by Dahood Kolawole Mandela
It is almost a year. The election has come and gone. The end has come to the songs of sycophants and there is no room for the campaigns of loyalists. The streets walls shall no longer be defaced. Roadblocks shall be things of the past. The threatened get-ups of the soldiers on the election days I personally detest. Whether credible or otherwise it had been conducted and the defeat had been conceded. Whether the election or the result reflects the total will of Nigerians, Professor Jega had declared the President-elect and the elected legislators. It is now seen that different camps are having diverse feelings. While winners are swimming in the pool of celebration; the losers are suffering from agony of defeats.
In the real sense, if politics or politicking was to be for the selfless service to the people and not the avenue for self-enrichment, then, it would not create atmosphere of anomie. It wouldn’t be do or die affair. The electorate would not be induced before, during or after the election. The elected candidates would not be after settling loans; rather, they would focus on their manifestos.
However, democracy is fundamentally a culture which people must always nurture. But it is obvious that the political structure of this nation is distorted and people are characterized by self-deceit. Our actions and inactions are negating the historical distinction of the founding fathers. Without doubt, all we need out of countless other solutions are moral ecology and mental revolution. I’m always chagrined to the habitude and attitude of my people to the elite class. They hype and elevate their personal success. They see no reason what so ever to challenge and question their irrationality and irresponsiveness. The HOPE ’93 of M.K.O Abiola and the entirety of Nigerians gave birth to the fairest and freest election which was damped by the then Head of State, General Badamosi Babangida. The undesiccated agitation of some martyrs and indefatigable spirits of some Nigerians-home and abroad, made the 1999 our renaissance year. It was a sun on the rumbles of our dear lives after 16 years of Military interregrum . The English history reveals that Renaissance Period favoured Queen Elizabeth 1; but Nigerian History favours one man of Owu descent, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The streets of Nigeria across the lines of diversities witnessed great jubilation of immeasurable height. It was audible to the deaf and visible to blind that HOPE was again ignited. The Fundamental Human Rights was restored and Constitutionalism prevailed again. I did not read it in a fictitious piece as a story or memoir of great essayist. I am a victim of 16 years of embroidered subterfuge and beguilement in the hands of conservative Democrats. The administration was characterized by economic change of deregulation which made life unbearable for the masses and minions. The administration favoured the bourgeoisie and enriched some members of the social class. It widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The students in the Federal Government owned institutions felt the hardship more because the policy did not favour them. Agitation ensued at various institutions and many students dropped out of schools. The most obvious in this administration was electioneering rigging and irregularities. As an indigene of Ibadan, the ancient metropolitan city of hospitality, and the resident of Molete, I witnessed the most celebrated and encouraged form of political rigging orchestrated by the strong political kingpin of the land, Chief Lamidi Adedibu. Many politicians saw this single-bodied man in the Amphitheatre of politics in the Western Region as a comparison of Greek deity. They worshipped him. His death was a relief to the metropolis civility because his house made the hub of hooliganism. Obviously, it was a great loss to his political disciples and allies in Peoples Democratic Party. The Anti-graft war was instituted by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with his ulterior motives and embroidered aims and objectives on paper. If I should be objective here, 1999 to 2007 administration in the hands of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was a stereotype or archetype of Stalinism of the great USSR. Honestly, Obasanjo makes a good student of George Orwell who understands the literary messages of Animal Farm and what Napoleon (utterly corrupt opportunist) and the trained puppies stood for. If you were for him, in his camp or share his ideologies you were safe; but if other way round, you stood to be tailed, chased and crunched. I’m seriously in pain and my heart is laden. This is my poignant letter to the world and people of like minds.
Eloquently, the Book of Joshua States that “The Battle of Jericho was the first battle of the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan.” According to Joshua 6:20, “the walls of Jericho fell after Joshua’s Israelites army marched around the city blowing their trumpets and shouting.” Metaphorically, the People’s Democratic Party is the walls of Jericho in the Nigerian political scene. The wall was erected in 1999 and it survived sixteen years of hauled arrows and strikes from various oppositions. The unarguably biggest political party on the black continent was pulled aground in 2015 by the persistent wailing from the street wailers, logical and illogical criticisms from the critics, designed propaganda from the propagandists, unflinching reactions from the media users and well-weaved manifestos, aphorisms and mantras from the campaigners. The 2015 General Election was a reaction towards the neoliberalism of the “PDPers.” In the former Head of States, General Muhammadu Buhari, people saw their HOPE that was robbed from them in 1993 and denied them in 1999.
However, it grieves me to say; but say it I must: we seem to have been deluded by the APCers. It seems we have been blindfolded by their mantra of CHANGE. We were not conscious of the CHANGE they were chantting. Our innocent minds never cared to peruse into the reality of their interpretation.
Unanimously, we zealously drove in an irresponsible and irresponsive government through the tarmacadam of agony. Nigerians bleed and the leadership rejoice. Nigeria turns to a class where you can improve your vocabulary: from “economic austerity” to “technical glitches.” What a harvest of doom after gloom? No poetic cadence candour could rhythmically delineate the lives of the Civil servants in the country with compulsory holiday to their salaries. The skyrocketed increase in the prices of goods makes another ailment with the drop in the consuming power of Naira. The scarcity of our own-harnessed crude oil products particularly petrol is a disgrace in its height. The extortion, exploitation and suffering of the poverty-stricken masses are indescribable. The mass-failure in the just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is a step backward in the educational standard of this country. It is two years of horrendous Chibok news and nothing is heard of the girls. I hear every time echo from the distance for justice. If the government as an institution of the state fails in her first duty of instituting the state and second of protecting the “will” of the people, then that government has sincerely belied.
