NIGERIA’S OPPRESSIVE PROGRESSIVES AND THEIR MANIFESTO OF LIES. ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES: Away from the troubles, joys, lies and intrigues of the ‘inconclusive’ Anambra Gubernatorial election, which held last Saturday. Notwithstanding, I am yet to understand the rationale behind Professor Epoke’s declaration to that effect. Some people have tried in vain to convince me, advancing reasons such as the need to block all legal and Constitutional loopholes, which the APC and others may capitalise on to seek the annulment of that election, and the laughable theory of a fictitious one hundred and thirteen thousand one hundred and thirteen registered voters who are assumed to have been disenfranchised in about two hundred and eight polling units across eleven local government areas. Curiously, eighty nine thousands of these voters are in Idemili North, the Local Government Area where Dr. Chris Ngige hails from. In Professor Epoke’s thinking, eighty nine thousand voters in Idemili North L.G.A will vote for their brother, Chris Ngige. We are waiting and we are watching very keenly. But, God bless the Governor-elect; Chief Willie Maduabuchi Obiano, Congratulations to all lovers of justice and true progressives across the breath of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria and beyond the River Niger. While the All Progressives Congress (APC) may want you to believe that it is a merger of three major opposition Parties, we know that the Party as presently constituted is an expansion of the former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The story of a merger is simply a subterfuge employed by that Party’s chief strategists to lure other members of the opposition to join ranks with them. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is the undisputed paramount ruler of the ACN and now APC, just wanted an expansion of his political influence. He merely, wanted to recruit more foot soldiers who are to advance his political goals and aspirations. The fundamental signature of every organisation is its logo, and any organisation that throws away its logo has thrown away its identity and an organisation without an identity is simply non-existent. In this case, we must wonder why it is that the CPC’s pen was thrown away, the ANPP’s maize thrown away, while the ACN’s broom remained. This should make it clearer to anyone who cares to know that opposition figures like General Muhammad Buhari, Senator Sani Yerima, Chief Ogbonnaya Kanu and the others were merely deceived into defecting from their political Parties to another political Party. It is even more disappointing that these respected leaders were effectively deceived into signing the death of their Parties. Coming from this deceptive background, the APC has gone on to adopt mendacity as the crux of its politicking strategy. They have failed to understand and abide by the real principles of political party as an instrument through which people’s lives could be touched and bettered. They have made it glaringly clear to all that they are only concerned about capturing power by any means; crooked or straight. From its days as the Alliance for Democracy, (AD) to Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), to when it metamorphosed in Action Congress (AC) , then to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and to its present identity as the All Progressives Congress (APC), this Party has never hidden its disdain for the Peoples Democratic Party and all those who came to power through them. The APC leaders have always had one invective or the other for the Peoples Democratic Party and anybody who has anything to do with them. They have always labelled them as a gang of criminals from whence nothing good can come out. They have not failed to tell anyone who cares to listen that anyone who is associating with the PDP is one of the problems with Nigeria. Today, what do we have in our hands? The APC is made up in good part by PDP renegades. Conceded that one of the major aims of any political Party is to win elections and control political power at the highest level of government, but, patriotism is a primary and indispensable quality of any responsible political Party. While I must admit that the PDP has not done all it is capable of doing to ensure that Nigeria is transformed, it is one of the biggest lies to dismiss the PDP as a totally failed political Party. When put on the same scale with the APC, the PDP is certainly miles ahead of the other in all ramifications. We must not fail to appreciate the fact that apart form few States where its Governors are not performing so well, majority of the PDP controlled States across the Federation are far ahead of the few that are in the hands of the opposition APC. From Akwa Ibom to Enugu down to Cross Rivers State, the people have got many reasons to be happy with the governance which the PDP has given them. In Plateau State, it is only those who are irreversibly sold to lies that will deny the massive developmental projects that Pa Jonah Jang has been able to deliver to his people, this is notwithstanding the inscrutable security challenges that his government is confronted with. In Bauchi and Katsina, the Governors of this State have effectively curtailed the activities of the rampaging Boko Haram insurgents through massive empowerment programs and several credible people oriented programs and policies. Most of the those who were staunchly opposed to the government of Governor George Akume have been shut up by the steady growth which that Benue people have continued to enjoy since 2007. Jigawa, Kano and Kwara States do not top the chart of States with best performing Governors, but the States are in better steads than some of the States that are controlled by the opposition. In Rivers, the Governor has been carried away by overt political ambition, so much so that he has completely lost touch with the realities of governance. One will not be wrong to say that Governor Rotimi Amaechi has abandoned the people of Rivers State to pursue personal goals and interests. He has diverted both the people’s human and financial resources into a battle he is sure to lose out in. It is also worrisome that the APC is mostly attracted to the least performing and most callous members of the PDP. Take Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory for instance. This is a man who was among the five most powerful officials during the Obasanjo Presidency. He was first appointed as the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, where he superintended over the privatisation programme of the Obasanjo government. It was under his very watch that NITEL which was Nigeria’s first national carrier was milked dry, destroyed and buried as a result of the massive corruption that overshadowed its privatisation. Several other public assets and properties were grossly undervalued and sold to cronies and relations or out rightly dashed out with no recourse to due process and financial best practices. El-Rufai had a very wonderful opportunity to modernise the Federal Capital Territory and make it one of the best capital cities in the world, but he was distracted by his desperation for instant riches and vendetta. He went on a spree of legal and illegal demolitions of people’s properties all in a bid to get back at the perceived and real political opponents of his then boss and as well acquire immeasurable stretch of landed properties for himself, his friends and members of his immediate and extended families. The courts are still being told of how he did all that, and if our judicial system is to be trusted, Mallam El-Rufai shoul be cooling his feet in jail anytime soon. However, it is the same APC who raised the loudest alarms over El-Rufai’s various brigandage and arbitrary impunities that have welcomed the same man they labelled at various times as lawless and criminal as a top ranking administrator in their political Party. This is a man who could be described as a fugitive from the law. It shouldn’t be hard for us to remember that he ran away from the country and stayed in hiding for close to three years of the Yaradua Presidency. He sneaked back into the country when Prsident Goodluck Jonathan in his characteristic kindness granted him pardon. On his return to power, he was alleged to have desperately schemed to become a Vice-President to President Goodluck Jonathan. When that failed, he hung on a little more, possibly expecting a juicy appointment or contract, but seeing that President Goodluck Jonathan was not ready to bring in individuals with serious credibility problems as himself into his government, he turned to an overnight social critic and political activist. General Muhammadou Buhari; himself a serial election looser and presidential desperado was ever willing to welcome him into his campaign. That was how Mallam El-Rufai changed from the earlier toga which the APC gave him as one of the major problems of Nigeria to one of Nigeria’s best progressives. The history and operational strategies of the APC leave no one in doubt that in APC Nigeria has lost a great opportunity at having a credible and viable alternative to the PDP. There is no doubt about the fact that a credible and viable alternative is crucial to Nigeria’s democratic experiment. But, Nigerians cannot be so daft to invest their hope in a Party that treats all of them as fools. If the APC does not see Nigerians as fools, it will not continue to lie and change its stories recklessly without giving a thought to the sensibilities of those it is aspiring to lead. A party that is built on deception cannot stand as a credible alternative to another that has not told us all the truth, but has at least respected the fact that Nigerians are humans with some working grey mater. As an opposition Party, the APC should have been the mouth-piece of all oppressed Nigerians, but it has rather chosen to be the chief oppressor of Nigerian masses. How do you explain a situation where a political Party that prides itself as a frontline defender of democratic norms and principles would stand up in vehement opposition against the legitimate aspirations of her members. In Ekiti, it is Honourable Bamidele who has been threatened with fire and all forces just because he thinks he can offer better ideas on how to make Ekiti State better. His supporters have been shot dead, arrested and demeaned just because they have shown open or even secret support to their man. In Anambra, Godwin Ezeemo and Senator Annie Okonkwo were systematically manipulated out of the race for the gubernatorial election. In Lagos State, the former Deputy Governor to Babatunde Fashola in his first tenure has been unceremoniously retired from politics, just because certain interests do not like her guts and could not tolerate her sincerity. It goes on to every State, where this Party has the slightest inroad and influence. Talking about infrastructure and good governance, the APC projects Lagos State as a model of its excellent performance. For a State that rakes in stupendous funds from its Internally Generated Revenue, and whose share of the Federal allocation is miles fatter than that of various States of the Federation, Lagos State is a disappointment in governance. One can say without fear of being tagged a liar that Lagos State is the most underdeveloped State in the country, when the amount of money available to it is compared with the level of development on the ground. Fashola has not done any spectacular thing. He has rather focused on media wars and investing on deception. Lagos could have been far better off with just its internally generated revenue, Lagos workers should have been one of the best paid workers anywhere in the Federation, there shouldn’t have been any bad, anywhere in Lagos. But, more than ninety per cent of the roads in Lagos are in terrible shapes. Lagos, which a gateway to Nigeria and the commercial capital of the country has being terribly misruled such that the outside world sees Nigeria as a slum. Take somebody like Godswill Akpabio to Lagos as the Governor and the face of the entire Lagos will change. It becomes more worrisome when considered on the reality that Lagos State is one of the most indebted States in the country. Lagosians should ask Fashola where these monies go to. Borno and Yobe are APC States. These States as you know are the hot beds of Boko Haram insurgency. Adamawa and Kano are two States that have recently come under the siege of these rebels and we all know where their Governors political allegiance lies. Birds of a hue flock together. While these Governors came into office on the platform of the PDP, they have located or are about locating their fellow non-performers in the APC. Does anyone need to tell you that any government that cannot guarantee the security of lives and properties of its citizens is a complete failure? Someone is murmuring that the Federal Government is in charge of the police, army and all armed forces. That is true, but the Governors are the chief security officers in their various States. The Federal government has gone out of its way to deploy troops into these areas when it became obvious that the Governors of these States were not capable of efficiently ruling their States. The APC has looked the other way, while the violence festers in these States. They have rather used every opportunity open to them to make political capital out of our tragedy as a nation. In Imo State, the people are contending with a man who has merely come to deceive them. A man who told us and still tells us how ready he is to construct all the roads in the State within the next one year, yet, three years down the line, our roads have become worse than they were before he came with his promise of rescue. Least did we know that he was coming to re-skew us. a man who promised us free education, yet used same as a subterfuge to raise students school fees. A man who goes to China to sow substandard school uniforms and import low-grade shoes, desks and stools, while telling us of how he had resuscitated our industry. In Imo State, APC is oppressing us with a man who brings in his foreign friends in the guise of bringing expatriate contractors and connives with them to make away with our billions of Naira. We are contending with a man who told us that the Nsu Tiles factory has been resuscitated, yet there is not a single made in Imo State tile or ceramic at any of the building materials markets across the State. In Imo State, APC has given us a man who makes us shed tears of regrets every day. A man who seems to have come to sweep our commonwealth away with a broom. The All Progressives Congress may have succeeded with their lies sometimes and in some places, but they should be assured that their lies will soon catch up with them. They should know that Nigerians are wise and very intelligent people who can be deceived once, but never twice. their dream of expanding their looting territory beyond the present eleven States where they presently hold sway will remain a dream, till the day they will begin to respect Nigerians and tell them the truth.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 21:50:23 +0000
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