By
Gimba Kakanda
The biggest fraud we may witness in the
forthcoming elections may be the foreseen exploitation of General Muhammadu
Buhari's coattail effect, already being espoused to hoodwink overexcited
electorate by disadvantaged members of his party.
We've built a dangerous
political culture, with a thing as cheap as political education scarce, where
partisan sentiments blur objective analyses of, especially, political
aspirants.
Ours is a nation of bandwagons.
Bandwagons that fail to understand that the beauty of a model democracy is the
availability of a diversity of options. In their desperation they also fail to
remember that Nigeria falls into this pit as a result of exactly what they're
agitating for: a seeming one-party political system.
Having PDP entirely
replaced by the APC, with the latter becoming dominant, is a predictable
disaster. I do not advocate this climate of change. What I advocate is a system
in which these two major parties are almost of the same strength and structure,
such that an underperforming member of any party can be easily defeated by a
promising candidate of the opposition.
Even with my agitation for a new central
government, I'm not hoodwinked into accepting everything offered by APC at
other levels, knowing that the only virtue some of them can boast of as a
reason to be voted for is appearing on the same campaign posters with Buhari.
My first confrontation with a member of
this one-party bandwagon, known in my part of the world, in these past days of
anti-Jonathan advocacies of which I'm a part, for their frequent chanting of
"APC Sak!" - a vow to vote for just APC - was on the day Malam Nuhu
Ribadu was declared winner of Adamawa State's PDP Gubernatorial primaries, in
which I wrote to congratulate him on my social medial platforms, observing that
the former EFCC Chairman was indeed a strong and desired personality, and a
blessing for whichever institution or people he's tasked or elected to lead.
The anti-Ribadu critic contacted me, sharing a commonplace sentiment that a support
for Ribadu is a validation of the PDP, to which I responded, with a hint of
mischief, that in a State messed up by an APC-led government, isn't it
hypocritical to still advocate an APC Governor? He caught my mischief, and of
course, despite his expressed partisan sentiments, he couldn't defend the
testifiably corrupt administration of the impeached Governor Murtala Nyako.
While, in our interaction, I
highlighted that ideology isn't yet in practice in our democracy - or whatever
we refer to as that form of government - and that strong personalities ought to
be of our collective interest, his unwillingness to accept that was an emphasis
on the strength of partisan sentiments.
And, thus, I understood that partisan
sentiment, like religious, is an indoctrination hard to overcome, and for some
it's an obvious loss of the ability to be rational and even less obnoxious in
political analyses, debates and interactions.
Their portrayal of Ribadu, once their
idol, as flawed, was a typical syndrome of the bandwagons. His offence was
defecting to another party, and they even predicted that he was only exhibiting
political naïveté and that he won't even win the primaries to represent his new
party in the general elections - a prophecy that has already failed.
But there's
no way any partisan critic would dismiss Ribadu as a hypocrite without
rubbishing all the members of the APC. Ribadu isn't a personality one would
describe as incautious opportunist, because, unlike many prominent figures of
the APC, he didn't win an election under the platform of one party before
defecting to another, betraying trust and personal integrity.
Any partisan
critic whose parameter of judging Ribadu as opportunistic or hypocritical for
merely leaving a party without any trust or mandate must retain the decency to
be harsher on Governors Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers),
Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa),
for walking out of the party that brought them to power, with the mandates and
trust of that party. That, of course, is asking a double-speaking, partisan
critic too much!
Similarly, while the partisan critics
praise the defecting G-5 Governors as heroes, Ribadu, also a hero of theirs
while in APC, has been caricatured in their bid to portray him as the shadow of
that man, as sentiments aggregated in adopting an amnesia that deletes the bits
of memories that hold Ribadu as that highflying firebrand of a dysfunctional
country in a PDP-led government.
We forgot that he's the same man who brought
down his boss, IGP Tafa Balogun and some of the most powerful political
overlords of that administration, even rejecting a $15 million bribe, a record
no Nigerian has beaten, from one of them, thus becoming a bogeyman to
kleptomaniac public servants.
Perhaps
the most amusing trend of the bandwagon is their attributions of anti-Jonathan
or anti-PDP remarks, long expressed or fabricated, to Ribadu just to justify
their portrayal of him as dishonest, while at the same time promoting a
presidential candidate that had, about four years ago, vowed not to run for the
Office of the President, which he does now without an apology, and even being
promoted by fellow politicians who had dismissed him then as
"unelectable"! If, as I told this fellow, we don't blackmail Buhari
with his contradictions and dishonesty, applying that parameter to ridicule
Ribadu is a manifest hypocrisy.
Sadly,
not many are willing to "forgive" Ribadu for what they call a
betrayal of the movement to emancipate Nigeria, which amplified last week with
the President's "stopover" in the capital of Ribadu's home State,
Yola.
Again I read what the bandwagon wrote about his membership of the PDP,
and how, pandering to an absurd illogic, that diminishes his personality.
Strangely, nobody has bothered to compare Ribadu with his APC opponent in the
Adamawa Guber race to truly determine their competence and capability.
As
anti-Ribadu sentiment intensifies for hobnobbing with his President, one has to
observe that as a presidential candidate of his party, it's only mandatory for
him to host Jonathan, and this doesn't matter whether or not they share the
same ideals.
We
may be doing ourselves irreparable injustice if we insist on having PDP
entirely replaced by APC, ushering in a rebranded misrule of another dominant
party. In Lagos last week, for instance, I met some good friends who, despite
being supporters of Fashola and volunteering as publicists of Buhari/Osinbajo
presidential ticket, are furiously campaigning for PDP's Guber candidate, Mr. Jimi
Agbaje, citing the man's antecedents and dazzling political foresights and
placing him above his APC opponent, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.
Ours isn't an
ideology-driven political system. Every ideal here revolves around the
personality of our leaders, and thus a Buhari candidacy would've still been
endorsed even if presented on PDP platform.
We
need to calm down with our uncritical quest for change, and desperation to
"kick out" every legacy of the ruling party. As a northerner, in this
time of escalating security challenges, it'll be my pride to see our political
system peopled by the Nuhu Ribadus, who despite their shortcomings, are still
one-eyed kings in this nation of the blind.
As a former police officer
remembered for vast accomplishments and model public servant with limitless
connections in the international community, it's not hard to see that a
Governor Nuhu Ribadu is an asset in our quest for a new Nigeria. I advocate a
new Nigeria with competitive political culture; a Nigeria in which it's easy to
have APC's Muhammadu Buhari replaced if, but may the good lord intervene, he
finally gets to lead and couldn't fix Nigeria as promised.
I want there to be a
credible Nuhu Ribadu in the PDP willing to do better, keeping the opposition on
their toes. We need a civic education to demand for a better country, not just
anger to demand change!
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