Showing posts with label Nnmadi Kanu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nnmadi Kanu. Show all posts

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Dasuki, Tompolo, Just Join APC

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  
Shortly after Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s jolting victory in the 2015 presidential election, some politicians obviously realised their mistake of not disavowing the then President Goodluck Jonathan and his ill-starred party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). But all hope was not really lost – they attempted to salvage their wrecked political fortunes. Some immediately denigrated their political parties and declared their allegiance to the winning party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
*Dasuki
Others were subtle. They did not want to be seen as brazen opportunists who were ready to sound the death knell of the party on whose platform they had attained socio-economic and political leverage. Thus, they declared their retirement from partisan politics. It began with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reported dramatic tearing of his PDP’s membership card. However, the former president was recently quoted as insisting that he never tore his card. Obasanjo’s example of retiring from politics was quickly followed by a former Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur, the political godfather of former President Jonathan, Edwin Clark and others. The only difference between these and Obasanjo was that they were never involved in the razzmatazz of tearing their party membership cards while quitting active politics.

We need not interrogate the real motive of the afore-said politicians who chose to quit partisan politics. Again, we need not reckon with the fact that Obasanjo’s action appeared to have smacked of ingratitude for abandoning the same political party on whose back he held the presidency for eight years. Let’s accept that their exit from the political space was necessitated by old age – they were only bowing out for the younger generation to take over.
But now, it is clear that self-survival is the leitmotif of the current trajectory of politicians abandoning their parties. They do not leave their parties to channel their energies elsewhere; they are still actively involved in politics and their next destination is the APC. Clearly, when the carapace of the self-serving excuse that they are joining the APC to better serve their people is broken, we are left with the discovery that these are politicians who are only fleeing to the ruling party as a refuge from probe for corruption.
Remember, Buhari has declared that no member of his cabinet is corrupt. This was what informed his clearing of his Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai of the charge of corruption for unaccountably owning assets in Dubai. This is also why despite the accused judges’ allegation that Rotimi Amaechi tried to use them to pervert justice, he is not being probed. In fact, just last week, a robust defence of Amaechi came from the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay. According to Sagay, Amaechi should not resign since the charges by the judges were not only baseless, they are targeted at depriving the Buhari government of the great contributions of Amaechi to good governance.