‘Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child…’ Ecclesiastes 10:16
Nigeria is just an unfortunate country; unfortunate not because it is not blessed with abundant human and natural resources but because it has not been fortunate to produce the right quality and quantity of leaders. Whether it is in the public service, in the core civil service, in the private sector, the traditional institution or other spheres of endeavours, leadership is a very scarce commodity. It is more scarce than it seems apparent.
How does one explain the macabre dance that is going on in the country among the so called political leaders. I am no fan of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but you cannot take away one thing from him: he fights for his convictions. I will come to this shortly.
Nigerians are abnormal ooo! Our abnormality stinks to high heaven. How did we get here; when did this rain start to beat us; where and when will our salvation, our redemption as a nation come; who will bail us out of this putrified mess?
How can a country of nearly a quarter of a billion people wakes up to hear that Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has defected from his political party, the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)? What does it really mean. Is Okowa a man? Is he this shameless? Does he not have close relatives in order to help him say something like: ‘I will not do it for the sake of these my people’. Does he not have a sense of the judgment of history; how he would want history to judge him 10 or 20 years down the line? So, because the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed a lawsuit against you for allegedly stealing N1.3 trillion (that is the kind of money that when foreign investors hear about being stolen allegedly by an individual, they declare your country an investment pariah state). By the way, that amount is the highest since the country’s creation that a single person has been accused of stealing.
By defecting to the ruling party in order to escape prosecution, Okowa has inexorably told us where the truth may lie. Nor did it start today. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who as the sitting governor of my home state Akwa Ibom fought to obliterate the now ruling party, deliciously took back his vomit by decamping from his party, PDP to APC when the same EFCC came for him for allegedly looting hundreds of billions of Naira when he was governor.
You see, in a sense, our politicians seem to be making progress! After his tenure as governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili was accused by the same EFCC of corruption to the tune of N100 billion. Then Akpabio’s alleged involvement with higher amounts; and Okowa’s alleged N1.3 trillion. Looks like setting new Olympic records. We may soon hear that N1 billion or the entire money of the country has been allegedly stolen by a single individual.
An Okowa who nearly became the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under PDP just capitulated to avoid being called to account for his role as the governor of Delta State for eight years. So, none of these so-called politicians can stand up and fight for anything? Haven’t they seen how Senator (Mrs.) Natasha Agboti-Uduagha has stood up to fight against the entire institution of the senate and, by extension, the state.
Now back to President Tinubu. Are these politicians who are decamping to the ruling party because of a slingshot from EFCC unaware that the President, as governor of Lagos State, fought against the federal government under President Olusegun Obasanjo? He fought on many fronts and won nearly all the battles. Here are some:
– He insisted that he would create new local government areas. When the government at the centre refused to recognize them, he made them local development authorities. They still exist till today; businesses and individuals in those areas pay tax to them; they enforce certain rules.
-He ensured that the federal government did not sell the federal secretariat at Ikoyi because he said the land on which the property sits does not belong to the federal government. The sale remains unrealized till today.
– He ensured that the then ruling party did not win Lagos state even though all the other western states had fallen into the hands of the federal might
– He took back much of the southwestern states from PDP, the then ruling party.
Given how the President has ruled Nigeria with an iron fist these past two years, it was already known that there would be no need for people to contest against him in 2027. But no one predicted that it would be this cheap capitulation of power. This is a civilian reenactment of what the late General Sani Abacha, the military dictator, got.
Deep down, Nigerian political parties are not worth being so called because they lack democratic values, are built around how to capture power for power sake, have no ideology outside of the ideology of stealing, and are driven by self interest.
No scruples; no crucibles; no spine; no fibre; nothing! What a crop, what a bunch, what a joke on the destiny of the Black Race. They don’t realize that Nigeria stands at the precipice of global history. The solution to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being resolved in far away Qatar, from outside the African continent, because the giant of Africa is not tired of sleeping; and, like the profane Esau, is merrily selling its birthright. The world has forgotten Sudan, not only because it is a black country, but also because Nigeria, which suppose to lead international efforts at arresting the killings and sufferings there is snoring away destinies. California, a state in the United States of America, just overtook Japan as the fourth largest economy in the world, but Nigeria is racing to bring in more millions into the poverty bracket. When Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali had issues with ECOWAS, Nigeria was no where to be found proffering solutions. Rather it helped push those countries out of the subregional bloc. Today, these three countries are looking to Morocco for leadership.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued to do exactly what former President Olusegun Obasanjo started, using EFCC to hound opposition to submission. Because Okowa and co, who saw themselves as demigods, cannot imagine life in prison for their alleged crimes against their states, they would rather sell their consciences and move over to the party they loved to hate. So, once you agree to move to APC, you are sure that EFCC will not trouble you again. By so doing, APC is also saying that it is a safe haven for alleged thieves.
Because Okowa is not holding any political office, he has to drag the governor he installed, Sheriff Oborevwori and the entire party in the state to the ruling party, for maximum effect. The governor has shamelessly abandoned his party so he can be guaranteed a second term.
The same reason why my State governor, Pastor Umo Eno has all but left his party, the PDP. His imminent defection, which has been in the air for months, is even pathetic; pathetic in the sense that he would still easily have won a second term under PDP. I have constrained myself from writing about my state for personal reasons. The happenings there since 2007 have been, to say the least interesting. Thankfully, the self censorship is not for long!
Come to think of it, what is attractive about the ruling party since it came into power in 2015 that people are decamping to if not power grab. Its first President in the person of Muhammadu Buhari, was a disaster, even to the North. The incumbent has in under two years made Nigerians poorer. Insecurity has heightened, and people are being killed with reckless abandon.
So these defections are not about governance, they are not about leadership, they are not about fixing the problems that this country has been romancing for decades. They are all about self preservation, about power grabs, about treasury capture.
Among others, I see two major dangers to this one party state that the APC is building in the country. For now it would appear like a sport: we have successfully killed opposition parties so no one can stand up to us at the next elections.
One major danger is that a third term, which Obasanjo failed to achieve, will be a piece of bread for President Tinubu. With the crop of politicians in the National Assembly, it will only be for the asking; rather them ‘begging’ him to ‘stay back and save Nigeria’.
The second grave danger is that it will further divide the country between the already divided North and South. Much of the defections are happening in the south which explains why there are rumours that the APC governors in the north may decamp to PDP.
None of the prognosis buds well for Nigeria.
Esiere is a former journalist!
