These heavyweight politicians, coming together under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have vowed to send the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) packing from Aso Rock in the next general election because of poor leadership, describing President Goodluck Jonathan as “shoeless” and “clueless”. They accused Jonathan and the PDP of failing to curb insecurity as the Boko Haram insurgency has continued unabated in the north-east. They also complained about the state of the economy, noting that Nigerians are now paying N97/litre for petrol, up from the N65/litre in 2010. They asked Nigerians: “Is your life better today than when Jonathan became president in 2010?”
Breaking news again: a number of prominent Nigerian politicians have finally teamed up and adopted a new political platform to challenge the ruling party and “rescue Nigeria from bad governance, poverty, disease, corruption, spiralling inflation and worsening insecurity”. According to them, Nigerians cannot afford another four years of misrule by the ruling party as the ship of state has drifted and the country is much worse today than ever. Some notable figures in the emerging arrangement are Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi, Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
These heavyweight politicians, coming together under the umbrella of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), vowed to send the All Progressives Congress (APC) packing from Aso Rock in the next general election because of “incompetent” and “corrupt” leadership, describing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government as “insensitive”. They said: “Inflation is at its peak. People cannot buy food. The dollar was about 460 or 500 under Buhari. Now it is 1580. Petrol was N185/litre under Buhari but it is now N900/litre. Nigerians no longer feel safe in their country because of kidnappers and bandits.” They asked Nigerians: “Is your life better today than when Tinubu came to power?”
If you don’t believe history repeats itself, there you have it. Those who rescued Nigeria in 2015 are back in town to rescue Nigeria again, this time from fellow rescuers, in conjunction with those they rescued Nigeria from 10 years ago. If you are confused, thank you: I am also confused. There are slight differences, though. The APC rescuers of 2015 included President Muhammadu Buhari who ruled Nigeria from 2015 to 2023 during which insecurity ballooned: Boko Haram stayed alive, joined by the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), bandits in the north-west and kidnappers everywhere. Another 2015 rescuer was President Bola Tinubu, under whom inflation has set new records.
Among those the rescuers rescued Nigeria from in 2015 is ex-Senate President David Mark, who presided over the senate for eight years from 2007 to 2015 and whose party was accused of being the most corrupt and incompetent in the history of Africa. Mark is the interim chairman of the ADC, the latest rescuers. Another notable member of the “clueless” party from which we were rescued in 2015 is Hon Emeka Ihedioha. I can claim to have seen and read plenty about our political history, but I am not ashamed to admit that I still know next to nothing. When it comes to elections, worst enemies could become best friends and best friends worst enemies. Fellow Nigerians, it is all politics.
Before I am fully misunderstood, let me quickly state that I have nothing against opposition figures coming together under one umbrella to compete with the APC. In fact, I love it. I am a lover of multi-party democracy any day, anytime, anywhere. Democracy without competition is dead, being alone. When there is only one viable party in the land, the incentive for delivery of governance dividends is very little. Political competition becomes defined as the struggle to get the ticket of the dominant party to run in an election. The moment a candidate secures the ticket, the rest is formality. But when there is competition with viable options, performance could be a factor at election times.
I am also happy that the opposition figures are coming to their senses. In my opinion, Tinubu won the presidential election in 2023 largely because of the divided opposition. While he polled 8.7 million votes to breast the tape, the combination of Atiku, Obi and Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso — all of whom used to be in the PDP before the election — polled 14.5 million. Do the math. However, as it is typical of us in Nigeria, their supporters blamed INEC and IReV rather than look inward to see where they missed it. By now coming together under one umbrella, Atiku and Obi seem to have realised that collaboration is better than competition — and that blaming INEC is not enough.
I have run the figures before. By the official results, the gap between Tinubu and PDP’s Atiku, who came second, was 1.8 million votes. Most of the 1.96 million votes LP’s Obi got in the south-east might have gone to Atiku, going by the zone’s support for the PDP since 1999. I would say Kwankwaso’s 997,000 votes in Kano would probably have been mostly PDP’s as well. Obi’s 582,000 votes in Lagos would likely have gone to Atiku: there was a solid PDP base in the state. In the end, every vote for Obi in Lagos favoured Tinubu because Atiku would most likely have been the beneficiary. Every vote for Kwankwaso in Kano was technically a vote for Tinubu because it could have been Atiku’s.
I wouldn’t know if they ran these figures before deciding to form a coalition, but it is a more scientific approach than INEC-bashing. Those who win elections always praise INEC; those who lose pummel INEC. Of course, INEC has a million and one issues, but maybe the electoral body is not always the problem. While it is curious that IReV, the result-viewing portal, failed to work on election day, all the result sheets were eventually uploaded and are still publicly available. Apart from Rivers state where over 50,000 votes were brazenly stolen from Obi going by the uploaded result sheets and the ones given to party agents, nobody has disputed that the posted results for other states were different.
I am happy that opposition figures did not decide to boycott the 2027 elections based on the accusations of one-party state or IReV. That is indeed beautiful. Boycott solves no problems. Go out there and slug it out. Ghanaian politicians learnt that lesson decades ago. In 1992, opposition parties accused President JJ Rawlings of rigging and boycotted the parliamentary elections. But they soon came to their senses, appraised their performance and concluded — sincerely — that they were too weak and too fragmented to take on the ruling party. They organised themselves much better and performed much better. They lost again in 1996 but remained steadfast — and finally won in 2000.
“Organise, don’t agonise” is a common saying in the Nigerian aluta movement. Our politicians preferred to agonise rather than organise when the PDP held sway in Aso Rock from the dawn of this democratic dispensation. The first time they seriously organised themselves was in 2015 when the atoms came together under the APC umbrella (or should I say broom). This saw to the end of 16 years of the PDP, even if it didn’t see to the end of Nigeria’s problems. At least, we tried another party. If Nigerians are truly unhappy with the APC, then 2027 would be another opportunity to show their displeasure at the polls. If it works out, fine. If it doesn’t, 2031 will offer another good chance.
However, may I advise fellow Nigerians to stop getting over-excited whenever politicians say they want to “rescue” Nigeria. The APC promised us heaven and earth in 2015 but many Nigerians would say they are now living in hell. On December 1, 2013, I wrote this about the formation of the APC: “Nigerian politicians, no matter their party, language and religion, are basically the same. Let me be clear about that. That is why they find it so easy to swap political parties from time to time without feeling out of place, without having to battle any contradictions. They are at home anywhere they find themselves. It is the same set of people that are circulating and re-circulating…” I still stand by my words.
In the end, the difference between the ADC and the APC may just be one alphabet. Our problem has never been the party in power — it is people in power. I always say Nigeria will not change until our politicians change. I still stand by my words. To the typical Nigerian politician, power is a licence to become a deity, to amass and flaunt obscene wealth in the face of poverty, to deploy state power to oppress and suppress others, to chase us off the road with siren-blaring convoys. Most politicians are just waiting for their turn. That is why Nigeria is like this. It is not a co-incidence. Our politicians cannot rescue us until they rescue themselves from greed and selfishness. Know this, know peace.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
RUFAI THE LEGEND
We were still mourning the death of Diogo Jota, the 28-year-old Portugal and Liverpool forward, when news broke that Prince Peter Rufai, the legendary Nigerian goalkeeper, had died at 61 after an illness. At the height of his power, Rufai — nicknamed “Dodo Mayana” for reasons I never bothered to find out — was an imposing and acrobatic figure who literally won many matches for Nigeria with superb saves. I adored him. Even when younger keepers like Alloy Agu, Willy Agbonavbare and Ike Shorunmuwere showing sharper reflexes, some of us were so emotional about Rufai’s legend that we were not ready to give them a fair chance. I pray that his family will be comforted. Unforgettable!
IDP-SHAMING
Nigerian politicians, in an attempt to make fun of their opponents, have been freely using the term “IDP” to describe them. IDP, in its original meaning, is “internally displaced person” — in reference to refugees from conflicts — and not “internally displaced politician”. Between 2008 and 2023, Nigeria recorded over eight million IDPs as a result of terrorism, banditry and communal conflicts. They live in make-shift camps, suffering emotional and physical abuse because of the failure of their country to protect them in the first place. Nobody wants to be an IDP. It is not something to be made fun of. I am pleading with our politicians and their supporters to change their use of language. Insensitive.
WHITHER PDP?
For a party that used to control an overwhelming number of states to the extent that there were fears Nigeria was moving towards a one-party system, it must really constitute a sad state of affairs that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is now a disappearing shadow of its former self. While the emergence of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is getting all the good inches in newspapers these days, the PDP is mostly mentioned with regard to the endless defection of its governors and lawmakers to other parties. Chief Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister, has done quite a lot to ground the once-mighty party and the remnants must be seriously wondering what the future holds. Snookered.
NO COMMENT
The ADC is turning out to be a party that will give the media a lot of content. As a journalist, I can’t have any problems with that. ADC’s most senior member, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has always promised to do one term and support a southerner to succeed him. However, with many expecting power to return to the north in 2031, ADC’s southern hopefuls are also promising to do one term. Peter Obi has said he does not need more than one term to transform the economy. Rotimi Amaechi has also promised that he will do only one if he becomes president on the party’s platform. On my part, I hereby promise not to do any term at all if I am elected president. Hahahaha.
