by Gabriel Femi-Olatunji

The same lack of values and ideology is the reason a top civil servant will resume on a Monday morning and ask the accountant to write that the windows of the office were broken (when they are not) and they have all been replaced, just in a bid to loot money. 

How did we get here as a nation? A nation where anything goes and people value what they get over honour and pride; a nation where everyone sells to the highest bidder – it doesn’t matter if the bidder is the devil himself.

Mr Nuhu Ribadu is a role model of some sort to a lot of Nigerians but it was sad to hear of his defection to the People’s Democratic Party and I say this not because I believe All Progressive’s Congress is better but because the Nigerian nation and her people have lost the values that makes men honourable and exude pride. The man in question is perceived in a certain way and whether we like to admit it or not, being PDP doesn’t fit into that image. And it would have been a different case if he was PDP from the beginning. What ideology changed? What new belief does he have to justify this new romance? It is saddening these days when young people say that we don’t have Politics of ideologies in Nigeria and shouldn’t be expecting it. It is like saying that because we don’t have what we need, we should make do with what we have – that is a language of mediocrity.  If we don’t have what we need it is time for us to create the needful.

The same lack of values and ideology is the reason a top civil servant will resume on a Monday morning and ask the accountant to write that the windows of the office were broken (when they are not) and they have all been replaced, just in a bid to loot money. Contracts can no longer be awarded except you include the cut of the person signing your cheque. It is the same reason musicians who at a time had castigated the President are now singing his praises in order to fatten their account (See Eedris Abdulkareem’s recent interview with Channels TV). Our values have been eroded and this nation desperately needs a new class of men in power but power does not fall on people’s laps; those who see themselves worthy of power must prepare to wrestle it from the clueless, idealess and valueless individuals who are running our political parties.Peregrino Brimah, a columnist for an online newspaper wrote and I like, “After 27 years, something did change in South Africa, and patience made Mandela President. He never sold out. But we are not even in jail, yet we are selling and selling fast!”

We need a new frontier, one which is driven by values and ideology, one where it doesn’t matter if you have positional leadership, one where you don’t care whether you get to win the governorship ticket of your party because you are sure that whoever wins it will implement an agenda that is in line with the values and ideology of the party. Nigeria desperately needs a new platform where the people are not driven by selfish interests but by national interest;a new platform where the people are not driven by personal zeal to attain national fame but seek to change the nation’s (bad) name. Until individuals with similar values and ideologies come together as a force to implement change using a Political platform, we should not expect substantial change in our nation. The onus lies on the new generation youth who is perplexed at the rate our nation’s name and image is sinking into the dark waters – we must come together, lobby older men and women in other political platforms who have similar values, walk the streets of our communities and galvanise similar minds together, take time to consciously put our values into written words which will not only be written on paper, and consulted when verifications are needed but an ideology that is entrenched in our hearts – I’m talking about a political party with a clear-cut ideology.

With this platform you are not interested in your personal agenda but in the collective agenda. Political god-fatherism such as the one we have here will have no place.  This platform might take us more than four years to build but we cannot afford to delay anymore. This PDP and APC need a credible opposition (alternative, I mean), known for her own ideals and values; one not consumed by the desire for power but by the desire to see true change in our nation. This dream is not too tall. It won’t be easy and we must acknowledge that, even before we start. Although the new phrase in town is ‘elections are not won on social media’ but values and ideals of individuals can be seen on their personal social media accounts – this is where to start the recruiting from. I hear we now have overlords on Twitter, if their ideologies are the same this is the time to begin the eight year journey of preparations.

The antecedents of Mr Nuhu Ribadu cannot be taken away from him but his defection is a proof that his values, beliefs and ideology have changed, I can only hope that it has changed for the better.

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

Op-Ed Editor