Leave Jonathan! Vote PDP Out!

Among all the political argots and analyses that have littered our media spaces in the last few weeks, following the presidential race declarations of the “biggest” figures in the country, very little have left me really impressed. I have read well-written articles that are ladened with highly eloquent expressions that tickled my grammatical fancy – and not more. However, the substance of many of these proses always fall short of quality and reasonable analysis of our political conditions and  feasible juxtapositions as compared to the beautiful embroidery of knitted expressions in which these deficient thoughts are woven. A situation that have left me with a doubtful question about the quality of our reflection on our dilapidating future – and to which we have a collective responsibility to save!

From one article to the other, it is as though the country has been shared amongst the biggest political parties – the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and its strongest opposition, All Progressive Congress (APC). I have no doubt it has; along some imaginary borderlines. The crossfires between the “pongos” of these conflicting political country-sides range from exaggerations to prevarications. From aggrandizement to malignments. There are no in-betweens in the scale of revilements. Everyone goes for the jugular. Kill him! Kill him!! This is what I hear if this were to be a warring situation.

This is bad enough for an “affluent” nation of indigents who each feast below one US dollar – a hundred and eighty five naira - per day! It is made worse that, in our hunger, we are unable to figure a rallying point for the development of our social and economic courses. Rather, in this bottomless perdition, we – the indigents, inadvertently and hurriedly too, dig further our hells, building a ground of rubbles for the elitist politicians while we remain buried beneath them with our prejudice and in excruciating agonies.

I still wonder how it has become impossible for us to see that the next electoral race is not between PDP and APC. Nor amongst other political parties. It is neither a battle between the North and the South nor a scrap between Christians and Muslims. When these elections are over, and the spoils seemed to have been totally shared amongst the “victors”, we would realise that, ultimately, we have been defeated again – by our own hands. We would have delivered ourselves, once more and de jure, to the slave camps of our heinous masters. The only difference this time, may be to another class of oppressors; fairer or even worse.

While I have no doubts that this is the “best” we would get this year – 2015 - as we have not so many options of impeccable politicians to choose from, it is important to toss into the public domain, the rational arguments rather than sentiments, that I suppose would augur fairly for the country, if truly, first of all, we genuinely seek a steadying end to our national and collective afflictions.  I have based my theory on an assumption, which I hold to be true following a close examination of our current situation. I might be wrong. Though I hope not!

I assume that a very high percentage of our total number of politicians are out for personal enrichment through unbridled thieving and looting of our commonwealth using the elective offices we electorally bestow on them and its associated powers. Unfortunately, these grossly corrupt individuals form the pool from which we must elect our wealth managers. And we are, thus, trapped in a “cul de sac” to choose either “this devil” or “that devil”. It would not matter therefore, on whose side one is. It is an “all-devil” contest – the reason the barrage of smears hurled across the borderlines by the protagonists of all sides count for progressive nothingness.

While I do not sturdily conclude that there are no goods amongst our present crop of politicians, the asphyxiating poignant odour that emit from our body politic due to the preponderance of iniquitous tendencies of majority of its players, do not statistically justify the existence of any angel-like figure. As such, they are difficult to sift at this stage of our incipient democracy.  At best, we believe that all our “saints” would remain “holy” so, until they have had a taste of the forbidden fruits hanging in power corridors. Safer it is, therefore, for our political and electoral psychology to assume that at the present moment, “there are no saints”. 

The consequent “BIG QUESTION”, hence, is “how do will choose amongst the offered devils?”

Like in economics, where competition is defined as “the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favourable terms” (Meriam-Webster), I opine that political competition could as well be defined as “the effort of two or more political groups acting independently to secure the electoral supports of majority of the electorates by offering the most favourable socio-economic terms”. 

Sequel to above, I have no doubt that the socio-economic benefits of good governance would remain elusive to Nigerians due to the lack of political competitiveness at the very centre of power – the Presidency. Disregard political competition as the mere existence of numerous political parties. It is not. The political landscape in Nigeria is so steep and lopsided it benefits, majorly, the political party that grabbed “Aso Rock” in 1999; and we have been unable to change it ever since. This has dealt a devastating blow to the electoral psychology of majority of potential electorates, who now believe that their votes no longer count and so, do not vote (and that is if they ever registered in the first place).

It has also impaired the overall characteristics of political and economic governance, as well as livelihoods, in Nigeria. So much so that we are almost incapable of distinguishing between good and bad. We have been made to believe that our afflictions are divine. And as we flock the Houses of God, seeking divine restitution, the “beneficiaries” of our collective stupidity, the corrupt politicians and administrators, walk into our treasuries unrestrained for unprecedented loots. They even brawl off the food we left fasting and praying for the country. 

We cannot blame them. They have been assured by our rational/intellectual incapacitation, orchestrated by constitutional but deficient structures, to retain the helms of national affairs. With this assurance, it is tantamount to wastage of national resources to provide basic amenities like drinkable water, good roads, reliable healthcare service etc. to commoners. Why should the incumbent party, assured of quadrennial return to presidency, yield to the entreaties of common Nigerians that gave it such guarantee and stood by it (in religious and ethical divisions)? The effrontery propelled by the progenitors of the PDP that Nigeria shall be “ruled” for at least 50 years by its clans is firmly rooted in this understanding and its engineered “design”. Blame not Jonathan!

I have always argued that the ruling party, PDP is not a strong political movement. Rather, we have no strong oppositions to create the desired equilibrium in the political market place, where the electorates define the effective forces. Largely and practically, since 1999, Nigeria has witnessed a one-party system/governance. There has been no political competitiveness to warrant the delivery of socio-economic to the Nigerian masses. As stated earlier, logically, in a monopolistic political clime like ours, it makes no sense at all to do the masses’ bidding when one can ride on the cheap to presidential Eldorado!

If the current promoters of the APC had, under the auspices of either the All Peoples’ Party (APP) or the Alliance for Democracy (AD), won the presidential race in 1999, and, like PDP, held onto power ever since, they would have fared no better at all. If not worse, they would have produced the same results that PDP is producing today. (Recall the “despotic” Aremo in Ogun State and "goatie" in Oyo State; both of old AD )

So, it is my postulation that the institution of political competitiveness into the centre where power is mostly concentrated, that is, the Presidency, through seemingly electoral Co-ordinations, is the only graceful option to ensuring quality performance of our political administrators on the long-term. Recent happenstances in the Lagos Chapter of the PDP is a pointer the efficacy of this theory. Why would the immediate past Minister of State for Defence be staunchly denied his “birth right”, going by tradition in the party, to the benefit of a "newcomer" and supposedly credible pharmacist of defunct Action Congress (AC)? Political competition!

That chapter of the ruling party has finally realised that to even have half a chance to wrestle power from APC in the Centre of Excellence, the credibility and integrity of the gubernatorial flag-bearer should be seemingly unblemished. I do not believe that those ravenous elements that took this decision in Lagos State have themselves changed or repented. No! They want power at all cost. And the first price is a seemingly “holy” sacrifice of an “unholy” member, like themselves, on the slab of dignity. An episode that is akin to atonement. From Lagos, PDP has commenced, like APC, its own internal cleansing!

This kind of internal reformation is what political competitiveness, which we currently lack at the presidency, brings. 

To answer the question on how to select amongst the available evils at once, it is safe to conclude at this juncture, drawing from the expositions above, that whichever devil that would seem, more than the other, to have introduced political competitiveness at the presidency should be massively elected. Do not forget, I asserted that we have been bedeviled by the lack of credible choices. However, we can help these leechlike tyrants to commence the process of internal restitution by voting them out of power at the next elections. 

Vote PDP out of “Aso Rock”. Not Jonathan! 

Recall, we voted for Jonathan in the first place, not PDP. But since PDP is the clog hindering the smooth running of the national engines, vote it out!

This singular act, if accomplished, would not only be the beginning for our psychological rehabilitation as electorates who are now powerful enough to decide the “evil” that govern us, it also would trigger crossfires that are not mere slanders; but ones that strike at issues and people-centric agenda. If the prized electoral value of every electorate can no longer be incurred by meagre sums of currencies, it would not be long before the benefits of good governance begin to trickle down to the downtrodden (as we have seen in Lagos). And as we leap from on evil to another of lesser menace, in Patrick Obahiagbon’s macabre dance style, we would soon, either transform these devils to adorable angels or confine them to cesspits in the deepest ends of hell.

Nigerians MUST, NOW, vote for Change! Otherwise, the night is only just beginning!