By sydney o. Madukwem, 07069123994
At no time since the return of democracy in 1999 has the nation’s politics charged to its fever pitch than the politics associated with 2015. This is obvious and reinforced because of certain predictions that the thing that binds us together is wearing thin and that the Nigerian federation is heading for a disintegration on or before 2015.
The predictions are not anchored on positive and peaceful parting of ways. It is rather anchored on forces of negative interests, individualistic, self-centred and ethnic agenda. At work are forces that do not see anything good except their people are on the saddle, dominating the scene when military juntaism was fashionable.
This tension is unfortunately spear-headed by the very statesmen, who were in the past, opportunistic to preside over the country through no democratic ladder other than the barrel of the gun, now in the vanguard of intrigues, conspiracy, championing rebellion, singing war slogans to the effect that the 2015 general elections can only be credible and acceptable except they are declared winners.
At the birth of democracy in 1999, the expectations of all Nigerians were that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All People’s Party APP/Alliance For Democracy (AD) joint ticket would grow from strength to strength, with equal representations in the National Assembly, alternating the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock from time to time, thereby consolidating the nation’s democracy. That was wishful thinking. While the PDP remained intact, out of mischief, inordinate ambition, greed and quest to carve an empire, many individuals and groups applied for registration from INEC and got registered as political parties. Each general election was accompanied by cross- carpeting and poaching. Nigerian politicians are not patient and would not like to nurture parties until rooted enough to participate in elections at all levels. Once registered, they want to win the Presidency on imagination without visibly positioned on the ground.
Little wonder there existed over 50 political parties in a country of 36 states. Many parties are only existing in name and on subvention from INEC. Yet when threatened by INEC for de-registration, they shout hoarse and charge INEC with partisanship. This scenario turned an advantage to PDP which has been controlling many states and with the highest number of legislators and governors.
What the country needs urgently and inevitably too, is two major dominant political parties, apart from few parties on the fringe.
Fortunately and good enough, the registration as a political party, All Progressive Congress, APC – an amalgamation of ANPP, ACN and CPC is a welcome development. With PDP and rival APC, ethnic religious and cultural tendencies will be reduced to the barest minimum, afterall democracy without a credible opposition is a mere civil rule. Putting its acts together, APC will surely slow down what looked like a political tsunami called the PDP. This is not by virtually criticizing all programmes of Jonathan.
Nigerians are keen observers. PDP and APC are both populated by Nigerians whose antecedents, pedigree and identities are known. All Progressive Congress should set a standard for Nigerians to see that the new party is more credible and capable to upstage the PDP.
Although analysts and watchers of events are of the opinion that the timing of emergence of APC is rather early, its birth in 2013 remains an advantage rather than a check on PDP. It would have been a masterstroke to emerge in 2014 or that the three parties ANPP, ACN, CPC remain separate until 2015 and then resolve to field a common presidential candidate in 2015. Maybe after dislodging the behemoth PDP in 2015, the three parties can thereafter merge into one single party.
The registration of APC by INEC is an impetus, a wake-up call to PDP. The chieftains of APC should be on their knees and supplicate to God that President Good luck Jonathan does not seek a second term of office. Not because of pressure or alleged signing of pact but should rather pray for Jonathan to follow the Mandela style. But if President Jonathan decides to throw his hat into the ring, which is within his constitutional rights, no opposition except the people of Nigeria can stop him.
Available indices point the body language of President Goodluck Jonathan in readiness to contest the 2015 President election.
The damage inflicted on the Nigerian nation cannot be corrected in one swoop of fourteen years of democracy. Neither can Jonathan correct the fundamental damage within four years in office.
Agreed that PDP is still thin on the ground in terms of internal democracy, granted as well that the newly registered APC is not immuned to imperfections bedeviling Nigerian democracy especially by way of politicians with different ideological and immiscible persuasions, suddenly merging to become one single party. If therefore the two parties are described as two evils, it is not out of place. Nature abhors a vacuum. Nigerians may decide to pitch their tents with a lesser evil parading Goodluck Jonathan whose antecedents, are already well-known-discipline, decorum and decency than an unknown quantity flying the flag for APC.
Realizing the fact that the President is on his way to announce his ambition for a second term, arsenals of intrigues, conspiracy, subterfuges, unorthodox strategies, campaign of calumny, and unstatesmanly utterances are deployed by forces within and without PDP to stampede Jonathan out of second term ambition. Anytime Jonathan’s political opponents celebrate undercutting him, the Presidency emerges victorious and the chances remain robust for him. Recalled the deviousness of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum NGF under the then leadership of the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi. The forum became an instrument in the hands of enemies of the President. We are witnesses to the altercation, brazen disrespect and arrogant disposition to the revered office of the President whose constitutional powers of attorney are broad-spectrum, in-depth and can be maddening to “un-Jonathan” and the likes of Olusegun Obasanjo. Were it Obasanjo the seven recalcitrant PDP governors would have started counting their losses.
What looked a prediction in my piece published in the Trumpeta edition on the 16th May 2013 titled “The Need To Make 1st January, 2014 A Turning Point in The Nation’s Evolution,” I chronicled the deliberate instigation of crises against an innocent President Goodluck Jonathan. Such crises are “religious extremism and terrorism, the widening North and South dichotomy, political party implosion, alignment and re-alignments of political parties, muscle- flexing, arm-twisting and over-bearing influence to the President by some governors and other issues still in the gestation period are on the surface unhealthy, coming nine (9) months to the first one hundred (100) years Anniversary of the amalgamation and twenty-five (25) months to the 2015 general elections inspirationally speaking shows that providence is at work and solutions to the nation’s woes are at work”.
In addition, in the same publication, I said “As the journey for a better Nigeria gathers momentum under the leadership of Goodluck Jonathan, the need for Nigerians to talk can no longer be toyed with or postponed”, adding “each passing day we try to dismiss, downplay or drown the voices of a national conference, they appear divinely stronger and more inevitably too”.
Summarizing that “publication, I wrote “The centenary celebration on the January 2014, may well be likened to the American 1866, a turning point in the nation’s quest for national integration and subsequently smoothening the ground for and making the 2015 general elections watershed.
From this standpoint, it is a figment of people’s imagination that President Goodluck Jonathan must pander to their antics, abandon his second term ambition and return power to the North. About thirty-eight (38) years cumulatively the North presided over the apex position of leadership which paled down to insignificance when compared to the second term for Jonathan. It is religiously, patriotically and morally wrong for the Aliyu Wammakos, Aliyu Babangidas, the Sule Lamidos, Murtala Nyakos, Abdulfatah Ahmeds (all governors) to demand in self-delusion that President Goodluck Jonathan does not deserve a second term. This is not only an insult to the sensibilities of the
people of South-South Zone but also a despicable assault on the entire South and Nigeria in general.
Again the impeachment sword being dangled is a machination of a section of the National Assembly to cut the ground from under the feet of the President. The new dimension to the anger of members of the House of Representatives is because President Goodluck Jonathan has woken to the strident call for a national conference after interacting with the “Patriots” led by Professor Ben Nwabueze, a legal guru. What is presently coming from the review of the constitution proves doubting Thomases right that the National Assembly cannot give us an all-encompassing constitution capable of arresting the nation’s contradictions. The National Assembly has been virulently and vehemently opposed to any conference, insisting that it undermines its legislative sovereignty and that such conference is tantamount to the end of the Nigerian federation. This position has been subjected to empirical analysis and punctured to lack credibility.
The Kawu Baraje faction and its sympathizers must begin to realize that President Goodluck Jonathan is an instrument in the hands of all powerful God, the maker of the North and South, the maker of vast resources of the country, the architect of our multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic groupings. Nigeria is not an accident of creation. It remains a divine ingenuity. Any gang-up to undercut this unity in diversity must be exposed, decoded and destroyed.
The magic wand by the President must be sustained. The President is urged not to lose his cool as a result of vice-grip unwarranted and unprovoked attacks from his adversaries. Tolerance, equanimity, justice to all manner of people without distinction as to parties, states, religious and ethnic affiliation must guide him. He should not be stampeded to wear the Obasanjo toga of intolerance, inferiority complex, might is power and right.
The 2015 general elections shall be fought and won not on the altar of propaganda, ethnic and religious jingoism, but on solid verifiable and attested evidences of achievements. It is the prerogative of Nigerians to choose between farce and facts, between illusion and mission, between doom and boom, between the conservatives and the progressives, between Egypt and the land of Canaan. This is the nature and politics of 2015.
