By Promise Adiele
Nigeria’s political atmosphere is saturated by a type of fever which lacks any suitable nomenclature. Those at the centre of the current situation in the country are politicians from both old and new dispensations, economic and political interest seekers, and many self-centred, egocentric individuals whose ambitions are far removed from the interest of the masses. Surely, there is a fierce battle for the soul of Nigeria. While APC has amassed a good portion of the soul of the country, ADC postures to save the country. Unfortunately, those who should know better – the intelligentsia – have joined the fray, aligning with a coterie of people consumed by an insatiable desire to actualize an inherent, inordinate passion for power to the detriment of the people, the real custodians of power. Although, some of the politicians are driven by an honest disposition to redeem the masses, many are driven by an inexplicable urge to acquire power at all costs even if it means blowing the country into multiple fragments. With the new fever in town towards the 2027 elections, the masses are left to their devices. Governance is completely lost as millions of ordinary Nigerians, deprived and despoiled by political and economic recklessness by the current government, grapple with survival.
As of today, ADC, the political platform hijacked by a coalition of politicians from other political parties, poses the most potent threat to the ruling APC towards the 2027 elections. Undoubtedly, the APC government has plunged Nigeria into a cesspool of economic woes defined by hardship, suffering, insecurity, and hopelessness. That sounds like a hackneyed narrative because it is common knowledge around the world. However, the ADC, a conglomeration of political strange bedfellows, postures to provide an alternative to the malaise besetting the country. Interestingly, many of those who have joined the ADC were staunch players in the APC and swore that the current government is the best for Nigeria. Today, they are singing a new song, a different tone that contradicts their earlier symphony in Nigerias political orchestra. Of course, everyone knows that a typical Nigerian politician is ideologically deficient and ethically anaemic when it comes to convictions and philosophy. Yet, we all agree that a coalition is a legitimate political practice across the world. Disenchanted and fed up with the APC procession of wayfarers, Nigerians are eager for something new, a different ideology that would revive their waning hopes in their country. But the question is, how new and fresh is the ADC, or is it a question of old wine in a new skin?
The whole scenario reminds us of what happened towards the 2015 presidential elections when Nigerians were fed up with the PDP and desperately wanted a change. The popular slogan was, anyone but PDP. The people revolted in the polls, and the power of incumbency could not save the PDP. Looking back, that collective political revolution has not served Nigerians well and everyone is regretting it. Many people can give an arm to return to the PDP years, even if it was characterized by massive corruption and unchecked brigandage. The failure of Nigerians to properly and critically interrogate the APC is the reason the country is in turmoil now, never mind all the propaganda about phantom, bogus economic recovery. Riding on the back of the peoples desire for a change, APC rode to power and Nigeria retrogressed abysmally under Buhari, and is still doing so under Tinubu. While my interest is the general well-being of ordinary Nigerians, the political development in the country in the last nine years bids us to pause and think again.
Like APC during the PDP reign, ADC is posturing to salvage Nigerians from economic necropolis, which the current administration has led the country, yet the masses are not doing enough to scrutinize the new saviours promising heaven and earth. Nigerians seem to be helpless as a few overfed men toil with their destinies unchallenged. 2027 should never be about APC or ADC, it should be about Nigerians, the well-being of ordinary people who find survival a herculean task in their country. The prostate, very unfortunate attitude of the masses towards all these politicians promising heaven and earth is regrettable. Except perhaps a few politicians identifying with the ADC, many of them are oozing chambers of a putrid past, who cannot be completely exonerated from the current anguish in the land. Perhaps it is a lost cause, but it is worth mentioning that the Nigerian press is the most compromised all over the world. Journalists take sides depending on how much they have greased their palms. Nobody cares about the fate of the common people. Otherwise, many ADC stalwarts preaching heaven and earth deserve critical scrutiny of their intentions given their political history. Everyone and different bodies that should ask the tough questions are either compromised or aligning with one politician or another. In all of these, what happens to the common people, those struggling to survive in their country? They are in millions.
In 2015, Nigerians fell hopelessly from frying pan to fire and the scenario looks exactly the same today. It will be the same if the people do not stand up and challenge the ADC to demonstrate in concrete terms how they hope to rescue Nigeria from the constricting clutches of the APC. One may not feel any pity for the APC because the party played straight into the hands of their traducers. PDP did the same when it almost turned the country into a one-party state without reckoning with the people. Today, without asking questions and driven by a desire for a change away from the APC, the people are clamouring for a change no matter the nature of that change. That is elementary politics and we cannot afford to walk that part again. While Nigerians desire a change, that change must not be a negative change as it happened in 2015. Therefore, the coalition promising heaven and earth must be put under the microscope for proper scrutiny. If that scrutiny is done, the bad eggs will be sieved off. Then and only then can Nigerians begin to breathe afresh. But if the old order, men of questionable characters, serial losers and famous divisive personalities hijack the ADC, the current APC days would be heaven compared to what would come after the 2027 elections.
Although the ADC as a political party reserves the right to choose its officers, especially the presidential candidate, if indeed the gladiators are genuinely committed to salvaging Nigeria, the discredited politicians among them should lay down their vaunting ambition to rule and support a more credible candidate. If every one of the politicians in the party wants to be president, it follows that there are no genuine intentions in trying to oust the current government. Nigerians would better remain with APC and slumber along than plunge headlong into the unknown with someone whose motivation is driven by insatiable question for power. Surely, Nigerians want a change but it should not be the kind of change they desired and got in 2015. In the Bible, when the Israelites asked God for a king, God knew they did not need a king. But when they persisted, He answered their prayers but added sorrow unto those answered prayers. That was exactly what happened to Nigerians in 2015. It must not happen again.
As Nigerias political atmosphere heats up, Nigerians, those who are the final recipients of government policies must look beyond ethnic, religious, and political affiliations to scrutinize those who purport to save the country. The process through which ADC will conduct their primaries should be re-evaluated. The presidential slot must be zoned to the South. Money bags with millions of dollars waiting to buy the delegates should be stopped. Since everyone is looking for a change and the ADC seems to offer that change, everyone must be involved in the emergence of the presidential candidate. The army of youths in this country should stand up to defend their future by resisting people with questionable pasts, whose history cannot be verified. If the political actors in the ADC are authentic patriots, they would not be consumed by an inordinate craving to rule. Nigerians cannot survive another from frying pan to fire episode in their political experience. However, if Nigerians, the masses think they have no role to play, if everyone decides to play safe or the ethnic, religious card, then the whirlwind will continue and eyeball to eyeball, we may continue to rivet unhindered. If political predators succeed in the ADC ahead of genuine, passionate, competent persons, the APC days will become the good old days just like the PDP days have become the good old days now. May thunder not strike in Nigeria in the same place twice.
Dr Promise Adiele is of the Mountain Top University and can be reached via: Promee01@yahoo.com; X: @drpee4.
