You’re lonely when you lose

VICTORY, even when it is merely symbolic, is the sweetest feeling you can have.
It does not matter if all you’ll get for your trouble is a mere trophy, shield,
certificate or applause. One of the greatest victories anyone can win in the world
is being voted the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Office of the President of Nigeria is reputed to
be the most powerful in the world because it is the repository of unlimited
power, influence and money. That office is said to be so powerful that it can
turn a man into a woman and vice versa, literally.
There was nothing more apt to illustrate this recently, than when Governor
Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, led a delegation of All Progressives Congress
(APC) governors-elect to President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari with a
wish list, even before the man is sworn into office. It contained their nominees
for ministerial posts and a request for Buhari to help financially “bail out” the
states, most of which have not paid salaries for months.
Buhari, in a suave move that
started getting him taken seriously
even by his most hardened critics
(such as yours sincerely)told them
off. He said those of them who
had been in office for four years
(which includes Okorocha) had no
ground seeking a “bail out” since
they collected federal allocations.
As for their ministerial nominees,
he told them to go and compose
their own state cabinets and leave
him alone to compose his, as the
constitution does not compel him
to grant their request. Bravo. Next
time they’ll think twice before
coming forward with asinine
requests.
Out-going President Goodluck
Jonathan is now in an emotional doghouse because he lost his re-election bid.
It was unforeseen and unprecedented. Now he is left, all alone, to fathom it for
himself. At the valedictory church service held in his honour last Sunday,
Jonathan came down to earth. In sobre tones, he disclosed that all his
“friends” (especially the emergency billionaires he and Obasanjo created) have
deserted him, expressing the hope that his wife would not also divorce him.
Reminds me of this beautiful song by Jimmy Cliff in the middle 1970’s, which
came in an album: Another Cycle (how apt for Uncle Jona’s situation!). One of
the songs is entitled: Inside-out, Upside-down. In it Cliff laments:
“All my friends deserted me, my woman ran away,
I am so frustrated I could shout!”
Well, Jona is much luckier than Jimmy. Retiring First Lady, Dame Patience
Jonathan, is unlikely to abandon him. If she loved him when he had no shoes,
is it now that he is a fulfilled and respected ex-President that she would “run
away”? Run to where, anyway?
One great thing about President Jonathan is that he is very human. He’s not
hoity-toity, aren’t we grand. You may disagree with his leadership quality and
style, but because he is so human and self-effacing, rather than pompous and
megalomaniacal like Olusegun Obasanjo, you don’t want him humiliated.
Jonathan has taken his presidential loss like a real man, and, like a real patriot,
he has not allowed it to become a problem to the rest of us. Bravo.
But this other gent here, I can’t tell him bravo. His name is Mallam Adamu
Muazu, alias “Game Changer”. What a befitting name for a party leader that
took his ruling party to the most humiliating defeat in the annals of Nigeria’s
political history! They say in some quarters that he palmed off his party, the
once great People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition, perhaps in the
same manner that some military officers handed over our battle plans and
military equipment to Boko Haram terrorists and orchestrated dramatic
desertions at the war front to allow the insurgents gain ground against
President Jonathan.
The usual thing is for a leader that led his group to defeat to voluntarily give
way. He does not need to be reminded, let alone prevailed upon, to do so. We
saw how, in Britain, Ed Miliband of the Labour Party, Nick Clegg of the Liberal
Democrats and Nigel Farage of the UKIP, apologised to their party faithful and
immediately threw in the towel as party leaders. Usually when this happens, the
party is given the opportunity to search for a new beginning and fresh hands to
pilot its affairs. It shows the party is bigger than any individual and its survival
is more important than the ambition of anyone.
But, of course, for individuals like Muazu and his co-travellers in the National
Working Committee of the PDP, their positions as party functionaries are more
important than the Party. It seems Muazu is prepared to continue his “good
work” from where he stopped during the elections. If he remains as an
unwanted party chairman, he could make himself the eyes and ears of the ruling
APC should they want to use him as PDP used the late Admiral Augustus
Aikhomu and Chief Don Etiebet inside the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) to
render it ineffective as an opposition party. But in case the PDP presses ahead
to force him out, he might take on the role of Abubakar Baraje and lead a
faction of the Party that might eventually drift over to the new party in power,
should that be the bidding of the APC.
Unfortunately, Muazu’s dishonourable refusal to abdicate is being supported by
some outgoing PDP governors from the North, some of who were parties to the
conspiracy to sellout the presidency to Buhari in Arewa. A party chairman who
lost the elections in his polling unit rubs insult into injury by boasting that if he
leaves PDP it would collapse!
It is in the national interest that PDP is not totally destroyed by Muazu and
company. If that happens, the APC will turn into a monster, and there will be no
viable alternative to turn to. We will all be trapped once again in a dominant
one party system, just as we were for sixteen years inside the PDP!