A retort to words attributed to Former President Goodluck Jonathan in a new book, “Against the Run of Play” by Olusegun Adeniyi wherein he accused former world leaders (Barack Obama of the United States, Britain’s David Cameron, French president, Francois Hollande) as well as Attahiru Jega, the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, his own former party chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, the press and civil society for being behind his failure in the last general elections.

It is unfortunate that GEJ is coming up with such accusations. At best, it is an insult on d intelligence/sensibility of the generality of moral Nigerians. Moral Nigerians only because I know there are many bereft of moral values who always stand for/defend the wrong things and the wrong people.

GEJ earned the respect of almost all because of the manner he conceded defeat. We considered him a hero of democracy for that action and turned blind eye to the flaws of his government. I will quickly add that GEJ as a person is a very nice man with good heart. He had good intentions for Nigeria but he was not in control or in charge even while acting as the commander in chief. So whatever good intentions/plans there were, they were choked. That was a major part of his problem and problem of Nigeria under his watch.

That being said, I make bold to say that PDP as a party which goes about accusing one another, apportioning blames and accusing foreign bodies/nations/nationals for their failure in the last general election does not yet know their problem. It is either they are not knowledgeable enough to diagnose their problem or they are shying away from the truth of it. Obviously, the latter is the case. And it will do them good for someone to tell them.

DIAGNOSIS: The culture/tradition of the party is CORRUPTION AND IMPUNITY. This underlies all the symptoms of bad governance witnessed under GEJ and whose adverse effects have spilled over to the present day and presenting in different forms, including economic hardship.

Every other thing (atrocities, misdeeds, election rigging, insecurity, maladministration, compromised judiciary/injustice, oppression, etc) are all offshoots of this culture/tradition. It is this same culture that is haunting them now that they can’t have a united party to date. Am referring to the willful removal of their dully elected national party c/man by those who can do and undo without recourse to due process and morality. I know that many (the apostles/advocates of corruption/impunity) can be quick to offer legal justification for many misdeeds. But be informed that legality is not morality. You can check d history/antecedent of d party in this regard (willful removal of duly elected or appointed officers). Only that this time, they met a brick wall.

That the culture/tradition continues till date shows they have not yet learnt/realized their problem or have but are unwilling to change it. Whichever the case, it shows that the solution to their problem is not yet in sight. The question then is what do they have to offer the people of Nigeria should they come back to power? Will they not take us back into corruption/impunity? A statement was credited to them in one of their gatherings when they said people are suffering under the "change" of Buhari's government and therefore, they (pdp) would change the "change". So I ask: change it back to corruption/impunity? What will they have to offer Nigerians now as they are striving to come back to power when the culture is still same?

Truth be told. But for this culture of pdp, they would have given one of the best governance in Nigeria ever. They had great programs and experts but all choked by weeds/web of their culture. But for this culture/tradition, I bet that pdp would have continued to rule this country to infinity as God permitted.

So I rest my case by saying that neither GEJ nor any member of the party should blame one another nor other nations/nationals/groups etc for pdp’s failure. Blame d culture/tradition of your party. The culture that trickles down from the national to the ward level. The culture which also makes it forbidden for a subordinate to criticize or differ on an issue or advise a superior against wrong doings/decisions/policies since such actions attract sanctions. Only praise singing/sycophancy is permitted within the rank and file/hierarchy of the party.

Please help pass the info to GEJ and his party men that Nigerians voted him/them out because of their culture/tradition. If they are in doubt, they should conduct a survey. That will convince them they need not look elsewhere for the reason for their fall.