By CHIDI OBINECHE
On their marks
LIKE a floozy caught in the wrong bed, stalwarts of
the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP are flying off the handle
seeking protective shade from the scorching beams of the coursing and
jutting promontory of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti corruption war.
Jagged, battered and clammed every
which way, the former political
overlords are in a mad odd race of their lives. From a jaunty ‘ensemble’
with faint quavers after losing power on march 28, 2015, the tempo
oscillated between unaccustomed discordant whispers to dreary , nibbling
indeterminate drift, and finally careened off to an eerie cavern of
silence. Graveyard silence. The sinews of their simmering troubled
party, the tragedy of the unexpected loss, the inability to quickly come
round and pick their bits and pieces together, the droppings of faeces
left on the altar of power, and the bouncing daggers of their
vanquishers have all combined to try their souls. And the fury
increases, putting their toes on the run.
At the last count, only the glowering voice of Ekiti State governor,
Ayo Fayose can still be heard, but no longer with gaiety and radiance,
as he too with all the pomp of immunity is being squeezed hard on all
fronts, as if he were some parched figure in a blazing desert. Gone
with the wind are the arid polemics, the quixotic anger after the
humiliating defeat, the virulence of hope, and that fine confidence and
broken temper for resurgence in 2019 expected from the self acclaimed “
Africa’s largest party.” The party began to lose itself almost
immediately after the crushing defeat to the All Progressives Congress,
APC. Hordes of men and women in the party, many of them the shinning
lights cascaded unashamedly in droves to the all conquering APC. They
were like wolves, aliped neither belonging to the birds of the air, nor
the four-footed beasts of the earth. Lamenting the near mass exodus out
of their party, a member of the Board of Trustees, Chief Richard
Akinjide blamed it on greed and “absolute lack of principles.” He warned
that such untoward development will hardly grow democracy in Nigeria.
Former Kaduna state governor Alhaji Balarabe Musa expressed regrets that
things like that are still happening in the 21st century, describing
the defectors as “ fortune seekers” who are ever ready to dine with the
devil even with the incising sharpness of the knife. A former Biafra
warlord Col Joe Achuzia, Retd, sounded the alarm that “little men of
faith are toying with the democracy of the nation.” He told Sunday Sun
that there is “an urgent and compelling need for politicians in the
country to re-examine their conscience and be in the vanguard of
regeneration.” He described the development as painful drawback, a moral
burden which I am personally finding difficult to absorb.” As the darts
flew about, the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun
among other chieftains of the party rekindled the musty scent of history
by bobbing up the hazards of unrestrained decamping of PDP faithful to
their party. Indeed some of the party members called on the party to
draw the curtain against them.
On the run
Recently, in a most garish manner, the irrepressible former National
Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh declared his
support for Buhari’s anti- corruption war, and offered to return the
N400m he received from former National Security Adviser, (NSA) Col
Dasuki Sambo, (retd). The former PDP spokesman is facing trial at the
Federal High Court; Abuja for allegedly receiving the said sum budgeted
for arms purchase for soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the
North-east. He had earlier claimed that the money was given to him by
ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for media campaigns ahead of the 2015
presidential elections, but made a volte –face, offering to turn in the
money as an honest citizen. To many people, it came like a bolt from the
blues, folly-ridden and wisdom-lost. An account, on all scores
overdrawn. A dark web over the conscience of men; the index of all
complexities. And he is not alone. Ebullient PDP senator representing
Ogun East senatorial district, in the National Assembly, Prince Buruji
Kashamu after some bruising battles with the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, withdrew into reticent hibernation,
intermittently speaking like a Janus, and finally descending to the
depths to spawn. And what is spawned is the future of his party. He
unleashed lengthy diatribe on Fayose, shooting from the hip. The jitters
gripped some throats. A stamp of confused obligations and loyalties. He
tears the governor to smithereens. He condemns his criticisms of the
president. He said: “ He chose to elevate rabid criticisms of almost
every action of the Federal Government as if that is the official policy
of the state government or what he was elected to do and as if that is
what will bring the dividends of democracy to the good people of Ekiti
State. For goodness sake, the elections are over. Every reasonable
politician and leader should know that what will matter at the end of
the day is what you were able to do for the people and not how strident
you were in criticizing anyone.” Ben Murray Bruce, a PDP senator
representing Bayelsa East is known to always lend his voice on matters
of grave importance to the Nigerian nation. His hard hitting words have
elevated him to an iconic politician especially on social media. Then
the big hammer fell. His Silver bird group, a business conglomorate came
under siege for an alleged debt of N11billion (Eleven billion Naira)
and was taken over by the Assets Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON.
Although the matter has been somehow resolved, the “common sense”
exponent is only gradually bouncing back to his old known style. Former
president Olusegun Obasanjo’s long term ally and stalwart of the PDP,
Otunba Oyewole Fasawe is another special advocate of causes skewed
against his party. With a tongue bearing lightning at its tip, he came
to the defence of the president’s wife Aisha Buhari over allegations by
Fayose that she was involved in the bribery scandal involving US
congressman, Williams Jefferson. He exonerated Aisha , describing the
allegation as “fallacious, baseless, misinformed and defamatory” His
strong defence came when APC leaders kept mum. A PDP leader in
Nassarawa, Yishak Adamu criticized Fasawe for the “ unwarranted attack”
on the Ekiti State governor. “We know he was involved in the William
Jefferson case. But should he lead the attack while the government and
APC people including the president’s wife will keep quiet. This is a
case of crying more than the bereaved.” Former deputy governor of Osun
state, senator Iyiola Omisore, who is in the custody of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has deplored what he called “ the
hounding of opposition leaders,” urging the Federal Government to “stop
blackmailing opposition leaders in the country.” He called on leaders
of thought in the country to stem the tide of the demonization of PDP
which has triggered “massive influx of our people into APC for
protection.” Former Akwa ibom state governor and current minority leader
of the senate, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who launched his opposition role
with much vibrancy and vitality has since lost his valve and voice,
often letting out statements in the twilight of beliefs. Godsday
Orubebe; a former minister of Niger Delta Affairs. After his rancorous
display at the presidential votes count on march 28, 2015 slipped into
oblivion. A few weeks ago, he washed up to merely declare that “ I
regret serving this country.” What of the highly vociferous PDP
governors Forum? The ex governors, ex- ministers? They are all in limbo;
neither blowing the “myth” nor the “bubble”, perpetually lost in the
maze. Other scores of the movers and shakers of the party, whose voices
in the past literally pulled the roof have suddenly caught cold. An
elder statesman and Minster of Aviation in the first republic Chief
Mbazulike Amechi, frowns at this development. He told Sunday Sun that
“political atmosphere is drab. It is increasingly difficult to
differentiate between APC and PDP. PDP men talk and behave as if they
have the interest of APC government more at heart than the APC. They
attack those who criticize the APC government. Where is opposition
politics? It was not like that in our time.” The publicity Secretary of
Afenifere, the Yoruba socio- political group Yinka Odumakin has also
deplored the practice of “dog eat dog syndrome.” He accused those
involved in it of “greed and selfishness.” He said: “They want to
ingratiate themselves to the present government. They can throw
everything aboard to seek relevance in the government. The late Bola Ige
called them “Any Government in Power” (AGIP). Any time this government
leaves power, you will see them playing the same role, hailing the new
government and attacking this one.”
Countdown to 2019
As the wind of the 2019 general elections blows closer, caution and
apprehension may descend to sift the ‘chaff from the grains’. In
popular parlance, water will soon find its level. Those whose legs are
in both parties will ultimately take a stand and the scales will weigh
in. Brushing off the dusts from the haze, the chairman of the PDP
Governors Forum and Ondo state governor Dr Olusegun Mimiko has
cautioned that “ a new party would emerge from the ashes of PDP and the
All Progressives Congress, APC, if the two parties fail to resolve their
internal problems.”
source: Sun News
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