The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Vincent Ogbulafor recently led a delegation of some party members to pay a condolence visit to the people and government of Kaduna state on the death of Mallam Yahaya Gausau. At the government house, an occasion fitting for sober reflection and somber speaking considering the exemplary life lived by the deceased; Mr. Ogbulafor chose to indulge in what had become his favorite past time of boasting and sounding off.
The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Vincent Ogbulafor recently led a delegation of some party members to pay a condolence visit to the people and government of Kaduna state on the death of Mallam Yahaya Gausau.
At the government house, an occasion fitting for sober reflection and somber speaking considering the exemplary life lived by the deceased; Mr. Ogbulafor chose to indulge in what had become his favorite past time of boasting and sounding off.
In what could be regarded as impudence of the highest level, Mr. Ogbulafor declared to Governor Sambo that the PDP was going to rule Nigeria in perpetuity whether or not Nigerians wanted it, and for which strategies had been perfected.
Prior to the recent Supreme Court judgment upholding the most brazenly conducted non-election in the history of Nigeria some of us would have mistaken Mr. Ogbulafor for a palace jester entertaining those who had ensured his selection as chairman of PDP.
But in the light of the almost impossible burden now placed by the Supreme Court on those who want to prove the non-conduct of elections though results are announced, it has become apparent that the palace jester's ranting may point to a reality to come.
We are almost 10 years into the non-rule of the PDP and after the conduct of 3 general elections, each one progressively more brazen in its non compliances with the Electoral Act; one has to wonder whether the palace jester has not become a prophet.
Hear Mr. Ogbulafor sounding almost like Barack Obama, the United States president-elect, "We assure you, we will do our best and like I always say the challenge is ours, and the time is now and the place is here". (Guardian Newspaper 19/12/08)
Then waxing prophetic, he declared, " PDP will rule Nigeria whether they like it or not upward and lot less than 60 years". The ‘they’ he was referring to probably would be Mr. Buhari who resides in Kaduna and who had lost the election petition challenge.
Either way the message to Nigerians is loud and clear that they are in for 60 or more years of PDP non-rule and that they should brace themselves for the challenges ahead or accept the unfolding reality.
The thing about prophesies is that human factors play significant parts in their fulfillment and all things for their necessary fulfillments must be correctly aligned to make for the reality prophesied.
I would expect that as the ruling political power, the PDP can count on the support of INEC and utilize the coercive machinery of the state to achieve the 60 years ruler ship target and subjugation of Nigerians. The PDP can also continue with its government of national unity arrangement with supposedly opposition parties while offering them some political appointments to buy their allegiance.
After all the ANPP for a bowl of porridge had denounced its own presidential candidate and disassociated itself from the election petition filed by Mr. Buhari and is today part of the government.
The PDP can also count on the veiled support of other nations who will condemn the conduct of polls that are not free and fair but would do nothing to rock the boat like imposing sanctions on Nigeria.
You see our crude oil and gas matters more to them than whether or not Nigerians are enjoying the dividends of democracy as long as they can do business in Nigeria to their hearts delight.
And because of control of the commonwealth, the real reason why the PDP wants to remain in government in perpetuity, some of these resources can always be deployed for settlement and vote capturing purposes.
Now that the judiciary has shown that the task of upturning presidential elections is akin to trying to get a Carmel to pass through the eye of a needle. I guess that seemingly leaves the way clear for the PDP to actualize this prophesy.
The only sticking point is in the assumption that the tendency of Nigerians to suffer fools gladly will increase in intensity in the face of the extreme poverty that has devastated the mass of Nigerians and is now accelerating up the ranks of the middle class.
It is true as Saul Alinsky says that when injustice is complete and crushing, people seldom rebel and they just give up, and the PDP may be counting on the inertia of Nigerians to actualize the prophesy.
But it is also true that the justifications for inertia can be broken down and Nigerians challenged not to put up with injustice and oppression and to do something concrete about their proposed prolonged enslavement.
The challenge in this regard will be how to organize Nigerians to stand up against their enslavement while not resorting to the use of violence seeing that the coercive machinery of state are under the control of PDP.
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