Fellow Nigerians, kindly accept my
sincere apologies for disappearing from this page abruptly last week. It
was due to circumstances beyond my control. I had really over-flogged
my body through marathon trips that left me totally knackered and
brain-drained. I truly appreciate your concern and prayers. Many of you
must have angered my perpetual cynics who used to complain weekly and
endlessly about my column. Your messages, especially on Twitter, were
eloquent endorsements of my modest efforts at writing Pendulum under
stringent conditions most times.
Let me disabuse the minds of those who
panicked about my column being rested by the Management of Thisday
newspapers. No one can imagine the kind of freedom I have enjoyed since I
took up this assignment. The Publisher of Thisday has never attempted
to gag me in anyway and I’m mightily proud of our cordial relationship.
Mr Nduka Obaigbena recognises
the fact that a column is the personal
opinion of the columnist and does not necessarily represent the
editorial view of the newspaper. Those hoping and dreaming and preaching
that my column should be scrapped should consider the interests of the
majority who have come to accept Pendulum as their weekend tonic.?In my
last piece of penultimate week, I had written copiously about my
encounter with Dr Rilwan Lukman in Vienna about 15 years ago. I was
shocked when news of his death reached me two days after that he has
passed on. I doubt if he ever had time or enough consciousness to read
what I wrote about him but that Pendulum has become my fitting tribute
to the great man. May his soul Rest in Peace.?The title for this week
was suggested or mandated by a reader, Favour Afolabi, on social media.
He had tweeted after reading my piece, WHY I’M NOT A FAN OF PDP,
that he expects me to write about my fascination for APC, perhaps, at a
time many have chosen to write the obituary of that potentially great
party. Let me state categorically that I’m not a member of APC but only a
sympathiser and admirer for several reasons. I’m a proud member of
opposition. It is unhealthy for a country with our myriad of intractable
problems to operate a one party system.
I love the Yoruba proverb that says “we
cannot all sleep and lie down facing the same direction.” As a member of
opposition, it is my responsibility to work for the rescue of Nigeria
from the ultra-conservative elements that have been in power almost
forever in our country. Our types of conservatives have failed to yield
positive results. They pretend to practise capitalism but without the
commensurate capital. We love the American Presidential system of
Government but lack the strength and might of America. We have spent too
long a time and wasted so much of our resources on living senselessly
and needlessly in denial. The rich are getting richer while the poor are
getting poorer. Most of our institutional structures have collapsed and
the country is virtually on auto-pilot. Those who can’t see the
imminent danger ahead are the politicians and the toads of power. They
never fought for the democracy we enjoy today and so can never seem to
appreciate what we are bound to lose if this present experiment
collapses again.?My sympathy for APC is not without a caveat. I’ve not
issued them a blank cheque. I’m aware they have their own issues, plenty
for that matter. I know many Nigerians claim they can’t see any
difference between APC and PDP. I don’t exactly agree as I shall explain
shortly. There are also the ethnic jingoists who don’t know the
dictionary meaning of democracy. They are those who argue that the
current President must govern the country for two terms WHICH IS OK BY
ME. But I do not subscribe to the idea that it has to be done by force.
What is the essence of holding the next Presidential election, if no one
else would be able or allowed to win? Those who insist they won’t agree
if the President is defeated in the election are only inviting anarchy.
They are inflaming the polity and attracting public odium to the
President by making the gentleman look like a man hell-bent on
destroying his country on the altar of selfishness and avarice. For all
you care, there are many Nigerians who may ordinarily wish to support
the President but are now sufficiently nauseated by all the noise or
threats of mayhem if opposition wins the election. I’m one of those who
believe it is within the rights of the President to re-contest but there
is nothing to suggest in our Constitution an automatic win for him. And
the position is not hereditary. As a member of opposition, it is my
belief that opposition groups must join forces to dislodge the PDP in a
clean contest.?Let me now go to why I admire APC warts and all. One, by
next year, PDP would have spent a total of 16 years in power. In those
years, Nigeria would have moved effectively from a hopeful state to an
almost hopeless nation. There is no citizen of Nigeria, except the few
in the corridor of power, who’s not alarmed at the speed of our
cataclysmic fall from grace to grass. In every sector, we have witnessed
a downturn in the fortune of our dear beloved country. The very
powerful leaders at the Federal level have squandered the vast resources
of this great nation on frivolities to say the least. They have
blatantly refused to declare an emergency rule on grinding poverty,
infrastructural decay, mass ignorance, occasioned by the collapse of
education, gross insecurity, atrocious corruption and extraordinary
indiscipline, and so on.
Two, in any sane and sensible democracy,
the PDP would have been sacked long before now. Governments are not
sacked because there is a guarantee that the incoming would perform much
better but because the mood of the people is such that they are totally
tired and they want change or temporary reprieve from their slave
masters. It does not matter if the next leader fails again, he would be
changed for another.?Such a change favoured the ascension of Barack
Obama. The people of Great Britain also kicked out their wiz kid Tony
Blair because they were just tired of his many stunts and unholy romance
with George Bush. Also, the ability to change a leader through the
ballot box is the beauty of democracy. While no one can say with
absolute certainty how APC would perform at the centre, I would rather
risk trying them before knowing what they can do. At any rate, even if
the argument that they won’t do better is valid, Nigeria practices
Federal Character, so I ask why can’t we “quotalise” incompetence and
corruption! Why must PDP be the sole beneficiary??Three, on a serious
note, I’m reasonably convinced that a lot of APC states have given us
much to cheer and a semblance of hope than most of the PDP states and
certainly better than the government at the centre. I find most of the
APC states to be potentially great despite not having the kind of
resources available to the Federal and their states. Anyone who cannot
see or acknowledge the modest efforts of APC Governors is not being
honest about it. While people may say APC leaders have been enmeshed in
their own mess, I still believe they have made better use of the
resources available to them. I’ve always loved to say that nations are
not run by saints but by performers. None of us is a saint and none is
likely to be in our lifetimes but it behoves us to leave a legacy behind
despite our imperfections as human beings.
Four, it is necessary to send a powerful
message to those who think Nigeria can never change by first
re-jiggling the principal actors. I believe it would most probably force
the incoming government to know it is possible to be sacked like its
predecessor if it fails to deliver on its promises. To keep PDP
permanently in power is to keep Nigerians in perennial servitude. Every
attempt to change democracy to monarchy should therefore be
discouraged.?Five, the argument that the APC has become polluted because
some PDP members crossed over is a spurious fallacy. How come PDP can
welcome APC but APC can’t poach from PDP. At the end of the day, we are
all human beings from the same country and what matters is to find more
of sensible and forward-looking ones in one party than the irredeemable
characters in the other. Let all those who oppose the PDP style come
together and uplift our nation. PDP can no longer give what it has not
possessed in nearly 16 years.?Six, it must be noted that both PDP and
APC combined have fewer members than the floaters who don’t belong to
either of them. I’m surprised at the seeming helplessness of the
floaters who can’t see the sense and possibility of joining the
opposition en masse so as to influence some of their decisions unlike
PDP that has already become too big and incorrigibly set in its ways.
Rather than regularly bemoan the many afflictions of our nation, I plead
with those on the side-lines to engage in the torturous task of
restoration. It will be more rewarding to all of us collectively. To
voluntarily give up and say it is impossible is tantamount to committing
mass suicide.
Seven, my definition of change is to
move away from an existing disorder. PDP has been in the saddle since
the return to our half-cooked, if not raw, democracy. The party has
continued to wield the power of heaven and earth with nothing tangible
to show for it. The only change possible is to move away from them and
try something different and potentially refreshing. This would require
the determination and courage of most Nigerians to accomplish,
however.?Let me say categorically that I’m happy APC is facing critical
challenges at this type. If its operatives are wise, it would give them
enough time to put their house in order. What is needed on their part is
not insurmountable. APC must stop playing Brazilian style of soccer in
Brazil. Let them show us an original game many admirers like us know
they are capable of playing. Let them bury their differences and bitter
acrimonies urgently or perish together. Let them tap and recruit from
the largest army in Africa, the unemployed masses of Nigeria and give
them hope of a brighter future. It is too late for PDP to make such
promises or offer such hopes but APC can still be given the benefit of
the doubt.
I can’t see PDP doing as well as it did
last time in the North West and North East the way those zones have
become ravaged by terrorism. Most people from those parts may want to
blame the President rightly or wrongly for their terrible woes and seek
their pounds of flesh. PDP might sweep the South East and South South
naturally and even do reasonably well in the North Central, especially
the traditional Middle-Belt. But the battle ground remains the South
West where APC needs to stand firm. It should be obvious to APC that PDP
would do everything possible to control the South West ahead of the
general elections. But what I like about the South West is the
sophistication of its electorates who are already seeing through the
smokescreen of “Operation Capture the West by all means.” The strategy
is not new. It was tried in 1983 when NPN went on a binge and captured
Oyo State but found Ondo State too hot to handle. The people of the
South West naturally detest any form of intimidation or oppression. If
the PDP continues to harass them, it would eventually backfire.?It is up
to the APC to remain strong and steadfast in its quest for power. Its
leaders would have to reach urgent consensus on who and who to field for
what and prune their Presidential aspirants to barest minimum. I expect
them to field a Northern candidate against the Southern incumbent
President. Fortunately for APC, the President is generally believed to
have marginalised the South West that gave him victory over Buhari the
last time.
I don’t see more than three powerful
contenders right now from the North but Buhari, like him or hate him, is
one candidate PDP would hate to face despite the bravado that he can be
easily defeated by them. He enjoys a cult-followership that seems to
have increased in the last few weeks. In the South, APC would have to
decide on a Christian to pick as Vice Presidential candidate between
Governors Adams Oshiomhole, Rochas Okorocha and Rotimi Amaechi, if none
of them defects to PDP before D-Day; or risk a Muslim-Muslim ticket
through a choice of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu or Governor Babatunde Raji
Fashola. Some of these leaders would have to bury personal ambitions for
the sake of Nigeria. If they refuse and go ahead to kill the dreams of
millions of Nigerians, the shrieking cries of suffering citizens will
keep them awake till kingdom come…
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