GABRIEL AKINADEWO
In Nigeria, politics is just an electoral activity. When elections are coming, tempers will rise. The atmosphere will become charged. The tension in the polity will be so thick that it can be seen without using a microscope. But, after the activities, everything will go back to normalcy. Life returns and the struggles continue.
That has been our way of life since the 1960s. And thank God for the April general elections. The same scenario is happening again.
In this brand of deceptive politics that we practice, who is a progressive and who is a progrethief?
Nigerians should thank the Almighty that there are primaries before elections and like before, our political parties have been exposed.
Talking of political parties, we all know that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the ruling party, controlling more than two thirds of the 36 states.
Obviously, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which controls four states, is the most vocal of all the opposition parties.
Through propaganda, Nigerians have been deceived for years.
It is less than three months to the April 2, 9 and 16 general elections and the question Nigerians are asking is: What is the difference between the PDP and the ACN? Does it make sense to say that a lion is harmful and a tiger harmless?
Can you spot the difference between the Fuhrerand German dictator, Adolf Hitler, and the Russian blood-thirsty maniac, Josef Stalin?What is lacking in PDP that Nigerians will get in ACN, given the outcome of the recent primaries?
Why are we always deceiving ourselves in this country?
I don't know why the so-called radicals and activists, always throwing stones at the PDP, have suddenly become blind, deaf and dumb, given the open display of arrogance and imposition that rocked the recent ACN primaries.
I don't have any problem with what ACN people have just done. Everybody will agree that rigging is a Nigerian; imposition, a Yoruba; manipulation, an Igbo and exploitation, an Hausa.
What is totally unacceptable is for ACN people to be telling us that “we are the democrats and others are the devils of Nigerian politics.
When the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, came out with his popular quote: Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute, there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, the world was still learning, politically.But, when, about 70 years ago, the great British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, popularized the phrase: Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, he was apparently referring to Nigeria.It is clear that ACN, despite the weather-beaten cliche from its leaders: We saved Nigeria from the military, has not learnt anything from Nigerian history.
In fact, the leadership is now telling us that We are the owners of Nigeria and as long as we have the power of propaganda, nothing is going to happen.
Or how in God's name will any democrat explain what is going on in ACN?
For starters, all the aspirants, now candidates, withdrew their candidature even before the start of the process.
They were made to sign Withdrawal Forms attached to their Nomination Forms.
This is as undemocratic as the word despotic.
The imposition of candidates is an antithesis of genuine democracy and a mockery of the process. How can any election be credible in such an arrangement? How do you remove internal democracy from the process and tell the electorate that you are democrats?
Honestly, it is very disheartening and disturbing to many Nigerians that despite the propaganda by the party leadership that ACN is the best party in the world and heaven, the party has shown its true colour as one of the most retrogressive, personalized, tyrannical and dictatorial parties in Nigerian history.
Weeks ago, I watched Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora on a popular television station in Lagos, boasting that nothing or nobody would make him drop his determination to return to the Upper Chamber.
Today, Mamora is singing a new song of being a born again. He was even forced to raise the hand of the candidate imposed by the leadership in Lagos East Senatorial District.
Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, left Epe State Constituency for Isolo and was rejected. He has now been imposed on Ikeja to replace Babatunde Ogala.
One thing I know is that the Yoruba are no fools. They know what is going on but because of the fear of the unknown, many have continued to maintain their silence.
Obviously, the make up, political ideology and modus operandi of the ACN call for close scrutiny.Because of the dictatorial tendencies it displayed during the primaries, the party now sits on a shaky foundation, like a house built on sand.
From Lagos to Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo and Anambra, it was imposition galore. In fact, the number of people killed in Edo during the ACN primaries is higher than those killed in other states.
On imposition, I don't even want to waste time on that because as long as you are a member of a party, if you are tired of what they are doing, you leave.
My concern is that ACN should not be confusing Nigerians that it is the best party. I have a strong belief, and millions of Nigerians do, that there is no party in Nigeria. What we have are associations and they go for their Annual General Meetings during their congresses and conventions.
In April, Nigerians should vote for any candidate of their choice. If a candidate is dark and you prefer someone who is light in complexion, vote for him or her. If you prefer a dwarf, cast your vote for him or her.
Don't let anybody deceive you because ACN is the kind of party that will tell the electorate that after the elections, it would fix air conditioners on our streets so that we can be like Europe and the United States.
Honestly, this time around, it won't work.
If PDP is known with wuruwuru, at least, Nigerians see orderly primaries.But, the exercise is alien to ACN and when it holds, it is another story entirely like the one they did in Lagos. After voting, the delegates and INEC officials were told to leave on the pretext that the votes would be counted the next day.
But, at 3 a.m., INEC officials were called to sign a prepared result and the officials refused.
So, if primaries of other parties are associated with wuruwuru, that of ACN stinks of magomago.Former Information Commissioner in Lagos State and a loyalist of Governor Emeritus Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr. Dele Alake, was a senatorial aspirant in Ekiti Central district.
A respected journalist, this is what he said on the outcome of the ACN primaries in The Nation of Thursday, January 13, 2011:When I joined the race for the senatorial seat in Ekiti, I was motivated by the higher ideal of offering service and quality representation to the people of Ekiti Central Senatorial District in particular, Ekiti State and Nigeria in general.
I felt that my God-given intellect, talent, elocution and erudition and articulation, experience,, exposure, knowledge and vision would be best put to the service of my people in the National Assembly through a clean electoral process. I did not envisage that an intra-party primary would degenerate into malpractices, fraud, violence and brigandage (emphasis mine) Given what occurred on Monday (January 10, 2011) at the canceled primary in Ekiti Central Senatorial Zone, I have come to the painful conclusion that it will be an uphill task for decent people with a sense of propriety to be part of any such process again (emphasis mine).
In the light of this and after due consultations with well-meaning Nigerians across the geo-political divides and given the fact that I subscribed to the principle and value of playing the game by the rule and also the fact that I cherish the quality of my name, status, stature and my image, I have decided not to be part of any such arrangement because there is no guarantee that the same thing will not occur again (emphasis mine).
I do not believe that in order to serve the people, you either induce them with money, buy their conscience or resort to thuggery, hooliganism and brigandage. I strongly believe that if one wants to serve, you offer yourself and convince the people with ideas, program mes, plans and manifesto. I do not and will not be part of a scheme that will hoodwink the public because I want to serve them. If anyone resorts to monetary inducement, brigandage and cohesion, then, such person's motive can never be to serve (emphasis mine).
I, therefore, withdraw my participation in any political arrangement that is not above board. I appeal to all my supporters and well wishers to be calm and law abiding as the Almighty God, who sees our hearts and knows our intention, is in absolute control. Even today, there is still crisis in that senatorial district.
With this revelation coming from a first-class journalist such as Alake who has withdrawn from the race, what type of candidate do you think the party will produce in that district for the April 2 National Assembly elections?
To counter Alake's open confession of the crisis in the party, loyalists of his challenger and the incumbent Senator, Bode Ola, placed an advertorial in The Nation of Wednesday, January 19, 2011, saying, among others: If most Senators in other parts of the country are being returned, if some ACN Senators in the South-West are being returned to consolidate in the upper chamber, then, let the powers that be in the ACN in Ekiti State, in South-West and at the national level reason well and think deep (emphasis mine).
Let Senator Bode Ola returns. Since ACN has acquired imposition as a trademark, can the kettle call the pot black?
What are the reasons the party will give to the electorate for them to reject the PDP?
But, as we say in Yorubaland, were loga(a mad man has a master).In Lagos, Senator Ganiyu Solomon was left alone because he is a one-man riot squad, apology to the distinguished Senator.
The party leadership knows he has the capacity to bring down the roof, if his ticket was taken away. Because Adekunle Muse and Mamora are gentlemen, they were sacrificed.
You can see that it doesn't pay to be a gentleman in politics, at least, in Nigeria.
If Mamora has the qualities and capacity of Dino Melaye, Adebayo Success, Tokyo, Eleweomo, Saka Saula etc put together, even with his medical background, do you think anybody would have taken his ticket from him when people of his constituency are still backing his return to the Upper Chamber?
My conclusion is harsh but it is true. Clearly, our political messiah has not been born.
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