Every day is for the ‘thief’, but today is for the owner

The main character in the story that ran through the chapters in the book was a man called Ali. If my memory serves me right, the book had an opening story with the title ‘Tea without Sugar’. Although I find it difficult now to recall the entire tale, the little I can remember from it […]

The main character in the story that ran through the chapters in the book was a man called Ali. If my memory serves me right, the book had an opening story with the title ‘Tea without Sugar’. Although I find it difficult now to recall the entire tale, the little I can remember from it will serve the purpose of this piece.
Ali was a merchant who once loaded sacks of ashes on his pack of donkeys to a foreign land that was several weeks journey away from his home country. When Ali got to his destination and was served with a cup of tea which of course had sugar in it, he told his hosts that the tea had no sugar. He then told them about a new brand of sugar from Arabia which he brought with him; deceiving them in to believing that the ashes were sugar. Ali introduced and sold the ashes in the name of sugar to his unsuspecting customers. After marketing the consignment of his first business trip, Ali went back and brought more sacks of his article of trade. Soon, Ali’s ‘sugar’ (i.e. the ashes) became ‘hot cake’ just as Ali himself (the only wholesaler of the commodity), within a short period, became stupendously rich.
When the people in Ali’s home country asked to know why and to where he was ferrying the sacks of ashes, Ali told them some people in a different kingdom needed the ashes for domestic use. This was how Ali deceived his own people in the same way he tricked his gullible customers. Although Ali succeeded in the fraudulent business for some time, nemesis which is always the wages of exploitative and oppressive tendencies, caught up with him. Such an end, when it comes, is usually disgraceful.
It is possible to deceive everybody for some time just as it is possible to deceive some people every time. However, it is not possible to succeed in swindling everybody every time. This logic which underscores the natural but miserable end of falsehood explains why fraudsters and their dubious activities are exposed after sometime. With time, people discovered that it was not sugar but ashes that were sold to them by Ali as sugar. Ali eventually got the beating of his life and was consequently jailed; after trial.
Allah (SWT) states in Qur’an 16:61 that if He were to punish men for their wrong doing, He would not leave a single creature on the earth. Allah (SWT) gives wrongdoers respite for a stated term. And when such respite expires, no one would be able to delay Allah’s decree (of the consequences of their actions) for a second. Allah’s respite for PDP seems to have long expired. Having deceived Nigerians for one and half decades, Nigerians like Ali’s innocent customers are today, after years of pains and distress, united in rejecting PDP and its unwholesome commodity called ‘corruption’ which is not only a trademark of PDP rule in Nigeria but has continued to be brazenly displayed with matchless impunity.
After sixteen years of misrule, today is the beginning of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s day of reckoning in Nigeria. The journey of six weeks has ended as if it were six days. Yet, the fears of losing in today’s poll which gripped the ruling PDP and prompted it to influence the postponement of the election from February 14, 2015 appear to have worsened into nightmares; sinking the party further down the deep blue sea of despair. A fraudulent trader and indeed every liar, like Ali (in Tea without Sugar), should fear the day he would go to the market and his commodity will not sell after having sold like a hot cake.  
Although PDP snatched the electoral mandate of other political parties in the past, it is not likely to succeed this time around. This is because “every day is for the ‘thief’, but ‘today’ is for the owner”. Those who think PDP has never stolen any electoral mandate may wish to be reminded that, in 2007 for instance, the governorship election results which declared PDP winner in Sokoto, Adamawa, Edo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Anambra, Bayelsa, and Cross river states were all quashed up to appeal level in favour of opposition parties. Similarly, the mandate of General Muhammadu Buhari in the past three presidential elections is widely believed to have been stolen from the opposition ANPP and CPC. However, electoral management indicators point to the fact that the 2015 general elections holding today Saturday March 28, 2015 and April 11, 2015 are essentially not going to be business as usual for the PDP. The fear of card readers now seems to be the beginning of PDP’s wisdom.
Today’s presidential election is a contest between integrity and corruption; between security and insecurity; between patriotism and betrayal; between rule of law and lawlessness; between politics of issues and politics of sentiments; between hope and hopelessness; and between truth and falsehood. We pray that Allah (SWT) would put the reins of power, through the 2015 general elections, in the hands of those who will be committed to the common good of Nigerians; denying wicked candidates the privilege to lead at any level. May Allah (SWT) also guide us in our duties as voters, electoral officers, observers, and security operatives to make the 2015 elections free, fair and credible, amin.