For the first time, it is clear to the ruling People’s
‘Democratic’ Party, PDP, in Nigeria that it may have to leave the scene
unwillingly. The indigestible mess it that the party accumulated over
the past sixteen years has finally pushed it into the abyss of our
collective rejection. For it, there is nowhere hide; no more games to
play. Its previous reliance on rigging elections and divide and rule
campaigns of religion and ethnicity is annihilated today by an
unprecedented political awareness, IT technology and the landslide
support that the opposition is enjoying across the nation’s
geographical, ethnic and religious divides. Its spine is cold.
This severe political winter has pushed the President and his aides
to contemplate all sorts of odds. The revelation from his Special
Adviser on Publicity, Doyin Okupe, that this government would rather
handover to the military than to the leading opposition figure depicts
the desperation of the mafia than the strength of democrats. Treason at
its worst! While that anomaly is kept in view by Jonathanians, attempts
to postpone the elections beyond February are strongly pursued even
after the acknowledged readiness of the umpire to conduct them on
schedule. The catch here is finding additional time to contemplate the
outmoded means of subverting popular will - regenerating religious and
regional differences while escalating the Boko Haram crises to make the
elections impossible altogether. But I think, today, even time has grown
impatient with such elements. It has been ample to Jonathan but the
President has dismissed its generosity in preference to immediate
material gains, subversion and deliberate disability. Time is not likely
to change the tide it has chosen for 2015. It is defiant already and
daring it will only cause more danger for Mr. President.
The nation, gladly, remains resolute that a change in direction is
necessary. As I write this piece, thousands of Chadian soldiers are
invading Nigeria to save it the ravages of the unholy alliance between
Boko Haram and our widely believed complicit government. Ours neighbours
have correctly read the danger in that complicity and have decidedly
abandoned apathy in favour of confronting the advancing threat in the
face of grudges of leaders of the victim nation. This is not the reading
of Chad, Niger or Cameroon alone; it is that of Africa. Today, changing
the direction of governance in Nigeria is a continental imperative as
much as it is a consensus among its nations. This is the certainty that
primitive-grade DNA, intelligence and sociology of Niger Delta militants
and other chauvinists across the nation could not foresee when they
allowed material gains to subvert national interest.
The National Council of State meeting due to hold today will end
without the President succeeding in hoodwinking its members into
accepting a postponement of the elections, once Jega remains resolute on
his stand that INEC is ready. The poor National Security Adviser,
Dasuki, that is shamelessly glad to toe the line of the clique that has
brought the worse suffering to his people in their entire contemporary
history is likely to face rejection. The advisory body will, most
likely, advise the President to be bold and face Nigerians at the polls;
that anything less will only strengthen the support for the opposition
and reinforce the resolve of Nigerian voters against him.
My advice for Nigerians is continuous vigilance against the evil that
chose to frustrate its growth and sabotage its existence for sixteen
years now. They have resolved to defeat it and they must endure on that
course to achieve the dream of a better Nigeria. Whichever way the PDP
and the President decide, the polling day will come and the people will
decide. No ‘doctrine of necessity’ or rigging will this time accord him a
day beyond May 29 without the approval of Nigerians at the polls.
No comments:
Post a Comment