No tears for new PDP

Methinks it is the un-envious tragedy of thinking locally and communicating neo-colonially. When I heard that there was a new party in town, my first question was – can anything good come out of the PDP?Here is a party that got the reverse Midas touch – everything it touches turns into dust. A party whose […]

Methinks it is the un-envious tragedy of thinking locally and communicating neo-colonially. When I heard that there was a new party in town, my first question was – can anything good come out of the PDP?
Here is a party that got the reverse Midas touch – everything it touches turns into dust. A party whose leadership sunk nearly $50 billion into national darkness? A party whose officials enjoy high speed trains abroad but resuscitated and paraded colonial train with pomp and fanfare? A party which presided over the slashing of its map to another country on a platter? A party in which 50 students are dead, yet went ahead to celebrate its flag independence with prodigious grandstanding. A party which harbours and encourages ritual killers, kidnappers, oil bunkerers and grand looters;  a party whose minister purchased two vehicles for the price of 10 jumbo jets and yet had rented crowd of supporters.
Where, in all these litany of absurdities, lies the gene to birth something new? When has the offspring of a viper been anything but a venomous snake? When did cancer become a benign growth in the body? Everywhere you flip on your news portal, there is a lamentation by a group of malcontents calling itself the New PDP and lamenting alleged victimization. Well, guys, welcome to our world – welcome to the real world. Whatever you are experiencing now is nothing compared with what your insouciance has foisted on the citizenry since 1999. What more, you guys have nothing to offer this country except Rehoboam’s complex – my father chastised you with stones, I will chastise you with scorpions. If in doubt, ask President Jones when he returns from his pilgrimage.
The PDP is the party where non contestants ‘win’ elections. It is the party where prisoners become presidents and senators. It is the party where impunity is a way of life and corruption is tagged a breath of fresh air. It is the party that does not lose elections. It is the party which wins votes without campaigning or campaigns without a manifesto.
It is the party that signs an agreement and turns round to say that those who appended their signatures knew not their left from their right. It is the party which close down schools but pays for honorary degrees. This is the mother of the New PDP.
We are supposed empathize with the New PDP because Mallam Mungu has revoked a few of its member’s C of O. We are supposed to write Ban Ki-Moon for the alleged injustice meted to the governor that would rather fly over our heads than tar and use our roads. We are to decry the withdrawal of the security details to officials who were sleeping under armed guards while robbers conduct nightly census raids on our homes.
We, whose homes are daily used as target practice for bulldozers are expected to be protesting that one of the many homes acquired with money meant for the alleviation of our mass poverty is now to be forfeited or demolished. We are called to empathize with the proposed demolition of one of the many houses acquired with questionable funds from our abode in ghettoes and under the bridge. It is very hard to get the logic, the gist or the drift of all this. Maybe people like me are just too far from the world in which these people live.
Maybe we were too young and naïve when el-Rufai’s bulldozers were razing the homes of paupers whom had been denied land allocation without compensation but paying a party chairman who build his house on a sewage line. We, the trampled and the oppressed are supposed to dress up in ashes and sackcloth because the same police details used to run us off the road have now been withdrawn from our oppressors who are merely switching camps. We, the neglected are supposed to declare a solemn assembly, fast and pray because a governor or party official who blatantly refused to make general safety and security the centrepiece of his governance is now being reduced to our level?
I am searching for the good turn that these people have done for the people in their individual and official capacities that demands such sympathy. Maybe I am too remotely distanced from the proceeds of corruption to understand. No! I refuse to weep, I refuse to wail, indeed, I refuse to say anything other than wish these renegades the prayer so popularized by the late Tai Solarin – May the roads of their rebellion be rough.