian politician. With few exceptions, the typical
Nigerian politician is a mercenary to the core who sees
politics as both systemic and systematic moneymaking
business; a get rich quick adventure and an advanced form of
419 clothed with the veneer of legality and due process in
officialdom.
Seen from the prism of money making, the idea of a
development blueprint is an unnecessary chore and
in-cumbrance to be tolerated only in so far as it is used to
further the main objective of moneymaking. Thus the Nigerian
politician finds in the very process of producing a
development blueprint an outlet for moneymaking. He finds in
the process of approving it an avenue for moneymaking. He
finds in the process of executing it a chance for
moneymaking. He finds in the process of reviewing the
contract sum a golden opportunity to further line his
pocket. He finds in the process of inspecting and monitoring
its execution an avenue for moneymaking. And finally, he
finds in the process of its certification of completion, a
grand opportunity for a haul.
And at the end of it all, the poor man has become a
multi-millionaire overnight from a single development
project. After making his first tranche of millions he
promotes himself to the billionaire class simply by
replicating the process over and over again for as long as
he remains in office, even refusing to take his annual
vacation for fear of missing out on some deals or otherwise
getting his underbelly exposed by those he had denied their
shares of the official loot. This is the culture that has
gripped the nation and it is by no means limited or peculiar
to the PDP although it harbors the mega players owing to its
control of the center. And that explains why the opposition
is dead or dying in Nigeria. That explains the shameless
defections to the PDP by those who told us only a few months
ago that the PDP was dead and would be buried soon. That
explains why ex-Governor of Abia state, Orji Kalu’s
defection to the PDP. That explains why former VP Abubakar
Atiku is back to the PDP. The lure of lucre and power is
that the heart of their defections and their hearts are far
from rendering service to the peoples.
One-Party-State
The PDP has now become a run-away freight locomotive that is
threatening to impose one-party rule on Nigeria and this
constitute a serious threat to democracy. Hardly a day
passes without news of one opposition politician or the
other decamping to the PDP. Nearly all the governors of
opposition parties have fled or are considering decamping to
the PDP. Opposition politicians are now jumping on board the
PDP’s one party freight liner like mad men who had been lost
in the political wilderness for a long time and have now
suddenly found the vehicle to take them to the Promise Land.
This is the greatest tragedy that has befallen the nation’s
young democracy. It’s the Nigerian opposition itself that is
killing the Nigerian opposition. Imbued with suicidal
instincts the Nigerian opposition is self-destructing which
is a far cry from what opposition was like in the First and
Second Republics when the titans of the Nigerian political
class were still on the stage—principled men like Chief
Obafemi Awolowo of the AG and later UPN, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe,
of the NCNC and later NPP, Mallam Aminu Kano of the NEPU and
later, PRP and, of course, Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri of the
GNPP, the apostle of “Politics without bitterness”.
These men never wavered and never gave in to the lure and
dictates of political survival in their principled
opposition to the policies and ideological orientation of
the ruling parties at the center in both the First and
Second Republics. The closest one of them got to that was
Dr. Azikiwe’s NCNC in the First Republic and his NPP in the
Second Republic that entered into an alliance with the NPC
and NPN respectively in the First and Second Republics. But
even so, that wasn’t decamping to the ruling party but mere
political alliance for the purpose of forming a government
that’s common in multi-party set ups especially in
parliamentary systems. Thus neither the NCNC nor the NPP
ended up in the belly of the NPC or the NPN.
These parties had their own structures intact on the ground
and went to elections on their own terms determined to wrest
control of the center from the ruling party, not jumping
ship. And that’s because they were, for the most part,
ideologically different from the ruling party at the center.
Therefore the most Zik could do was to get into an alliance,
which is just a temporary, working, power sharing
arrangement, not merger with an ideologically incompatible
party as has suddenly become the norm in Nigeria. And the
nation was better for it because it was able to tap
alternative developmental ideas from the opposition parties,
for example, during the Shehu Shagari’s austerity debates in
the Second Republic and the Anlo-Nigerian proposed Defense
Pact in the previous era that provoked serious student
protests across the land that was vehemently opposed by the
opposition.
The wholly mercenary, suicidal instincts of the present
opposition in Nigeria cannot be blamed on the PDP no matter
how much and by what means it seeks to recruit new members
from the opposition to swell its ranks. It’s the prerogative
of all political parties everywhere in the world to seek to
expand their memberships by poaching on one another and the
PDP is certainly no exception in that regard. It’s something
like religious membership drive through crusades and
personal contacts. It’s not different with political
parties. That said, political conversion much like religious
conversion must be based on something more enduring and
ennobling other than just monetary and power gains as
Nigerian politicians have pathetically reduced themselves to
commodities rather than ideas.
Defecting to the PDP is the clearest indication yet that
these erstwhile opposition party members who were most
vociferous in attacking the PDP are absolute pretenders to
the throne and have nothing better to offer either outside
or inside the PDP than the PDP itself other than helping to
turn Nigeria into a one party state. And helping to turn
Nigeria into a one-party state is gross disservice to the
nation. It would appear that no one is thinking about the
general good but engrossed in the pursuit of individual
interests. Their selfish actions have deprived the nation of
robust opposition that helps to moderate democracy and
prevent dictatorship. If they couldn’t make a positive
difference in opposition they cannot be counted upon to make
a positive difference in the PDP either. They’re simply
deadwoods floating down the stream of politics ending up
wherever the currents take them.
Implications for the PDP
However, while the PDP might be happy with the fast
withering opposition, it should not be unmindful of the
implications of remaining the only real political player in
the land. It’s not in the interest of the PDP to gobble up
all major opposition elements in the country whether they
come to it willingly on their own volition, wooed or
otherwise poached by the party.
This is counter-intuitive but a necessary sacrifice that
while the PDP cannot be expected to reject anyone who seeks
to become its member as there’s freedom of association
guaranteed in the constitution, it must nevertheless
exercise utmost discretion in assisting the suicidal
predilection of the opposition parties in the land by not
actively going out of its way to depopulate and decapitate
the opposition parties just because it has the means and the
baits to throw at their disaffected members to lure them
out.
This might be a tall order for a party that seeks to remain
in power for as long as it takes, which is a legitimate
desire on the part of any political party in the world, but
the PDP must exercise self-restraint in order for our young
democracy to survive and thrive since the Nigerian
opposition has chosen the ignoble path of self-destruction.
The PDP should not be involved in assisted suicide. If they
must, let them crash and burn on their own internal fire and
not assisted by the PDP to commit suicide.
One of the immediate implications of a one party state is
denying the nation alternative viewpoint, which is necessary
and important ingredient of a functioning democracy. This
is in recognition of the fact that a one-party state as
existed in the former USSR and currently exists in the
People’s Republic of China is not a democracy and it does
not pretend to be one. It’s an authoritarian system out and
out that has nothing to do with democracy. The essence of
democracy is political competition not monopoly. And
competition must not only be intra-party, but more
importantly inter party. When competition is stifled or
snuffed out whether by default or by design, at either or
both levels indicated above, it signals the death of
democracy.
And as pointed out in my previous blog, this is one of the
reasons why the odious zoning proposition of the party must
be smashed into smithereens with sledge hammer for its
monopolistic and constrictive bearings and bringing the
party’s constitution in line with the nation’s constitution
that guarantees equal rights to the citizens to vie for any
elective position in the land including the presidency.
That’s the irreducible minimum. There’s no if, when, or
maybe, in this matter. We may choose to dance around it like
some kindergartens, but as far as the constitution goes,
it’s cut and dry.
The PDP would be degrading the nation’s promising democracy
if it were to emerge as the sole dictator in the land
whether by design or by default. Nigeria’s claim to
leadership in Africa would be severely called to question if
all it has to offer to the rest of Africa is a one party
dictatorship. The days of one-party states in Nigeria as was
in Tanzania, Ghana, and Zambia under the late Presidents
Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, and Kenneth Kaunda,
respectively, are over in Africa and over for good. It’s
perhaps fair to state that Africa has opened a new chapter
of multi-party democracy since the last decade and going
forward. And Nigeria which prides herself as Africa’s leader
shouldn’t be the one to turn back the hand of the clock.
Secondly, being the only party will make the PDP the sole
target of anti-government protests and demonstration and
will therefore have to bear the brunt of the people’s anger
when things go wrong because the buck stops at its desk,
such that even the failures of others will be blamed on it
due to its monopoly of power.
Thirdly, the PDP will have to bear the burdens of
development all by itself rather than sharing it with other
parties as it is at the present. Presently, the PDP has
neither the organizational structure nor the administrative
and intellectual or even ideological capacity to effectively
handle these burdens. This is not to suggest that there are
no intellectuals or ideologues in the PDP as individuals.
But the PDP as a party is not ideologically and
intellectually equipped to match the achievements of the
Communist Parties in China and the former Soviet Union and
that’s why it is unfocused and changing policies like the
flowing Agbadas (flowing robes) of its chieftains.
For instance, OBJ came with NEEDS only for Yar’Adua start
dismantling his policies and replacing them with his
so-called seven-point program. There’s no policy fidelity,
continuity, and discipline focus on existing policy
implementations by the PDP like the Communist parties in
China and the former Soviet Union. And that’s largely due to
its lack of ideological foundations like those which define
the Communist parties. PDP is operating in an ideological
vacuum or the ill-defined, amorphous ideological potpourri
inherited from the military, which neither here nor there.
Yet it will be expected to deliver just like the Communist
parties nevertheless. It will be recalled that the Soviet
Communist Party turned the USSR into a superpower within a
few decades after being the first to go to the moon after
the 2nd WW. And the Communist Party in China is
now well on its way to replicating the Soviet experience in
China. China is posing serious military and economic
challenge to the West far greater than the former USSR,
which challenge was basically military not economic, for the
most part. Unlike the PDP these parties and their
outstanding achievements are rooted on sound and clear
ideological philosophies that are clearly absent in the PDP.
The PDP is totally bereft of any ideology except for the
primordial ideology of the stomach which it shares with
lower animals. The PDP could do the same without going
communist and repressive. All that is possible with a
multi-party democracy as the Asian Tigers have clearly
demonstrated. But clear vision and mission are called for.
The ability and capacity of the PDP to set its sights higher
up and look beyond narrow self into the national horizon to
behold a land of endless opportunities, justice, and equal
rights for its citizens, and unfettered commitment to public
good as opposed to individual or group interests therefore,
presents a daunting challenge to the PDP as the ruling party
going forward. It is best to capture its vision in an
ideological capsule.
President Goodluck Jonathan and Chairman Okwesilieze Nwodo
must seize this historical moment with both hands not only
to remaking the PDP in the image of its founding fathers,
but to the remaking Nigeria in the image of her founding
fathers—an egalitarian society and a land of boundless
opportunities, freedom and justice for all. And this is
wishing the duo God’s speed.
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. contact:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com
Published
August 12th, 2010
