When
the Senior Special Assistant, Public Affairs to former President
Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Doyin Okupe, swore that the All Progressives
Congress would not last one year, many Nigerians went after him in
anger.
Maybe Okupe sowed some seeds that justify what he
got, but the medic turned politician saw something that most of us did
not pause to consider. In our anger, we condemned the message because of
the messenger.
Experienced politician that he
is, having been in the top echelons of a national party as far as 24
years back, Okupe must have seen the congregation of politicians from
every shade of opinion and interest coming together in a hurry and
concluded that at some point, there would, without fail, be a conflict
of interests, which could precipitate a conflagration that the APC may
be unable to weather through.
Those who were in a hurry to
condemn Okupe must be having a rethink now. Reports following the
elections of leaders of the National Assembly indicate that combatants
in the APC are determined to snuff life out of the in-house opponent
without regard to what that may do to the party and a country that is
haemorrhaging.
Now, how that surprises anyone still baffles me.
If you understand that no idea, principle or person is permanent in the
contemplation of the average politician, you will not be miffed to see
men, who smiled at each other last night, draw the daggers in the
morning.
And this is not just about Nigeria. The flip-flop of
politicians in more advanced democracies seems a little else obvious
because while Nigeria adorns mortals in messianic garb, institutions are
stronger in those countries. Which is why, whether it is a Barack
Obama, a George Bush or a Bill Clinton, there are institutions which
deal with malfeasance and beat a leader into line.
Here, we rely
on human beings to save us from human beings. As a result, only a
Muhammadu Buhari is believed to be able to fight corruption, only an
Attahiru Jega is able to organise free and fair elections. Now that his
tenure is over, we are at a loss about sustaining the credibility that
attended the 2015 elections.
Rather than build the Independent
National Electoral Commission into a reputable body where anyone can
function with limited opportunity for manipulations, we prefer to seek
another Jega or his clone. We would rather depend on strong individuals
than on strong institutions. But I digress.
Politicians do not
have to be nice. They are not clerics, bound by some ecclesiastic
charter of charity to which they are eternally committed to. If
something suits the purpose of the politician today, he is all for it
but everything changes the moment that fancy object outlives its
purpose.
For instance, why did President Barack Obama stand so
solidly against gay marriage during his campaign in 2008 but made a
total turnabout in 2012 with a recent claim that he “evolved” on the
issue?
Obama’s volte face is so absolute that his administration
held the passage of the anti-gay marriage bill against Nigeria! That is
the way of the politician, he is not even sure of his own ways until
some exigency presents itself. No matter what they say, ambition drives
all politicians. As someone once alluded, only statesmen think about the
future, politicians are too engrossed about winning the next election
and the game for 2019 has started in earnest.
The attempt to
impose leaders on the National Assembly and the move that blindsided
those who were bent on imposition is all politics and we must come to
terms with the fact that the political field does not have the sanctity
of a religious place. In any case, every Nigerian politician of clout is
guilty of some measure of imperialism or treachery in their areas of
influence, so it would be hard for anyone to cast a first stone.
This
is why the current travails of the APC which resulted from the
emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as the Senate
President and Speaker, House of Representatives, respectively, against
the wishes of their party could be fatal to the birthing of the change
that Nigerians envisaged when they voted for the APC at the last
elections. And when that happens, there would be no one to blame other
than the party itself.
What I am saying is that only the APC is
able to help us move on from the feeling of uncertainty that has gripped
many Nigerians since the emergence of people, not sanctioned by the
party as leaders of the National Assembly.
Unfortunately, the
APC does not seem be in control of the situation. Although the Chairman
of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, indicated that the party had no
choice but to accept the elections of Saraki and Dogara, the fact that
Tuesday’s first caucus meeting of the APC senators nearly resulted in
fisticuffs is an indication that all is not yet well with the party.
Those
who think they got bloodied by the elections early this month are
likely lurking in the corner looking for an opportunity to take their
pound. I smell that someone is cooking up plans to serve those who
carried the day the cold dish of revenge, some banana peel of sorts.
This
is where it gets scary. If anyone in the APC, no matter whose interest
they represent, strikes back at Saraki and Dogara for any reason, the
APC would be on its way to fulfilling the doom predicted by Okupe. And
any disaster on the APC will tell negatively on Nigeria and may put paid
to the promise of change that they made. And there would be nobody to
blame other than the APC itself and its seeming unpreparedness to govern
fairly.
Although there is a dearth of statesmanship on the
Nigerian political landscape currently, President Buhari being the only
one I see from where I stand, there is an inexhaustible list of
politicians in the APC who qualify to be in the hall of statesmen, only
if they would bury their personal ambitions and consider the future of
the country.
For instance, penultimate weekend, Saturday Punch
reported a subtle battle for the soul of the party between Alhaji
Abubakar Atiku and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Now, each of these men has
considerable following with which they can pull the plug at any time
and so, a prompt cessation of this silent war, which has not been
refuted by any of the parties, would be important to saving the party
and helping it deliver on its promises to Nigeria.
Before Atiku,
Tinubu and their supporters push the people off the bridge incurring
democratic fatalities, they need to imbibe lessons on the role of
kingmakers from American politician and Catholic influencer, James
Farley, who orchestrated the electoral success of politicians including
Franklin D. Roosevelt without causing dislocations in the American
political system.
What we ask of these gladiators is that if
only for this one time in their career, they should put the interest of
Nigeria first. I worry that unless President Buhari gets the full
cooperation of his party, such that some far-reaching reforms can happen
in Nigeria within the next four years, the trouble that we thought were
over as a result of the peace that followed the 2015 elections will
revisit us.
They must consider the interest of millions of
Nigerians who have no food to eat, who die from common ailments that
most of the world does not talk about again, of hundreds of thousands of
entrepreneurs sweating under the harsh business conditions in the
country, of the power and energy crises and a myriad of other problems
that make life feel like hell for Nigerians.
- @niranadedokun
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