Michael Orodare: Wanted! Ribadu, Tambuwal as models for the younger generation… (Y! Politico)

by Michael Orodare

I like Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and my love for the young Mallam could be traced back to when he held sway as the Chairman of EFCC. My vote was one of the 2,079,151 votes he polled at the 2011 Presidential election.

He epitomized youthfulness laced with intelligence, sagacity and diligence which brought great result for the anti-graft agency that has however gone lull after his exit.

I could say that my unrepentant conviction about seeing these Ribadu’s qualities in young people and portraying them as people who can never engage in act that could undermine these attributes is still one of my weaknesses.

Ribadu after defecting from the APC to the PDP last weekend, incurred the wrath of some young Nigerians, mostly social media activists who are APC loyalists and believe anything that goes into the PDP, goes into filthiness while anything that comes out of it to the APC could be likened to the Biblical thief crucified on the right hand of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.

It is not my business to analyse whether his defection from the APC to the PDP was right or wrong nor judge or condemn his action. His stay in the ACN after the 2011 general elections and then the APC must have been a period of trauma for him. He could be likened to an orphan and a beautiful bride who had waited patiently for the right foster parent and groom to woo him out of a home where he was unwanted after all he went through as the ACN flagbearer.

It is on record that a year after the 2011 Presidential election, the suspended Chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of the defunct ACN, Mohammed Soba, publicly accused the national leadership of the defunct ACN of selling the candidature of Ribadu, its presidential flag bearer in the 2011 election to the PDP’s candidate who they now denigrate at any slightest instance. Soba told us Ribadu was ‘sold’ for $100m (N16bn). True or false? Only the accused, the accuser and the parties involved in the transaction can prove that. And I think that is enough reason to know he’s not wanted in his former party, but just an object of bargain and negotiation for cool dollars. Wouldn’t he rather leave where he’s not wanted?

I’m also a good fan of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, even though he assumed the Speakership through party rebellion and opposition’s conspiracy. His body language has always indicated he is more of an opposition Speaker than a member of the party he claims to belong.

The media has also been awash with news of his planned defection to the opposition APC. I wonder what took him so long and one could guess he must have been perfecting plans to remain the Speaker after leaving the ruling party.  How this will work however remains the big question as you cannot eat your cake and have it. Senator Bukola Saraki has told us how difficult it is leaving the PDP which has a lot of “goodies”.

Since the noise about this mega party and cross-carpeting to the mega party started, I’ve been asking if politicians in Nigeria are guided by ideological principles,  but I guess No! It is now a politics of every man for himself as no one wants to remain where he is not relevant which is a bad template for the younger generation of politicians to adopt.

Need we say that consistency of character suitable for vying for political office in this nation is at zero level? Has political leadership finally become a venture for only the rogue and the morally deranged?

 

Each day, I become more convinced that Nigerian politics just isn’t worth all the participation and commitment and think I agree with those who said politics is not for the gentlemen.

There is little or no ideological model to emulate, those we look forward to are not giving us any reason to get involved while this generation is not helping matter too as many of those in politics are driven by desperation and lack the vision to develop the socio-economic welfare of the populace.

Just as I agree that this generation is not ready, I also submit that there is no model worth adopting as a template for the younger politicians. Ideology seems to be dead or in a state of comatose in Nigerian politics.

Need we say that consistency of character suitable for vying for political office in this nation is at zero level? Has political leadership finally become a venture for only the rogue and the morally deranged?

It all boils down to the fact that the ideological basis on which rests the model to be used to develop the welfare of the people no longer matters in Nigeria politics. It seems the notion now is that development can happen in an ideologically void setting! Yes, it is not about the party, because we have those who parade themselves as progressives, but in the real sense are just pseudo-progressives with anti-people capitalist programmes. It is about ideology.

With the sad situation we have found ourselves, especially the younger generation, we can only console ourselves and should not be swayed by these antics and devaluation of moral standards in the political setting. We should choose only that which is morally right to bring about the much-anticipated CHANGE beyond rhetoric, political jargon and slogans, eventually in the interest of the society.

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Michael Olanrewaju Orodare has worked in the Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Ondo State Governor as a Media Assistant. He has garnered experience writing in the The Nation Newspaper working with the paper’s Sunday Desk. He leans towards the Labour Party. He blogs at www.michaelorodare.blogspot.com and tweets from @MichaelOrodare

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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