After the dollar bazaar that marked the PDP’s convention last weekend featuring two deeply flawed candidates in contention for the party’s presidential nomination ( the other contestants are forgettable), attention shifts this weekend to the APC’s own version of this parody of a democracy.
After Peter Obi took himself out of serious contention by leaving the PDP ( and no serious analyst will give him any chance of a credible showing through his Labour Party platform), that party was confronted with presenting rather unexciting options in a largely horrific slate of candidates. And it is a statement of how unabashed is the pretense of democracy that votes were openly bought with a deluge of cash (dollars, for goodness sake). Where was the EFCC? Where was the ICPC? Where was the Police? Where is the moral outrage? Where are the proselytizers revulsed by what has become the nation’s savage soul?
The moral and political degeneration is simply astounding precisely because it is now widely accepted, at least in political circles, that this is the way things are and should be done.
The hope may be forlorn but APC has the opportunity to truly surprise us by doing something different and give us hope that this country – even our democracy – can yet be salvaged. That party – to be sure- has a most unedifying image among Nigerians – such has been its record in office. This is why the opposing party is predicating its campaign strategy on pitting its presidential candidate against the record of the APC.
A smart strategy, on the face of it. But even a cursory examination will show that it cannot fly. In the first instance, political parties today are meaningless and indistinguishable one from the other. They are mere, disposable vehicles for achieving personal ambitions, for rent-seeking and profiteering in public office. With the fluidity in their ranks and the largely atrocious performance of those who lay claim to their membership who can tell the difference between the parties?
Thus the more sensible yardstick is the antecedents of individuals and their past record of public service.
To decide on who will best meet the critical demands of leadership requires an honest and agonizing appraisal of the state of the nation today. Not the self-serving and specious yardstick of alleged regional loyalties to justify a ‘northern’ presidential candidate like the dour and uninspiring Ahmed Lawan, president of an effete and largely worthless Senate to take on the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar. Where were the purveyors of this argument when M.K.O. Abiola despatched Bahir Tofa even in his Kano constituency in the June 12 1993 elections? Or when the same heavily-baggaged Atiku Abubakar was trounced by Goodluck Jonathan at the PDP’s presidential primaries for the 2011 elections?
If our politicians – and electors – are still capable of enlightened self-interest, they should recognise the dire state of the country and which counsels a rejection of the business as usual approach enamoured by vested interests. It is time that we all stand up and be counted.
Our situation bears restating.
There has been a collapse of everything – morals, institutions and systems. Describing ours as a state of dire emergency almost trivializes it. We are in mortal danger.
It requires that the country be rebuilt brick by brick and with the best hands at the helm at all levels. It is a daunting task that demands a certain degree of ruthlessness but not vindictiveness to execute. Ruthlessness in applying the law, in calling public officers past and present to account, in rebuilding institutions especially those of law and order and the machinery of justice.
It requires a highly literate mind, one not motivated by the pursuit of primitive accumulation,primordial comforts and greed. It calls for a personality who has experienced our failures at close quarters and is in a position to courageously tackle them from day one. It requires a personality imbued with the wisdom and foresight to take on vested interests while inspiring and galvanizing the millions of youth who have about given up on this country. It requires someone who recognises and is prepared to correct the structural deformities of the country, who appreciates its heterogenous complexities and can deal with all sides fairly and equitably. It requires a personality who recognises the extremely fraught state of national unity and will take on the urgent task of repairs by restoring equity, a sense of balance and fairness to all component parts.
It requires someone with a sense of mission who can give the country hope again and, because of all the foregoing and his sense of decency, rekindle respect for the country abroad and drawing upon the resulting goodwill to launch the country back to the path of growth and development.
By most accounts, best positioned to superintend a new beginning for the country is the current vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo. It will be in the enlightened self-interest of members of the APC to forsake the dollar spectacle displayed last week by the PDP and put their faith in the country by ensuring that he prevails at their party’s convention beginning this weekend.
Abubakar, a Political Analyst, wrote in from Abuja
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