April 25, 2010
From obvious indications, the gang of Nigeria’s opposition politicians may have read the manual on ‘Working Together To Win Elections,’ but they did not finish it; if they had, they wouldn’t have left themselves so vulnerable as it’s the case today. The process of forming a strong opposition coalition in the nation’s polity might have been a good idea if it hadn’t been for the backtracking and arithmetical embarrassments it has entailed.
From obvious indications, the gang of Nigeria’s opposition politicians may have read the manual on ‘Working Together To Win Elections,’ but they did not finish it; if they had, they wouldn’t have left themselves so vulnerable as it’s the case today. The process of forming a strong opposition coalition in the nation’s polity might have been a good idea if it hadn’t been for the backtracking and arithmetical embarrassments it has entailed.
A post mortem of the failed effort clearly shows that some of the proponents of the mega party initiative lacked focus. They were not sincere. They were very myopic and selfish. They were neither serious nor organised. For selfish reasons, they were hampered by their own rhetoric and simply guided by selfish inundate ambitions though unforced errors equally played a tangible part.
For the collapse of the mega party initiative, the former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, has continued to blame almost everybody but himself for the misadventure and this is as interesting as it has become vexing. It is often nicer to believe your destiny is in your hands than that your fate is sealed by a group of untrusted allies. This is an understandable and (in a way) consoling response especially by people who most times are either outrightly insecure or cannot on their own be trusted to work as team players.
As reported in the Sun Newspapers of Thursday April 22, 2010, the retired General and two-time presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) said “subterranean maneuvering by the Action Congress (AC), one of the facilitators of the stillborn mega party was the main cause of the collapse.”
Truth be told, Buhari and Tinubu while trying to play on each other’s handicaps for selfish gains obfuscated the entire idea of a mega opposition platform to confront the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). If Gen Buhari exonerates himself and now blames Tinubu’s AC for the collapse of the mega party initiative as reported in the Sun newspaper, Nigerians would want to know at what point the AC betrayed the former military head of state because the two allies were very cozy until recently even with the exit of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar. It was even widely reported that Tinubu allegedly picked up all Buhari’s and CPC’s expenses and made his private jet available to the former Head of State. Nigerian mainstream media even reported that Buhari and Tinubu will run as president and vice president in the 2011 election under the mega party platform and CPC never refuted the news reports. So what went wrong between the two hitherto cozy allies and at what point?
Even at the last NDM meeting, Tinubu sat next to Buhari and when it was time for the CPC leader to take his leave from the meeting, he handed over the chairmanship of the proceedings to Tinubu, when former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, was also in attendance.
The retired general had earlier blamed Atiku’s exit from the initiative for his decision not to go solo come 2011 presidential election.
How can someone reconcile Gen Buhari’s April 22 claims with the statement he issued some weeks ago where in a very plain language, he stated that: “The CPC is more concerned with the establishment of its structures in the 774 local government councils of the federation and the wards too. Our party is new by name but old by structure. The Buhari Organization (TBO) which was transformed into CPC existed in 36 states of the federation, plus the FCT, Abuja. That was why we survived the struggle under the ANPP. “The CPC is not willing now to fuse with any other political party, at least for the purpose of contesting the 2011 general elections.” This arrogant posture was taken by the former head of state several months ago and this arrogance was part of what forced Atiku out of the parley.
Buhari, was said to have disagreed bluntly with Tinubu, Atiku and Bafarawa over who flies the flag at the presidential election even though it initially agreed that all of them should forgo their presidential ambitions or at least leave it for now and just work together to build a strong opposition platform.
While other major proponents of the mega party Atiku and Bafarawa were doing their best to unite the opposition to combat PDP and save the nation’s democracy, Buhari deserted them to form CPC and even declared his presidential ambition under the platform of his new party. Tinubu equally worked very hard to strangulate the AC making it a regional party.
When Atiku decided to leave the NDM, he hinted that he was leaving the initiative as a result of the frustrations he got from Gen Buhari and the former governor of Lagos state, Tinubu who has succeeded in collapsing the AC to a regional party where he now acts as the sole administrator.
The recent patting of ways and the blame games between Gen Buhari and Tinubu goes to vindicate Atiku who earlier raised alarm that his efforts at establishing a formidable opposition platform were being sabotage by selfish and inundate ambitions of some of his allies in the project. No matter how saintly and widely accepted Buhari thinks he is (which ofcourse may just be a mere illusion), the former head of state should learn to work with people with similar and even divergent views as this is all democratic politics entails. In the light of the current show of shame between Gen Buhari and Tinubu, can any of them blame Atiku for returning to the PDP? That was the best option for him having established that most people who claim to be in opposition just do that for what they stand to gain and not in the corporate interest of this nation.
A widely published article or more aptly a prophesy: ‘Buhari Needs Help to Democratise’ by Idris Alazua, as early as mid-November 2009 warned that “Gen Buhari should be helped to forget and completely abandon his military past and take lectures in the language of democratic politics as this will boost his born-again profile.”
According to the piece, “This advice has become very necessary particularly now (November 2009) that the former military head of state has agreed for the first time in his life to work with other people on a democratic platform and to be a critical part of the National Democratic Movement (NDM). He should not jeopardize the obvious and rare opportunity to unseat Yar’adua as the northern candidate and the PDP come 2011.
“Buhari should be debriefed of this idea that if it is not him, no other person can do it better. Nigeria is a project that requires informed contribution and participation of everybody including the fools and thieves as these group would obviously help the clean guys(if any left) package a more effective law and measures to treat fools and catch thieves.”
This is the big moral question that the general needs to address as he pursues his presidential ambition under this democratic dispensation.
SENIOR FYNEFACE, 5C ELELEWON STREET, GRA II PORT HARCOURT ([email protected])
A post mortem of the failed effort clearly shows that some of the proponents of the mega party initiative lacked focus. They were not sincere. They were very myopic and selfish. They were neither serious nor organised. For selfish reasons, they were hampered by their own rhetoric and simply guided by selfish inundate ambitions though unforced errors equally played a tangible part.
For the collapse of the mega party initiative, the former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, has continued to blame almost everybody but himself for the misadventure and this is as interesting as it has become vexing. It is often nicer to believe your destiny is in your hands than that your fate is sealed by a group of untrusted allies. This is an understandable and (in a way) consoling response especially by people who most times are either outrightly insecure or cannot on their own be trusted to work as team players.
As reported in the Sun Newspapers of Thursday April 22, 2010, the retired General and two-time presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) said “subterranean maneuvering by the Action Congress (AC), one of the facilitators of the stillborn mega party was the main cause of the collapse.”
Truth be told, Buhari and Tinubu while trying to play on each other’s handicaps for selfish gains obfuscated the entire idea of a mega opposition platform to confront the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). If Gen Buhari exonerates himself and now blames Tinubu’s AC for the collapse of the mega party initiative as reported in the Sun newspaper, Nigerians would want to know at what point the AC betrayed the former military head of state because the two allies were very cozy until recently even with the exit of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar. It was even widely reported that Tinubu allegedly picked up all Buhari’s and CPC’s expenses and made his private jet available to the former Head of State. Nigerian mainstream media even reported that Buhari and Tinubu will run as president and vice president in the 2011 election under the mega party platform and CPC never refuted the news reports. So what went wrong between the two hitherto cozy allies and at what point?
Even at the last NDM meeting, Tinubu sat next to Buhari and when it was time for the CPC leader to take his leave from the meeting, he handed over the chairmanship of the proceedings to Tinubu, when former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, was also in attendance.
The retired general had earlier blamed Atiku’s exit from the initiative for his decision not to go solo come 2011 presidential election.
How can someone reconcile Gen Buhari’s April 22 claims with the statement he issued some weeks ago where in a very plain language, he stated that: “The CPC is more concerned with the establishment of its structures in the 774 local government councils of the federation and the wards too. Our party is new by name but old by structure. The Buhari Organization (TBO) which was transformed into CPC existed in 36 states of the federation, plus the FCT, Abuja. That was why we survived the struggle under the ANPP. “The CPC is not willing now to fuse with any other political party, at least for the purpose of contesting the 2011 general elections.” This arrogant posture was taken by the former head of state several months ago and this arrogance was part of what forced Atiku out of the parley.
Buhari, was said to have disagreed bluntly with Tinubu, Atiku and Bafarawa over who flies the flag at the presidential election even though it initially agreed that all of them should forgo their presidential ambitions or at least leave it for now and just work together to build a strong opposition platform.
While other major proponents of the mega party Atiku and Bafarawa were doing their best to unite the opposition to combat PDP and save the nation’s democracy, Buhari deserted them to form CPC and even declared his presidential ambition under the platform of his new party. Tinubu equally worked very hard to strangulate the AC making it a regional party.
When Atiku decided to leave the NDM, he hinted that he was leaving the initiative as a result of the frustrations he got from Gen Buhari and the former governor of Lagos state, Tinubu who has succeeded in collapsing the AC to a regional party where he now acts as the sole administrator.
The recent patting of ways and the blame games between Gen Buhari and Tinubu goes to vindicate Atiku who earlier raised alarm that his efforts at establishing a formidable opposition platform were being sabotage by selfish and inundate ambitions of some of his allies in the project. No matter how saintly and widely accepted Buhari thinks he is (which ofcourse may just be a mere illusion), the former head of state should learn to work with people with similar and even divergent views as this is all democratic politics entails. In the light of the current show of shame between Gen Buhari and Tinubu, can any of them blame Atiku for returning to the PDP? That was the best option for him having established that most people who claim to be in opposition just do that for what they stand to gain and not in the corporate interest of this nation.
A widely published article or more aptly a prophesy: ‘Buhari Needs Help to Democratise’ by Idris Alazua, as early as mid-November 2009 warned that “Gen Buhari should be helped to forget and completely abandon his military past and take lectures in the language of democratic politics as this will boost his born-again profile.”
According to the piece, “This advice has become very necessary particularly now (November 2009) that the former military head of state has agreed for the first time in his life to work with other people on a democratic platform and to be a critical part of the National Democratic Movement (NDM). He should not jeopardize the obvious and rare opportunity to unseat Yar’adua as the northern candidate and the PDP come 2011.
“Buhari should be debriefed of this idea that if it is not him, no other person can do it better. Nigeria is a project that requires informed contribution and participation of everybody including the fools and thieves as these group would obviously help the clean guys(if any left) package a more effective law and measures to treat fools and catch thieves.”
This is the big moral question that the general needs to address as he pursues his presidential ambition under this democratic dispensation.
SENIOR FYNEFACE, 5C ELELEWON STREET, GRA II PORT HARCOURT ([email protected])
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