When Nigeria goes to the polls next January, it will be a very simple national assignment: retake Nigeria.
When Nigeria goes to the polls next January, it will be a very simple national assignment: retake Nigeria.
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The objective will be to sweep the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from power: quickly, firmly, surely. The strategy will be to vote for any party other than the PDP, and for anyone other than the PDP candidate.
The means for ensuring the triumph of that strategy will be even simpler for committed Nigerians: wake up, and stay awake for as long as would be required. That way, you would not forget to vote, nor would anybody you know.
You would sing and shout long and loud enough to remind everyone to do their duty to their fatherland. You would charge your cell phone in order to ensure that those who cannot hear your voice on your street can hear their phone ring. You would enthusiastically escort people to the polling stations and guarantee that neither harm nor hunger comes between them and the casting of their vote. You would then do whatever you need to do to ensure that your vote is neither stolen nor sold.
2011 is as simple as that.
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For over 10 years, the PDP has conducted itself not as a political party which believes in multi-party democracy, but as an army of occupation. It has desecrated democracy’s most cherished values, placing itself above law and above political responsibility.
All over the country, there is hardly any state where the PDP has won a true election, let alone a free and fair one. All over the country, there is hardly any state where the PDP shines as a beacon of service or responsibility or hope.
The PDP insists on calling itself a party, but perhaps only in the sense of revelry or merrymaking. Top members publicly conduct themselves like brigands: cheating, lying, looting.
As we prepare for the 2011 elections, Nigerians know that a PDP man of honour is almost a contradiction in terms. There might be one here and then there, but the nature of the PDP is such that they are discouraged from high office and banished to little windowless rooms where they wither and die.
Nigerians have four months to confront the thought that the trajectory of Nigeria’s decline and collapse parallels the emergence of the PDP. The party’s aversion to principle and high standards is reflected in the final collapse of our institutions, the dissipation of our hopes, and the marginalization of our best minds.
Under the PDP, ours is a story of double standards: one for those in the party, another for those outside it; one for those in power, another for those outside it; one for other peoples and other places, and another for Nigeria.
Under the PDP, Nigeria lacks multilateral stature. We no longer enjoy recognition even within Africa. We cannot prepare for the Olympics, let alone the World Cup. Under the PDP, Nigerians fight to be enrolled in Ghanaian schools. Under the PDP, Nigeria is being compared to Somalia. In PDP-Nigeria, Gabon is a better footballing nation than Nigeria.
In PDP-era Nigeria, corruption is a game, not a crime, and the largest looters shine. In PDP-era Nigeria, to be involved in an international scam such as Halliburton or Siemens or Wilbros is no embarrassment to the country; it makes you a star of the party. You are on the next National Honours List.
Under the PDP, the executive and the legislature have a collegial relationship so that when they rob the people, they are applauded as philanthropists.
Under the PDP, the judiciary is an instrument of the executive, and justice is delayed, denied, and denigrated.
Look around, PDP Big Men are only displaced, never misplaced. That is why, for instance, Lucky Igbinedion continues to be a power broker in Edo State, in addition to anchoring PDP celebrations in South Africa. Paul Odili is reportedly on his way to being Nigeria’s next Vice-President, on Ibrahim Babangida’s ticket. Tony Anenih has returned from the “hot soup” Olusegun Obasanjo planned for him, to take his place next to Goodluck Jonathan. Dipreye Alamieseigha, barely out of his Mama Iyabo disguise, is being entrusted with ensuring his former deputy does not lose a single vote in the Delta.
The PDP rule is simple: stay—don’t stray—and you can enjoy choice homes in Maitama, in Dubai, and even in Potomac, Maryland, where one Barack Obama can hear you laugh at night. One James Ibori arrogantly forgot this lesson, which is why—unless they can get Alamieseigha’s disguise to him in time—his PDP friends will soon be comforting his women in his beds, and distributing his mansions among themselves.
This is the philosophy that has brought Nigeria to its knees. In Esan, we say that the dog in the hunt hunts for the dog. It has resulted in the triumph of greed and impunity, of people who steal their peoples blind, only to retire to a life of political luxury, or move into the Senate to fashion new privileges and rules for themselves.
With the PDP in power, that Nigeria is not going to change. Nigerians will have to do the changing by themselves.
That is why the elections of January 2011 are such a marvelous opportunity for Nigerians outside the PDP blind spot. In that one month, we can change everything by ensuring that the PDP is roundly and permanently rejected. In that one month, we must put all the talking and all the divisiveness aside and focus on plugging all electoral loopholes.
I do not mean to give the impression that opposing candidates are perfect; every candidate brings a weakness or two to an election. But the PDP has had the best chance of any political party in post-colonial Africa, but has blown it. It deserves to be shown no messy, and I strongly advocate an alternative candidate for every available electoral position, as there is no use electing an alternative President, for instance, while the PDP is permitted to possess the legislature.
We are witnesses to the mayhem the PDP has visited upon our land. We know, today, what we did not in 1999, and perhaps could not prevent in 2003 and 2007: the PDP candidate is the PDP. You cannot sit at the feet of the devil and claim you are serving God. The PDP candidate travels with the devil’s pitchfork, bringing his party’s corporate malice, avarice, and scorched-earth greed. One look at the pre-eminent presidential hopefuls in the PDP and the meaning of hell is immediately evident. Nobody can be as bad as the PDP, which can only degenerate.
The 2011 elections are therefore incredibly simple: unless you are of the PDP, or benefiting in some way from the corruption, mediocrity, complacency, irresponsibility and arrogance that it champions, you have to rise up and join in ridding Nigeria of it. Unless you believe the PDP best represents our destiny—unless you believe we have no future—you must seize the opportunity of January 2011.
We have done all of the whining and complaining. It is now time for everyone—teachers and students, nurses and doctors, drivers and conductors, employers and employees, reporters and readers, pastors and prayer warriors, civilians and soldiers—to rise as one and shout that they are not prepared to lose one more day, let alone another 50 years.
Nigerians abroad must reject their status as aliens in their own land and work with groups at home to define these elections, and define a strategy. We have talked too much, for too long. But now, we know the answer, and there is no tomorrow.
Some 40 years ago, as Nigeria stared into the abyss, the cry was, “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.” Nigeria stayed one, but she has not travelled into the future. We have it in our hands to engineer a new start. That is why to defeat the PDP is a task that must be done.
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