Fellow Nigerians,

kindly accept my sincere apologies for
disappearing from this page abruptly last week. It was
due to circumstances beyond my control. I had really
over-flogged my body through marathon trips that left
me totally knackered and brain-drained. I truly
appreciate your concern and prayers. Many of you must
have angered my perpetual cynics who used to
complain weekly and endlessly about my column. Your
messages, especially on Twitter, were eloquent
endorsements of my modest efforts at writing Pendulum
under stringent conditions most times.

Let me disabuse the minds of those who panicked about
my column being rested by the Management of Thisday
newspapers. No one can imagine the kind of freedom I
have enjoyed since I took up this assignment. The
Publisher of Thisday has never attempted to gag me in
anyway and I’m mightily proud of our cordial
relationship. Mr Nduka Obaigbena recognises the fact
that a column is the personal opinion of the columnist
and does not necessarily represent the editorial view of
the newspaper. Those hoping and dreaming and
preaching that my column should be scrapped should
consider the interests of the majority who have come to
accept Pendulum as their weekend tonic.
In my last piece of penultimate week, I had written
copiously about my encounter with Dr Rilwan Lukman in
Vienna about 15 years ago. I was shocked when news of
his death reached me two days after that he has passed
on. I doubt if he ever had time or enough consciousness
to read what I wrote about him but that Pendulum has
become my fitting tribute to the great man. May his soul
Rest in Peace.
The title for this week was suggested or mandated by a
reader, Favour Afolabi, on social media. He had tweeted
after reading my piece, WHY I’M NOT A FAN OF PDP ,
that he expects me to write about my fascination for
APC, perhaps, at a time many have chosen to write the
obituary of that potentially great party. Let me state
categorically that I’m not a member of APC but only a
sympathiser and admirer for several reasons. I’m a
proud member of opposition. It is unhealthy for a
country with our myriad of intractable problems to
operate a one party system.
I love the Yoruba proverb that says “we cannot all sleep
and lie down facing the same direction.” As a member of
opposition, it is my responsibility to work for the rescue
of Nigeria from the ultra-conservative elements that
have been in power almost forever in our country. Our
types of conservatives have failed to yield positive
results. They pretend to practise capitalism but without
the commensurate capital. We love the American
Presidential system of Government but lack the strength
and might of America. We have spent too long a time
and wasted so much of our resources on living
senselessly and needlessly in denial. The rich are
getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. Most of
our institutional structures have collapsed and the
country is virtually on auto-pilot. Those who can’t see
the imminent danger ahead are the politicians and the
toads of power. They never fought for the democracy we
enjoy today and so can never seem to appreciate what
we are bound to lose if this present experiment
collapses again.
My sympathy for APC is not without a caveat. I’ve not
issued them a blank cheque. I’m aware they have their
own issues, plenty for that matter. I know many
Nigerians claim they can’t see any difference between
APC and PDP. I don’t exactly agree as I shall explain
shortly. There are also the ethnic jingoists who don’t
know the dictionary meaning of democracy. They are
those who argue that the current President must govern
the country for two terms WHICH IS OK BY ME. But I do
not subscribe to the idea that it has to be done by force.
What is the essence of holding the next Presidential
election, if no one else would be able or allowed to win?
Those who insist they won’t agree if the President is
defeated in the election are only inviting anarchy. They
are inflaming the polity and attracting public odium to
the President by making the gentleman look like a man
hell-bent on destroying his country on the altar of
selfishness and avarice. For all you care, there are
many Nigerians who may ordinarily wish to support the
President but are now sufficiently nauseated by all the
noise or threats of mayhem if opposition wins the
election. I’m one of those who believe it is within the
rights of the President to re-contest but there is nothing
to suggest in our Constitution an automatic win for him.
And the position is not hereditary. As a member of
opposition, it is my belief that opposition groups must
join forces to dislodge the PDP in a clean contest.
Let me now go to why I admire APC warts and all. One,
by next year, PDP would have spent a total of 16 years
in power. In those years, Nigeria would have moved
effectively from a hopeful state to an almost hopeless
nation. There is no citizen of Nigeria, except the few in
the corridor of power, who’s not alarmed at the speed of
our cataclysmic fall from grace to grass. In every sector,
we have witnessed a downturn in the fortune of our dear
beloved country. The very powerful leaders at the
Federal level have squandered the vast resources of this
great nation on frivolities to say the least. They have
blatantly refused to declare an emergency rule on
grinding poverty, infrastructural decay, mass ignorance,
occasioned by the collapse of education, gross
insecurity, atrocious corruption and extraordinary
indiscipline, and so on.
Two, in any sane and sensible democracy, the PDP
would have been sacked long before now. Governments
are not sacked because there is a guarantee that the
incoming would perform much better but because the
mood of the people is such that they are totally tired and
they want change or temporary reprieve from their slave
masters. It does not matter if the next leader fails again,
he would be changed for another.
Such a change favoured the ascension of Barack
Obama. The people of Great Britain also kicked out their
wiz kid Tony Blair because they were just tired of his
many stunts and unholy romance with George Bush.
Also, the ability to change a leader through the ballot
box is the beauty of democracy. While no one can say
with absolute certainty how APC would perform at the
centre, I would rather risk trying them before knowing
what they can do. At any rate, even if the argument that
they won’t do better is valid, Nigeria practices Federal
Character, so I ask why can’t we “quotalise”
incompetence and corruption! Why must PDP be the sole
beneficiary?
Three, on a serious note, I’m reasonably convinced that
a lot of APC states have given us much to cheer and a
semblance of hope than most of the PDP states and
certainly better than the government at the centre. I find
most of the APC states to be potentially great despite
not having the kind of resources available to the Federal
and their states. Anyone who cannot see or
acknowledge the modest efforts of APC Governors is not
being honest about it. While people may say APC
leaders have been enmeshed in their own mess, I still
believe they have made better use of the resources
available to them. I’ve always loved to say that nations
are not run by saints but by performers. None of us is a
saint and none is likely to be in our lifetimes but it
behoves us to leave a legacy behind despite our
imperfections as human beings.
Four, it is necessary to send a powerful message to
those who think Nigeria can never change by first re-
jiggling the principal actors. I believe it would most
probably force the incoming government to know it is
possible to be sacked like its predecessor if it fails to
deliver on its promises. To keep PDP permanently in
power is to keep Nigerians in perennial servitude. Every
attempt to change democracy to monarchy should
therefore be discouraged.
Five, the argument that the APC has become polluted
because some PDP members crossed over is a spurious
fallacy. How come PDP can welcome APC but APC can’t
poach from PDP. At the end of the day, we are all human
beings from the same country and what matters is to
find more of sensible and forward-looking ones in one
party than the irredeemable characters in the other. Let
all those who oppose the PDP style come together and
uplift our nation. PDP can no longer give what it has not
possessed in nearly 16 years.
Six, it must be noted that both PDP and APC combined
have fewer members than the floaters who don’t belong
to either of them. I’m surprised at the seeming
helplessness of the floaters who can’t see the sense and
possibility of joining the opposition en masse so as to
influence some of their decisions unlike PDP that has
already become too big and incorrigibly set in its ways.
Rather than regularly bemoan the many afflictions of our
nation, I plead with those on the side-lines to engage in
the torturous task of restoration. It will be more
rewarding to all of us collectively. To voluntarily give up
and say it is impossible is tantamount to committing
mass suicide.
Seven, my definition of change is to move away from an
existing disorder. PDP has been in the saddle since the
return to our half-cooked, if not raw, democracy. The
party has continued to wield the power of heaven and
earth with nothing tangible to show for it. The only
change possible is to move away from them and try
something different and potentially refreshing. This
would require the determination and courage of most
Nigerians to accomplish, however.
Let me say categorically that I’m happy APC is facing
critical challenges at this type. If its operatives are wise,
it would give them enough time to put their house in
order. What is needed on their part is not
insurmountable. APC must stop playing Brazilian style
of soccer in Brazil. Let them show us an original game
many admirers like us know they are capable of playing.
Let them bury their differences and bitter acrimonies
urgently or perish together. Let them tap and recruit
from the largest army in Africa, the unemployed masses
of Nigeria and give them hope of a brighter future. It is
too late for PDP to make such promises or offer such
hopes but APC can still be given the benefit of the doubt.
I can’t see PDP doing as well as it did last time in the
North West and North East the way those zones have
become ravaged by terrorism. Most people from those
parts may want to blame the President rightly or wrongly
for their terrible woes and seek their pounds of flesh.
PDP might sweep the South East and South South
naturally and even do reasonably well in the North
Central, especially the traditional Middle-Belt. But the
battle ground remains the South West where APC needs
to stand firm. It should be obvious to APC that PDP
would do everything possible to control the South West
ahead of the general elections. But what I like about the
South West is the sophistication of its electorates who
are already seeing through the smokescreen of
“Operation Capture the West by all means.” The strategy
is not new. It was tried in 1983 when NPN went on a
binge and captured Oyo State but found Ondo State too
hot to handle. The people of the South West naturally
detest any form of intimidation or oppression. If the PDP
continues to harass them, it would eventually backfire.
It is up to the APC to remain strong and steadfast in its
quest for power. Its leaders would have to reach urgent
consensus on who and who to field for what and prune
their Presidential aspirants to barest minimum. I expect
them to field a Northern candidate against the Southern
incumbent President. Fortunately for APC, the President
is generally believed to have marginalised the South
West that gave him victory over Buhari the last time.
I don’t see more than three powerful contenders right
now from the North but Buhari, like him or hate him, is
one candidate PDP would hate to face despite the
bravado that he can be easily defeated by them. He
enjoys a cult-followership that seems to have increased
in the last few weeks. In the South, APC would have to
decide on a Christian to pick as Vice Presidential
candidate between Governors Adams Oshiomhole,
Rochas Okorocha and Rotimi Amaechi, if none of them
defects to PDP before D-Day; or risk a Muslim-Muslim
ticket through a choice of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu or
Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. Some of these
leaders would have to bury personal ambitions for the
sake of Nigeria. If they refuse and go ahead to kill the
dreams of millions of Nigerians, the shrieking cries of
suffering citizens will keep them awake till kingdom
come…

This thing no sweet to read now...abeg rearrrange am

Truly,there's nothing good PDP can offer the populace. Nigerians deserved better governance than what the PDP have been offering since the returned of democracy in 1999. Opposition parties must come together to rescue Nigerians from the corrupt and clueless govt of PDP. Buhari as president will make this country GREAT again. He has been tested and trusted. God bless Nigeria more.