If failure at internal democracy were to be the only criterion for eligibility of a political party to seek for power, I am afraid non of Nigeria's current motley crowd of political parties will qualify to contest for our votes let alone form a government.
A lot is happening currently in Nigeria's political space that leaves the common man angry and hopeless at the same time. Take the internal crises assailing practically all the political parties in Nigeria; from the notable ones to pretentious interlopers, for example. The question that comes readily to mind is, how can a political party that cannot handle its internal affairs properly be able to manage an entire nation that is composed of peoples with diverse interests and more divergent aspirations? A common adage in Igala language has it that a good 'morrow is known from the dusk of a preceding day. If failure at internal democracy were to be the only criterion for eligibility of a political party to seek for power, I am afraid non of Nigeria's current motley crowd of political parties will qualify to contest for our votes let alone form a government. Yet, politicians carry on as if nothing is wrong with their parties. What this reveals is that Nigerian politicians and indeed their supporters are simply jostling for juicy spots around our national cake in order to eat to their satisfaction and as usual amass chunks for their living families and unborn generations. This leaves the common man out in the cold; homeless, roadless, waterless, sick and hungry. The thought of good governance for betterment of all and development of the nation is often a distant and lesser consideration to most Nigerian politicians. The good thing about it all is that most Nigerians are are accustomed to the politicians just as they are used to the brazen manners that they rig and manipulate their ways to power at all cost. From independence till current moment, politics in Nigeria and Nigerian politicians have both become dangerous components of our collective life that continue to threaten our existence as peoples and as a nation. The learning curve of Nigerian politicians always slopes ominously downwards towards the base, meaning that they always learn nothing and frequently forget everything.
When President Muhammad Buhari and his amorphous APC party told Nigerians in 2015 that they had come to rescue Nigeria from socio-economic and political rot that PDP had caused in our dear nation, many of us believed them. And why not? When certain officials in office of the National Security Adviser and the petroleum ministry as well as powerful members of former President Goodluck Jonathan's government were brazenly looting the nation's treasury dry while a lot of Nigerians could hardly afford 2 square meals a day? Who will not believe President Muhammad Buhari and the APC at the time? Even when those who knew him closely touted his poor human rights record as a military dictator and his unrelenting ethno-religious cleavage, many of us that were fed up with former President Goodluck and PDP's misgovernance still wanted President Buhari. Like the Jewish crowd before King Pontus Pilate, we shouted ''free for us Barsabas the armed robber and murderer instead of innocent Jesus whom they hated passionately and had falsely accused of blasphemy.'' More than 7 years down the line, Nigeria under President Muhammad Buhari and the APC is in its worst socio-economic and political situation than it was in 2015. No matter how hard President Buhari's praise singers and defenders have tried to espouse alternative narratives about our current dire situation, the facts of the situation remain where they are and won't just simply vanish. A parlous economy exacerbated by pervasive insecurity with insidious official corruption under the very nose of an avowed anti-corruption crusader are the major achievements of APC government in Nigeria thus far. One can therefore understand the current youthful frenzy and sometimes annoying shenanigans of certain persons in the 'Obedient' movement, so called. Nigerians are fed-up and tired of seeing the wrinkled and lying faces of recycled politicians that perennially pursue their personal ambitions and interests at the expense of Nigerians and the nation. Also, many Nigerians are tired of dominance by certain sections of Nigeria of our country's political fortunes and seeming marginalization of others. These are the real reason for the frenzy that we are witnessing in the 'Obedient' movement and nothing more. Otherwise the Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) is not any different from his fellow politicians with whom he co-governed Nigeria as Governor of Anambra State. Again, It has become a cyclical endeavour for Nigerians to seek redemption from failures of successive governments in the hands of new faces that turn out worse ultimately. I pity the Nigerian electorate, 'no be small'.
Despite the crises bedevelling political parties in Nigeria currently or failures of incumbent government, nothing rankles like the impudence and political brigandage that we are beholding from Nigerian politicians and their political parties. Take the APC party's preparation for the 2023 general elections for example. The party has managed to attract certain duplicitous Nigerians that are renowned masters of double-speak for morsel of bread to its fold lately. Nothing is wrong with that and there is no offence when those try to fraudulently and shamelessly (most don't have shame in their DNA though) launder APC's putrid records of governance over the past 7 years unconvincingly. At least PDP tried similar tactics unsuccessfully in 2015 so there is little to worry about. But to resort to intimidation and violence in order to forcefully actualize the 'emi lokan' agenda of APC's flag bearers is not only unacceptable, but certainly a foreboding recipe for chaos and break down of law and order in the polity. This crude tactics may have worked for them in sections of the country that they have successfully 'colonized' both politically and economically over the past 20 years. Certainly, it won't work elsewhere unless the party intends to throw the nation into chaos in attempt to avoid the certain fate and disgrace that befell PDP in 2015.
The 'Obedients' started the whole idea of solidarity marches for their Presidential flag bearer even before INEC blew the whistle to herald commencement of political campaigns for the 2023 general elections. Supporters of the Presidential candidate of LP marched in the streets across the nation for their candidate chanting solidarity songs laced with innuendos and sometimes with name-calling. However, they never resorted to violence and intimidation of innocent Nigerians during 'Obedients' solidarity marches. In the same vein supporters of APC's Presidential candidate decided to up the ante by organizing a 5 million man solidarity walk in support of their Presidential and Gubernatorial candidates in Lagos. The henchmen of APC's Presidential candidate know their principal's appetite for besting every situation and so opted for 5 million numbers as opposed to 'Obedients' 1 million. Although no major fracas between the APC supporters and those of rival political parties were reported, many innocent Nigerians that went about their usual businesses were nonetheless harassed and cajoled into joining the march. It was also alleged that in certain locations in Lagos, some businesses were forcefully closed while those that did not join the march were fined. As a kin observer of politics and politicking in Lagos State, I was not surprised with those allegations. Those are the antics used by the APC to appropriate power perpetually for a clique in Lagos to the exclusion of vast majority of citizens and residents with other political persuasions. However, as I observed previously these antics are only effective in Lagos and perhaps in SouthWest geo-political zone. Even then I doubt if they are going to hold in 2023 based on what we saw recently in the gubernatorial election of Osun State. So I am not loosing sleep over APC and its antics.
On a personal note, the leading contenders of the exalted office of President, Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces of Nigeria are not faring any better than their political parties. From one goofy assertion to another bespoken untruth, or arrogant averment, the Presidential candidates have regaled us with statements that hardly convey any hope of improvement in our current socio-economic situation if any of them succeed President Muhammad Buhari. While Mr Peter Obi of LP keeps pushing utopian statistics to frighten Nigerians into viewing him as a 'political messiah' that they have been waiting for, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC keeps going incoherently and disjointly about his and APC's wobbled vision for Nigeria. While addressing a gathering of some Northern Elders recently, PDP's Presidential flag bearer In the person of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar told his audience that Northerners do not need a Yoruba or Ibo President but rather a Hausa-Fulani and a Muslim President that aptly represents them and who can advance their interests adequately. What a shame that this could come from a Presidential candidate that in another breath claimed that he was a 'bridge builder'? One oh his aides tried to clarify that all the PDP Presidential candidate was trying to tell the Northern Elders was that he already had a political base that cuts across the entire nation and as such they won't need bother looking for a candidate that can accommodate their aspirations and at the same time have acceptability in SouthWest and SouthEast geo-political zones. If this is correct, then the Presidential candidate need be told on the need to employ better language medium to convey his thoughts appropriately beyond contradiction and misinterpretation. As it were he has a lot of explaining to do to convince majority of Nigerians that what they heard was not what he intended to convey.
I have chronicled the foregoing to show us as Nigerians that 2023 will not be our 'Uhuru' years as politicians are making us we to believe. Instead, it may be a watershed for the country on a more sordid note if care is nothing taken. Nothing about our current political parties or politicians portends that there is going to be a drastic or radical change in Nigeria's political and socio-economic fortunes after the exit of current government. Rather, what we have on display currently in the name of candidates is an array of contending personal ambitions and group interests trying to outdo each other and the rest of us in order to claim political powers and advance those personal causes. In my brief self-imposed exile, I had the privilege of travelling to a few countries in Europe, Middle East and the United State of America. I met droves of energetic and educated Nigerians sometimes with their families on flight from the 'dungeon' that our leaders have turned Nigeria into. The humiliation that they, and by extension, all of us suffer in foreign lands on account of our corrupt, inept and gluttonous politicians is beyond words. When I meet loads of Nigerians any their families in the United Kingdom (UK) washing dishes in restaurants, washing public toilets and looking after senile old people in care homes, my heart bleeds. Most Nigerian doctors that fled Nigeria to UK are complaining of being overworked and discriminated against due to the colour of their skins and for being Nigerians. Imagine Dubai discriminating against Nigerians on account of the uncouth and unruly behaviours of some of our youths that 'jappa' (to borrow a common term used in Nigeria to describe exodus) out of Nigeria to the UAE. An average Arab person in Dubai treats a black person condescendingly; a Nigerian worse. Why have our leaders taken us to back to 'Egypt'; to another era of slave trade when some greedy and idiotic king sold our ancestors into slavery in exchange for a yard of 'judge' clothe or even a piece of mirror? Currently, our leaders are doing the same thing by squandering our commonwealth and failing to use our enormous God-given resources that abound all over the country to develop our dear nation. Tell me, do you think that most of the proud Nigerian youths fleeing Nigeria into slavery in foreign lands currently would have done so were things working in Nigeria? Certainly not, and if our successive leaders had not plundered our country ceaselessly. Let us advise our current political gladiators to seek alternative strategies that address our national malaise and choose more re-assuring notes to convey hope to us rather than the utopian, disjointed, arrogant and contradictory ways they are going about the whole thing. And to all political thugs, assassins, hecklers and liars that have been employed to frustrate and short-change progressive Nigerians, you had better repented or you neither will be seen nor heard beyond 2023. Nigerians are on the march to reclaim their country from the hands of greedy and conscienceless Nigerian politicians in 2023 and nothing can stop their resolve. Let him that have ears hear what the oracles have spoken please.
Ogacheko Opaluwa is a Freelance Journalist and a Public Affairs Commentator. He contributed this piece from Addis Ababa.