Nigeria is an interesting and utterly exciting country to live and work in, and many development workers with the UN and other donor agencies have had to face this reality, and I know many multinationals thrive within a most-interesting business clime. Before one misconstrues me, an interesting case medically speaking leaves much to be desired for a case is made more interesting by the complexity it presents. Nigeria’s case is so interesting that the democratic formulae which works in other countries hardly see the light of reality in Nigeria because of that obnoxious variable called “Nigerian Factor”. This developmental snag has scuttled all efforts to “make Nigeria Great again” ,quoting President Obasanjo after he took over the rudder in 1999 in his bid to steer Nigeria out ofthe doldrums of mal-development which we have had to live and endure since our independence.
As we cast our minds back in retrospection, one major fact that stares us in the face is this: Obasanjo rode and navigated into Aso Rock through the wrong ship. Yea, the “almighty PDP”, the “Peoples Deranged Party” which gloats as the “largest party in Africa”, epitomizes anything but democracy. Obasanjo sought to enshrine democratic principles by riding with horses and chariots that maim and kill democratic elements.
The PDP since inception has no antecedents that smacks of a commitment to democratic ideals. It may have been founded by men who have an idea of what democracy is all about, but PDP as it has lived the past 8 years is just an anathema to democracy. True democracy has suffered under the aegis of PDP than anyone could have imagined in 1999. It perfected the art and act of election to decapitate other parties and overthrow their political domains. We saw this happen in the South-West where AD was annihilated, and APGA despite its supposed stranglehold on the South-East were perplexed when PDP over-ran them despite the realities at the polling stations.
With the current dispensation coming to an inevitable end, the same monster, the same evil creature, that behemoth called PDP still feels it has the moral and political rights to steer the Nigerian ship out of the quagmire, till it berths at our Promised Land which has eluded us for decades on end. The same amoral entity that brooded and hatched the aborted the devilish “Third Term Agenda” is busy setting machinery in motion to aid the scouting of Obasanjo’s replacement among its ilk. What an interesting, but absurd reality are we confronted with in Nigeria! The same people who chorused “On Third Term We Stand” now are the champions and custodians of our ever “nascent and kwashiorkored” democracy. A democracy that suffers stunted growth not for lack of food or malnutrition but one that suffers amidst plenty. But a democracy whose “custodians” are warped in their thinking can never work. And a system engineered by men whose hearts are disconnected from the generality of Nigerians would further drag us down the drain of underdevelopment.
From my knowledge of anatomy, a muscle’s function among other things depends on its Origin and Insertion. The origin is where the muscle attaches proximally, while the insertion is where it terminates and gets attached to a bone through its tough tendon/s. The origin and insertion defines the kind of a movement or activity a muscle/s can perform. Biceps muscles in the upper arm are able to flex (bend) the elbow joint because of their insertion a little below the joint. To change their function as a elbow flexors would require a change in the insertion, but this can only be done surgically with the attendant consequencies.So by nature, a muscle would always perform the function that it is engineered to perform due to its anatomic and physiologic properties. To expect something more or less than its biologic potential would spell doom. In essence, a muscle ( eg an agonist like PDP) has no moral capacity to change its “ideals” ,else it will be out of sync with other muscles that either work as antagonistsor synergist. In the human body, without the vital work of antagonists and synergists, the body will never work perfectly and in order. By extension, a ruling party is bound to perform its functions better when there is a vibrant opposition party.
But the PDP-led government in the past 8 years has sleazily muffled the opposition parties who should have served as major checks and balances to the excesses of the “elected leaders”. True to its type, the PDP lured many from the opposition into their camp and such defections were highly celebrated with pomp and ceremony. The PDP orchestrated and engineered the excision of the origin of the opposition’s muscles and co-joined them into a common insertion- i.e., PDP’s whims and caprices. And for the fact that the political parties in Nigeria have no palpable ideals to stand on, they all flittered away into near oblivion and became factionalized. Thus we saw ANPP, AD and APGA disintegrate into factions, while PDP gloated and took on is salacious toga as the “largest party in Africa”. Notwithstanding, we knew it wouldn’t take long before it faces its own albatross because the natural law of sowing and reaping respects no party.
When last week, a “new” PDP secretariat sprang up at Mabuchi area of Abuja, few eyelids batted seeing that what befell other parties would ultimately consume PDP.This happened while the reconciliation jamboree spear-headed by President Obasanjo at the demise of the Third Term Agenda was being showcased in the 6 geo-political zones. But how would a party with such an “enviable” track record like PDP not suffer an inevitable implosion as we are seeing now. The bomb-detection acuity of the General (Retd) Ali-led exco could not preempt, let alone strangle this fictionalization of their esteemed party in the bud, especially with such heavy weights as Solomon Lar, a founding father of the behemoth of a party spear-heading the PDP’s dissection ,dissolution ,disintegration and eventual precipitation.
Now PDP has seen it was not too sacrosanct as to remain unharmed after all the double standards it has displayed in managing its own affairs, nay that of Nigerians in the past 7 years. The nemesis that was unleashed by PDP leadership against its own “elected” governors in Anambra, Plateau and Oyo states respectively is catching up with them all. Like the rhetoric we always got when such happened in the past, we will see how this “PDP’s family affair” will play itself out.
It’s rather saddening that a party whose ideals should be rooted in true democratic principles has conducted its affairs and that of the nation undemocratically. How then can we be certain that the 2007 elections would be conducted democratically when the incumbent party is shy of representing democracy in absolute terms? This is the reality before us, and we must stand up as citizens to press for what we really want for our country. This evil behemoth should not hold unto power at all cost when all it has done is nothing, but the destruction of the foundations of true democracy which it was supposed to lay, build and sustain. This is not a time to remain aloof and indifferent, but a time to rise up and fight these undemocratic forces that have jeopardized the fortunes of our nation, and have mortgaged the destinies of our esteemed citizens.
