SEASON OF POLITICAL GYMNASTICS

‘‘The politicians are selfish, unpatriotic and do not care a hoot about the masses. They have squandered our resources through nepotism, tribalism etc; they have failed to provide even the minimum of good government; without conscience, they extorted public funds.” – Nowinta‘s book 2009, WHERE WE ARE (page 137).

Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta

That the outcome of March 28th 2015 Presidential/National Assembly Elections in Nigeria dazed and knocked down loyalists of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is an understatement.

The emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as the President-elect is more than a bad omen for many politicians in the country, who have benefitted from the PDP inglorious reign of more than sixteen years.

After the military returned Nigeria to democracy in 1999, following sixteen years of colossal misrule, the country took another horrific and terrifying reign, this time in the hands of democratically elected civilians before the political hurricane that struck on March 28th, 2015.

By simple arithmetic, Nigerians have had the unfortunate and terrible experience in the hands of what I will call internal colonialists.

If by 1999 Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief as civil rule birthed on its shore, by March 29th 2015, it was nauseating to recollect that the people had been shortchanged again by another set of corrupt, treacherous, unstable and unreliable politicians.

It was a broken promise. Never before have a people been so systematically betrayed and left in the lurch in the name of democracy.

If one can excuse the first two decades of our existence as a nation, as a period of learning the ropes, it is simply impossible to treat those that swindled the nation in the last thirty two years with kid gloves.

The unkindest cut was the events of the last sixteen years. By terminating the rule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC) along with its President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari has led an irreversible democratic revolution, quite unprecedented in Nigeria’s tortuous history.

Credit must be given to the masses of Nigeria for defying all odds to cast their votes for the candidates of their choice.

Lots of accolades must go to the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega for using the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and the Smart Card Reader (SCR) during the last election, in spite of torrents of malice, disdain and negative distortion of facts against him, which were carefully sponsored and orchestrated by those within the PDP.

The events of the last few days have glaringly shown how powerful the electorate could be in any sanitized democracy.

It has really been fun seeing the so called powerful guys kneeling down during electioneering campaigns virtually begging the people to cast their votes for them.

That is really good for democracy in our clime because we are gradually entering a scenario where the votes of the poverty stricken masses are being counted. Thanks to the PVC technology and the SCR, marvelously introduced by Jega’s INEC.

Hopefully by the time we get to digital voting proper which we have been canvassing for quite some time now the mischievous and arrogant manner which some of our politicians normally conducts themselves will gradually be reduced drastically.

Now the equation at the National Assembly has changed as APC candidates have practically over run the complex due to the political earthquake that took place on March 28.

For the first time in sixteen years, the Senate Presidency, Speakership and other principal offices will be pocketed by the APC.

This is really democracy in action.

This is what I have called season of political gymnastics. More political gymnastics are being recorded as a result of the Governorship/House of Assembly Elections that took place across the nation over the weekend because certainly many PDP candidates would be shown the way out.

In this season of change, a character like Ayo Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State is at the receiving end.

Here is a man who trampled upon the constitution of our land recklessly and mercilessly because he wanted to deliver out-going President Goodluck Jonathan.

Today Governor Fayose needs more than prayers to escape being impeached by the APC law makers who are extremely determined to teach him a political lesson he will never forget.

In this season which has thrown overboard the PDP as a party because it blew the historical opportunity to take our country to the next level of accelerated development at the center, this is challenging the new servants of Nigeria to do the right thing always so that the peaceful democratic revolution being celebrated will not be in vain.

As I formerly congratulate President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari, he should emulate and replicate what Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore by forcing the decline of the gory spectacle Nigeria has gone through in the last sixteen years.

Nowinta wrote, WHERE WE ARE – A CALL FOR DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION IN NIGERIA