by Titilayo Daniel

Nigerians were congratulated for the birth of the “saint”, APC. I kept wondering if the party stands devoid of the “Fani-Kayodes” of Aviation, the “El-Rufais” of FCT, the “Nuhu Ribadus” of EFCC, who stole with the ruling thieves, deflected to the new gang and have metamorphosed into “accidental social activist”…

The epileptic case of the nation’s political arena reminds me of Charles Dickens’ lines in his book, the tale of two cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way−−in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only”

A similar river flowed through a particular country in West Africa after they got the baptism of confusion. A year before the end of the Military era, a decade and five years ago, a group of friends who have displayed high proficiency level in corruption came together to birth an “umbrella” body, they rose to prominence and became an unavoidable evil, they turned people’s rights into privileges, they promoted injustice and championed lawlessness, they crumbled education and gave good communication network, they stole from the poor and gave to the rich not neglecting their ambition to create a wider margin between the duo, they tutored the youths just to have capable hands to receive the mantle from them when they transcend. During the era of their sovereignty, so many squad rose but none seemed to be a match.

In 2006, 3 gangs namely ACD, JP and AD mingled to form the “progressive” but could only terrorize six states. As the country gradually approaches her century-old forceful marriage, another attempt was launched to unseat the ruling thieves through the formation of a formidable gang which dawned a serious merger between three different sets of thieves, which included the initial “progressive”; their ideology remains “socialism and progressive”.

The two dreadful gangs of thieves are likened to the crisis-plagued Peoples Democratic Party and the newly-born All Progressive Congress.

Over the past few months, a lot of wind has blown beneath the heavens of governance and has heated polity in the seventh most populous country in the world. Less good has been achieved and much more vices have been promoted, political punches have being exchanged, oral blocks of chaos have been built, innate enmity between political warlords has being fostered, mixture of old wines and new wines into a new container, declaration of threat between the so-called party leaders and the Presidency as regards the quest of who occupies the power house, the “Aso Rock”, in 2015. Tussle for sovereignty becomes intense as the continual existence of this 15year old gang face serious threat from the hands of the new merger.

Several days after the registration of the new party, the pages of our National dailies were flooded with accolades to both the INEC and the new party leaders for the successful emergence of the new gang, Nigerians were congratulated for the birth of the “saint”, APC. I kept wondering if the party stands devoid of the “Fani-Kayodes” of Aviation, the “El-Rufais” of FCT, the “Nuhu Ribadus” of EFCC, who stole with the ruling thieves, deflected to the new gang and have metamorphosed into “accidental social activist”, the same “Buharis” of this world that stole our democracy then, the same “Fasholas” that hiked the tuition fee of LASU with his party preaching free education and can’t shut them up. The rhetorical question is that “do Nigerians got any reason to rejoice over the birth of the party that has got no formidable plan than to unseat the ruling People’s Democratic Party? They preach to the nation what they haven’t offered their respective states. APC has indeed come to crown the effort of the People ‘Deceiving’ People’s gang, apparently the same old thieves with a new brand, insignia and ultimately a new name.

The assertion that “people get the kind of leader they deserve” has found its stand on the soil of this country because the unperturbed followers have surrendered governance to selfish personages who keep launching different selfish political sects or parties just to prove their worth in the on-going contest of who can loot the Nigerian treasure better. Until that moment and day when we have leaders who live and pride in the true meaning of our National anthem “the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain to serve with heart and might”, we might not be able to talk of a New Nigeria or celebrate true democracy.

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Titiladunayo, Daniel ‘Damilola is the President of the Union of Campus Journalists (UCJ) of the University of Ibadan. He tweets from @Lorddaniel2121

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