It’s about the PDP that has not played well with the trust of Nigerians since 1999. I don’t know how many out there still expect something dramatic for a positive change. Not many. What may cause a change is the sheer will of individuals in authority.
This can come out of their conviction that things have gone wrong and need correction. As for the parties, no illusions. Culture of violence? It’s here. It used to shock, now it’s not quite news anymore, yet we aren’t at war? PDP isn’t asking, why this increase in violence under us? Why do villages wake up seeing littered corpses? Why do worshippers return as corpses? Why are passengers forced to lie face-down on the autobahn for a bus to run over and all such horrors? They’d say, they didn’t cause it and I’d say, tell me about injustice and deprivation within.
We are told we have democracy but political parties are owned. Will owners not put their cronies in power no matter what? When genuine contestants are schemed out for not belonging or are cash-strapped, won’t they recoil to fight from behind just to make a point? Nothing pains more than injustice and when the reaction is to destroy, it’s mindless and total. That partly explains the extremism of evil acts we see.
The PDP isn’t guiltless for making politics cash, carry, win, take all. The opposition has shown no difference either. In states they control, most in authority are the ‘anointed’ of party owners. Then you wonder, what change? What’s wrong? It’s that our curiosity/restlessness as followers are mere beer bubbles. No harm to the bowels, just drink. Until the bubbles question the bowels, nothing will change.
Because we let go and no close-ranking, party owners now act/talk as Nigeria owners too. This is why we have to thank voices of Soyinka, Achebe, Falana, Umar, David-West and a host of others. But their joint action is missing. Imagine also the Amen-Corner with its ocean-crowd enhancing those voices, there’ll definitely be a sit-up somewhere up there, especially for the reason that ‘thy Kingdom come’ is their task. They therefore can’t stay in the sepulchre and watch the store rot. The kingdom can’t come that way.
The opposition parties are coming together: ACN, ANPP, CPC. They call it Noah’s Ark ‘which every Nigerian tired of the endless drift of our country must enter’. Must enter? Is the instruction to build the ark from GOD? I ask because if not, the ark will sink in flood. There are three captains there: Tinubu, Buhari, Onu – call it THE TIBUON ARK. In Noah’s, only Noah and there was sanity, purpose and desired result: New World. Tinubu and Buhari, no matter the democratic dressing, own their respective parties. Without even coming to the central stage, they’ve begun the very installation that’s abasing the PDP.
Tinubu is a cash-pot politician, Buhari is a principle-string politician; how would cash and principle act and react? They’ve come in one way before and fled in seven. What made them flee? Have they put it right? These are the things we want to see before invitation to the ark. As for Onu, well, he’s heading a party that was. Fact is, with those titans in the ark, what chances? He can still be a balancer or a destabiliser. These point to one thing: that ark lacks sealants. What happens then amid raging flood?
We know too they have regional roots and struggling to become national. CPC and ANPP, North; ACN, West. They deny it but that’s what it is. What happens to the South-south/Southeast? Just invited to join. That’s why in concept, PDP got it right but failed with two legs up in execution. If there were a convincing third party from the remaining regions, knitting could flow better. The evolving configuration confirmed the salience of a party with South-south/Southeast root. We may not believe it, we’re going back to the pre-war arrangement. The regions had enough leverage to develop at their pace and it was a good recipe for development, not for holding together. That makes the roles clearer: federal: hold together; regions: have what you need to develop at your pace. With this thinking, it’s hard to see how this merger can thrive without the regional circuit being complete.
Aiming to unseat the PDP is the least of our problems. PDP or opposition, politics in our clime is acquisition and that’s the disease of the trade. When a third regional force comes, the scenario will become more attractive. For now, let the crowing voices come together to shout away the mess in high places, not as individual stray bullets. The TIBUON ark looks restless within and turbulent without. It needs further growing.
