by Korede Oludiran

We need not be told that the APC is not our messiah. Going by their body language, they are primarily out to get power from PDP. That is the reason they are quick to woo aggrieved members of PDP over. Oh, have we forgotten that party norms and values are formed by its people? I know we are tired of PDP. I am too. But the truth is, APC is no better than PDP.

One of the biggest problems in our electoral process is the belief of most of the electorates that when we do not vote for one of the two or three top parties (not candidates), our votes are wasted. We unconsciously give victory to undeserving candidates and parties even before listening to their manifestos. The politicians know this, and of course take advantage of it.

Have we ever paused to think about the possibility of the politicians taking us more seriously if they sensed we could decide to vote for a candidate from a “No Name Party”? Oh! Forgive my fantasy. That’s not going to happen – at least not in the nearest future. By my calculation, I do not see the electorates getting out of this limitation before the 2015 general elections. So, I’ll be basing my discussion on that assumption. My concern here is mainly on who gets power at the centre.

To buttress my point, we can see the majority of electorates are already discussing the choice they will make between (the candidates of) APC and PDP. Just before I continue, let me quickly note that this is not what obtains in the USA. Unlike the PDP and APC, The Democrats and Republicans have proven track records of working sacrificially to see the USA become the giant she is today – through different philosophies. I know they are no saints either, but as individual groups they are a million times more patriotic…while their Nigerian counterparts are not.

Now, back to our discussion. I believe there are certain things the modern day empires and these two parties have in common. I will pick out two recent world empires – British and German empires.

The largest and richest empire ever in history was harnessed by a very small island with small population – Britain. As small as this island was (and still is), by early 1920′s, it was able to get a strong hold of 20% of the entire world (Wikipedia). Such amount of success in enslaving the most part of the world (including India  – which included the present day Pakistan) could only have been a result of well thought out plans and strategies. The British, unlike many other colonial rulers, were more intelligent, diplomatic and cunningly suppressive. While other colonizing countries invaded and took what they could at the expense of the locals, the British used their military to suppress violence in their state of interest, make the place safe to live in, then later took a huge cut of the attendant prosperity. A major strategy they used was the divide and rule approach, where they bought a few elites over, then used them to impose their exploitative laws and policies on – better put, to suppress – the masses. Beyond the divide and rule approach, however, one thing historians seldom tell us is that even the masses preferred the British rule – at least, at the initial stage. The British government was more organized and brought in developments that made life easy for the people. The locals enjoyed these higher standards of living and honestly preferred British leadership. It was until long after when they started to realize that they were only giving away their future to the British that they began to revolt. For the Brits, it was just morally right – even godly – to be “bountifully rewarded” after helping their colonies (discover and) multiply their wealth. Trust me, most corrupt persons involved in acts of exploitation in Nigeria personally have same/similar moral justifications and cannot see the injustice you and I see. (That is a topic for another day).

Now to the German Nazi Almighty. The German Empire was that of rather very sophisticated and powerful rulers who believed that with this power they could and should rule the world. They were so given to the doctrine of fascism they almost convinced the world it is the ultimate force that rules everything in the universe. The German Nazis were very detailed in their strategies, were calculative and extremely brutal. They made territorial demands and threatened with wars if they were not met. The empire was founded on get-the-job-done-anyhow philosophy, and it worked – as least for a while. The unfortunate thing for the Nazis was the fact that they were too rash, arrogant and they robbed their supposed military superiority on the faces of the whole world. This attitude made the world fight back even harder. For some world powers, the fight was more emotional than logical.

I would liken the APC to the British colonial masters. Like the Brits, APC is a group of relatively smart and more intelligent people. They have the capacity to create a pseudo conducive economic environment which most people will believe is the real thing. It did not take ACN (the strategic arm of APC) up to a term, through Governor Fashola to prove to Nigerians that the development that has always being a fantasy under PDP administration could actually be a reality. The working governor came in and practically turned the look of Lagos state around.

It was mind-blowing!

And like the colonies of British Empire, most Nigerians believe(d) that this arm of APC was actually working and sincerely cared about the development of our society, until they asked LASU students to pay N250, 000 as school fees. (Ok, let’s move on. This is not why am writing this article).

On the other hand, the PDP could be likened to the German Nazis. They are both “in government and in power”. They are strategic (trust me, they are), powerful, cruel, arrogant and uncivil. Like the German Nazis, they cannot last long in government. A good pointer to that is the emergence of APC. You can’t be wicked and be blunt at the same time to last in power. Conversely, like the British colonial masters, you can be very very wicked but cunning, and sure will last long in power. It’s a rule of thumb!

Like I suggested earlier, it would be mere fantasy to think the rulership of Nigeria will not fall in the hands of either APC or PDP post-2015 elections. However, it is wise for us to still analyze the situation we might be finding ourselves in.

Should the PDP get hold of power again, they would loot our funds like never before. What would make it worse this time is the fact that there would be more looting agents – as the PDP would be compelled to woo over a lot of oppositions – including APC political prostitutes. The PDP has nothing more to offer this nation as we can clearly see even with our eyes closed.

The APC, on the other hand would, like the British colonial masters, turn the fortunes of this nation around. They would build many roads and make our cities beautiful. “We will at least see what they are doing with our money. After all, they are all thieves. At least they will do something with our money.” Or isn’t that how we say it and what we want in the immediate? The answer is yes! Unfortunately for us, in the end, and like the British colonial masters, they would milk us dry. We need not be told that the APC is not our messiah. Going by their body language, they are primarily out to get power from PDP. That is the reason they are quick to woo aggrieved members of PDP over. Oh, have we forgotten that party norms and values are formed by its people? I know we are tired of PDP. I am too. But the truth is, APC is no better than PDP. Learning from history, we can construe that APC, like the British Empire, would end up being even worse than PDP in the long run. A big mistake we often make is to believe that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” It’s more often than not not the case.

Take for instance, in 1999, we supported (actively or passively) the “heroes of our democracy” to take over political powers. They were truly people who fought almost to the point of death to see the military regime out. What we failed to realize or acknowledge was the fact that we were helping them achieve their selfish goals….They had their own agendas. We were (and still are) their pawns!

In the end, we voluntarily brought them (executive, legislative officers) in and they set a higher level of precedence for corruption and stole more money than never before in the history of Nigeria. We knew then that they were corrupt people but because we felt they fought our fight to give us democracy, we hoped they’d be our messiah – just the way APC is fighting and we are hoping they’d be our messiah. It’s a vicious cycle.

So, what’s my point? My point is, neither the present thieves, nor thieves-in-waiting are worth your vote! We the electorates are the greatest enemies of ourselves. Instead of voting right, we give excuses like “he’s not experienced”; “he can’t play Nigerian politics”; “he’s a professional, he can’t succeed as a politician”; “they will kill him.” Those, my friends, are voices of defeat. As inexperienced and young as the 29-year old Yakubu Gowon was, he ruled Nigeria for nine good years following an only six-month rule of his 42-year old predecessor. Like I mentioned earlier, we unconsciously give victory to the enemies of this nation by the things we have been made to believe. Those things are not real. I dare to say that they are myths that the politically elite have sold to us and which we have unconsciously bought and then, help them to propagate.

Since we are not courageous enough to do the very right thing now, I suggest we give the bulk of the power to the preferable devil – APC (either directly in the executive, or the legislature). As we do that, I implore genuine progressives who are supporting or just joined APC to start planning how to truncate the reign of APC to only one term – in order to pave the way for genuine patriots to lead Nigeria. Else, we would be in much more bigger troubles in decades to come.

I know we like to say that all politicians are thieves….Well, just before I infect you with my pessimism, would you vote, for example, for Chukwuemeka Chikelu, a former Information Minister under President Obasanjo, a man I believe has integrity in today’s Nigerian politics, if he contests under a “no name party”?

—————————-

This article was posted with permission form Omojuwa.com

 

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