“Nigerians are what they are because their leaders are not what they should be”
“They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have not used this facility of free election. You tend to lose the habit.”- Chinua Achebe

In Nigeria, politicians do not practise sportsmanship; they merely engage in scorch earth tactics in dealing with whoever they consider an opponent. It has now been evident in the way the People’s Democratic Party deals with those who will not toe the party line. They do not believe in the rule of law as it is clear from rulings they have violated.

The writing  is indelibly on  the wall that PDP is heading for the rocks, those that  jumped ship have done so in spectacular fashion; former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar, Senate President, David Mark, Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and governors of Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kwara, Rivers and Niger states have been absent and missing in action.  There is definitely great decent in the ranks,so while Rome burns the emperor remains feasting in the banqueting halls.

It is uncertain what good the peace and the elders meeting will do to patch the great divide amongst the ranks. Things have got  that desperate that Jonathan is calling off his media goons (Okupe and Gulak)to heel and he orders them to stop lambasting those who speak out against his administration and leadership. A bit late for that then closing  the stable door when  the  horse has bolted.

So it is a situation of putting old wine in new  bottles the  ‘Old PDP’ and now the ‘New PDP’ are at logger heads. So the ‘old’ PDP is baying for the blood of the breakaway group they  are litigating for no less than a custodial  sentence.

PDP have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and they only have themselves to blame. From the sublime to the ridiculous, splinter groups open a new office /secretariat on September 4, and appointed themselves and the others into various offices constituting the PDP National Working Committee (NWC).

The Baraje group is making waves by attracting new members,basking in the bad publicity and adulating in the  glory that the old ‘PDP’ are giving them exposure by the incessant infighting.

2015 may be a long way off but these warring factions have drawn a  line  in  the sand  and  declared  that it  is  all out  war straight  to  the finish line.

You would have  thought that  they  would be  working  towards endearing themselves  to  the  electorate but  no,  the  arrogant  politickings strongly  believes  they  have it  in the  bag and  that the  electorate will vote the way they are told. This  time I  hope that Nigerians prove them wrong in the  ballots and  reward them accordingly . For so long, the politicians have  taken the rights  of Nigerians for  granted and  trodden on it to exploit Nigerians so perniciously.

The grandees are deep in  their  necks  in the mire, the power scuffle is increasingly unravelling and it has become very ugly, a free for all and no one fully in control. Yes, the roar from some quarters has become more than a whimper and they can no longer break bread in the same room. The  Old guards, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida have  been  wheeled in to perform  diplomatic hocus-pocus and bring the warring factions to meet with the PDP newly  elected executives,but to no  avail.

The chairman of PDP Governors Forum and Governor Godswill Akpabio, went as far as to defend the lacklustre dinner/meeting when he said; “Out of 23 PDP governors all the 17 are here at the dinner, there was no faction in our party, what we are experiencing is a storm in(side) a teacup. We will soon overcome it and reconcile ourselves”.

This man is very much in his own universe and how I wish we were all as gullible or deluded as Akpabio.

For good measure, the leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has  been  very  vocal while  speaking at press  conference  that if Jonathan is  not  re-elected come 2015 that the Niger-Delta cannot  guarantee peace  in Nigeria.  It is  this  kind  of blackmail of a whole  country that speaks volumes that it is the welfare of all Nigerian and their  will that matters not one  of  a  group or class region or religion. This is has been the basis for our road to ruination. We cannot be held to ransom by the enemies of real progress. Making deals to divide us and pandering to one group over the other despite the failures is not a way to proper governance. This is not a game of thrones, this is our country and the future of our young that is at stake here.

The  foot and  mouth  disease has  gone on for far too long to  rein errant sycophants in. Only last Monday,they declared that there cannot be democracy in Nigeria without the People’s Democratic Party. Who say that one lame duck political party can hold the whole country to ransom?  Reality check, please, the  party is beginning to look empty and while the  president  looks forlornly to make peace in the crisis party and the rebels refused to kowtow  and break bread with the president.

Seriously,this is not a  moment to gloat, we are staring at the abyss and we  are at the  crossroads,we have  a choice to either continue  sinking or we can start swimming to the top, rebuild our nation  from the  ashes. We cannot go lower than this and we should not go lower than this. It is in the interest of our people that we put aside the religious and tribal rhetoric aside and work  towards securing our nations’ best  interests.

Crucially, the public spates is not helping the ordinary Nigerians, it  does  not  put  food on the table, it does not give jobs to our young people,it does not make affordable and accessible health,social  and  our educational institutions better staffed and resourced .

What we see played in public is an ignominy, to say the least and it has tarnished every Nigerian politician and in general Nigerians. We need  to  stop  the  circus and plundering of our nation’s  commonwealth that  has been used  to shore up sleazy individuals and groups. We need to look closely at ourselves because these so-called egotistic and narcissistic “leaders” are not alien to us they, are us.  There is no extricating ourselves from this mess, we voted them in and we supported them. We all need to put our house in order and begin to develop some moral backbones.

So the road to 2015 is not going to be a walk over as many may have  wished; it will be a  year for Nigerians to hold people and each other to account .

—————————

Read this article in the Vanguard Newspapers