Following a codeine-propelled high drug addiction problem, the
Federal Government in a swift reaction, banned the production and importation
of codeine containing cough syrup. The syrup usually taken by millions of
youths who mix it with soft drinks, alcohol or illegal drugs, leads to
physical and mental reliance on the drug and can be fatal.
Five days
after the welcome ban, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on May 5,
held its Ward congresses across the country. In most of the
thirty six states, they were characterized by thuggery, manipulation,
imposition, and in at least two cases, murder. In Rivers State, a member was
shot dead right in the party secretariat while in Ughelli, Delta
State, a party chairmanship aspirant, Mr. Jeremiah Oghoveta was stabbed to
death. In Oyo
State , supporters of
Governor Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi and those of Communication Minister,
Adebayo Shittu, were engaged in a mini Civil War with the Governor
accusing the Honourable Minister and some members of the House of
Representatives of perpetuating the violence and threatening arson.
The
Minister was luckier than his Labour and Employment colleague, Dr. Chris
Nwabueze Ngige whom security agents had to spirit out from the venue as
APC members loyal to the party’s 2017 gubernatorial candidate in the
In a
number of instances, there was no level playing field. In Kaduna State, the two
Distinguished APC Senators, Shehu Sanni and Suleiman Hunkuyi,
already had a Fatwa pronounced on them by Governor Ahmed
el-Rufai who days before, had told a mammoth crowd that the senators
are enemies of the state and when found, should be seized and their
heads and beads, forcefully shaven. The National Chairman of the
party, Chief John Oyegun did not bother to show up at his Ward congress
as weeks before, leaders of the party in his Edo State constituency, had
shown him as a spent force who should not recontest for his post. In a number
of states such as Ebonyi and Adamawa, parallel congresses were held.
This certainly
is a bad report card for a party that promised to rescue the country
from the shameful past of the former ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)
What happened at the congresses were bad for our national psyche, bad for our
politics and bad for our reputation as a country. I expected the APC to be
sober and reflective; why so much violence and thuggery? Why should people
be murdered for Ward congresses? How can
the party ensure that their future congresses and the
inevitable inter-party elections, are democratic and violence-free
especially in a country that has been subjected to so much violence and
massacres?
I thought
a party that wants to discourage these anti-democratic tendencies, should cause
an investigation or at least, invite the police to investigate the
homicide cases, name, shame and conscientiously prosecute the
perpetrators. I expected the party to apologize to the country
and promise to avoid a repeat, but like a man high on a combination of codeine
and the aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine (apc) pill for whom reality
is blurred and thinking, impaired, the APC, rather, congratulated
itself!
The
party said in a statement: “The All Progressives Congress (APC)
wishes to congratulate all its members for the generally peaceful conduct of
the Party’s ward congresses which took place across the country… where there
are issues, they (aggrieved members) should seek redress through the appeal
committees in their respective states.” To the party, the orgy of violence that
trailed its Ward congresses were “generally peaceful” Were it not so, the party
might have set the country on fire. The APC is exhibiting the same
symptoms the PDP exhibited when it was high on the harmful substances of
unrestrained power. That led the PDP to become disdainful, self-conceited and
power drunk to the extent that when people complained about its poor conduct,
the party boasted that it would be in power for at least half a century.
A primary
cause of the problems at the APC Ward congresses, is the desperation of
politicians to hang on to power, to displace their rivals from
office by all means necessary and possible including resort to murder. The
financially-induced political culture in the country, is such that many party
delegates are not just traders calculating how much their vote can fetch them,
but also turn themselves into temporary slaves selling themselves to
contestants and party big wigs. In some cases, the ‘buyers’ temporary deprive
the delegates of their liberty; bussing them to places, sometimes outside their
states, camping them for days before driving them to contest venues to cast
their votes.
For many
of the politicians, politics is the most lucrative investment in the country.
So a man can pay N200,000 to each of 2,000 delegates, which comes to a princely
N400 million. This is outside the cost of actual campaigns, publicity,
endorsement and logistics. So, what kind of war-chest is required to run
elections and how else does the winner recoup such huge sums except by raiding
the public treasury?
Like the
PDP, the APC is packed full of politicians who think holding public office is
their professional calling. So you find a man who has ‘served’ at the Local
Government level, being a ‘two-term’ commissioner in the state
and two-term governor, desperate to go into the Senate where he
hopes to remain until death do them part or he gets an higher offer, perhaps to
become the President or Vice President. To them the country owes
them a living for life. So politics in the country has become a do-or-die
affair in which it is ‘every man for himself, and God for us all’ So Help Us
God.
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