by Abraham Ogbodo
The PDP, which had hoped to rule for 60 years, has had its hegemony prematurely terminated after only 16 years, creating a huge shortfall of 44 years. The consequences of this failed mission are yet to fully settle.
Members who see the PDP as a vanishing empire are making frantic efforts to reconnect somewhere before it gets too late to do so. And the comfortable place to go is the APC, the emerging empire, which has been receiving in droves, fleeing PDP members into its fold since the outcome of the March 28 presidential election. It is painful, but the PDP must devise some way to make it look like a small deal. In fact, it has been dishing out statements of hope largely to boost itself and mitigate the burden of loss. It has been enjoining its members to remain steadfast in the face of adversity.
But the party does not seem to be cutting any significant impression apart from vows by Senate President, David Mark and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, to remain faithful till the end, even if they become the last men standing in the PDP’s ring. For instance, in Ondo State, so much has drained into the APC’s bubbling cauldron leaving Governor Olusegun Mimiko with a very lean household. The Southeast is even lamenting the error of putting all its “eggs in one basket.”
The people voted en mass for the PDP and President Jonathan, and they are saying the loss of the presidency, in spite of their large votes, has left them stranded in the middle of nowhere. Consequently, there have been a lot of movements lately around the two arrow heads of the APC in the Southeast namely Senator Chris Ngige, who is not returning to the Senate after losing the Anambra Central seat to the PDP’s candidate, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife in the March 28 National Assembly election and Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State.
Before now, both men standing firmly in the APC had looked odd in the Southeast political configuration. Fate, has, however enforced a turnaround overnight and the rejected stones have become the builder’s choice. The duo are the defining icons and light of Igbo politics to whom the erstwhile mammoth PDP crowd in the region is turning for direction. In view of this, Ngige has reportedly said the PDP defectors would be screened or somehow made to write a test to separate the bad from the good ones. It is that bad.
I do not know how to present the point to make it clear to Ndigbo and others across the country that the value of gold is established by the amount of heat it can absorb. I mean, if Buhari and Tinubu had avoided fire at a time when it appeared most stupid to withstand the consuming heat of the PDP, they would have lost the strength to stand tall today in victory. Enough to say tough politics, like thick clouds, does not stay too long in the sky. What endure are tough politicians who can stay through many clouds to see once again the shining sun. The Igbos are a great people. I have said this in many forums and I am saying it again that the key to industrialisation and other economic breakthroughs in Nigeria lies more with them. Their ingenuity is unparalleled and too deep to measure.
They started repairing GSM handsets when the technology was less than a week old in Nigeria. They have capacity to decode and encode anything to meet immediate purpose. Any product that is substandard is tagged Igbo-made in Nigerian market language. This is not derogatory, but a measure of the technical ability of the Igbos to represent the so-called original form for good value. Call it technology theft or whatever, but know also that the Chinese and even the Japanese, who are today’s giants in global rating, started by copying the technology of the West. The Chinese still do till date.
To leverage on this bubbling strength, government only needs to create the right policy environment to standardise the operations of the average Igbo player and make him globally and ethically competitive. This self-appointed mission to put the Ndigbo in proper context should not be misconstrued as an attempt at self-glorification. I would like therefore to state that I am a proud Urhobo man in spite of my surname. Ndigbo don’t have to feel little because the candidate they voted for in the last presidential election lost. They are about the only group in Nigeria that can successfully live outside of government patronage. They can create their own wealth. They voted their mind, which is very good in that election.
If another general elections are called up tomorrow, they should go ahead to vote their mind again and not their stomach. A vote for their stomach will not take them too far. Agreed, the dividing line between politics and business in Nigeria could be faint or even imperceptible, but those who approach politics with trader instincts, always tilting in the direction where profits are most and immediate, gain little or nothing in the long run. Politics is driven by ideology not profit and cannot, in the strict sense, bring the same kind of reward as a business venture. Today, what is being highlighted generally as the PDP rapidly and voraciously fuses into the APC is the huge mercantile content of the Nigeria’s brand of democracy. Political harlotry is being promoted to high democratic art and the Nigerian audience is applauding, quite unfortunately.
The day of reckoning is ahead. Matters are being presented as if the APC, by winning the presidential election, has become a fortress that can weather all storms. This is very far from the truth. The party was created some time last year to take over power from the PDP, which it has successfully accomplished. And so, what next after grabbing power? Good governance will follow, which is far more challenging than winning elections.
The party may go down at the same speed it has risen if the stakeholders do not switch from the victory to service mode. They are seeing more of the benefits than the responsibilities of power. It is, therefore, premature to announce the obituary of the PDP, just as it is a bit hasty for the APC to feel like a conqueror of the great British Empire. In Ekiti State for instance, some 19 or so APC legislators who had been away from their duty post since the inauguration of the new governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose suddenly re-emerged last week to begin a controversial impeachment of the governor.
Apparently, the inspiration to do big battle is flowing from the victory of the APC in the March 28 presidential polls. The legislators, who couldn’t take-on the governor before now, are a kind of saying, “we are now in power and we can show our power.” In Lagos, it was a different kind of power show when the Oba of Lagos, Rilwanu Akiolu threatened to soak some people in the Lagos lagoon if they voted against the APC’s and his preferred candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode in last week’s governorship election in the state.
First class kings shouldn’t talk like that for goodness sake! As it is, the challenge of the APC is not so much about forming a formidable cabinet to deliver good governance, as it is about tranquilising the high power drunkenness that has come with its victory at the presidential election.
The Presidency has described it as “negative triumphalism” arising mainly from the APC’s feeling that the PDP has been decapitated never to rise again. My reading, however, is very different. The PDP is not dead and it cannot be because it thrives around a skeletal framework that is regenerative. The party is only in self-induced coma at worst. Mark my words, the same elements that knocked the PDP into unconsciousness shall emerge in the months ahead to deliver a turnaround therapy. This, to me, should constitute enough hope to Ndigbo and all those who are itching to take a walk into the APC. One party democracy either by PDP or APC does not sound too different from totalitarianism.
Abraham Ogbodo wrote this piece for The Guardian. He is a journalist.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
