The defection finally came

The very first amongst the PDP Governors who began or at least brought the discontent of the governors to the court of public opinion was Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu when he came up publically and said the President had signed and undertaking in 2011 that he was going after one term and that it […]

The very first amongst the PDP Governors who began or at least brought the discontent of the governors to the court of public opinion was Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu when he came up publically and said the President had signed and undertaking in 2011 that he was going after one term and that it was/is unacceptable for them to agree to anything else as was indicated by the cabal around the presidency.
Babangida’s rebellion was accepted by most Nigerians and I am sure across political party lines. The crises continued to degenerate until recently when 5 out of the 7 ‘rebels’ thought it was unnecessary to continue to play hide and seek and instead decided to leave the PDP and joined forces with the opposition APC.
There have been several commentaries on the refusal of Babangida Aliyu and Sule Lamido to exit their ‘birthplace’ the PDP. I do not know Sule Lamido but I know Babangida Aliyu fairly well. I am in position to want to think as to why such a fundamental political blunder if it is not yet another tactics.
When early in the year Governor Aliyu organized a massive lecture in Minna and required some of us to discuss the paper delivered by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, most if not all of us discussants did not waste time in agreeing with the Governor over the protest he was leading. We saw light and told him, in fact I warned him that he had started a fight that must be finished.
Retracting at any stage in this fight would mean suicide on his part and any other militant that may be deceived into such or even voluntarily believe that he has made any mark or impact. It would be a colossal mistake because in this game, there is no ‘withholding tax’. It is fight to finfish.
I want to think that Babangida Aliyu is simply marking time and would join his colleagues, ‘The rebels’ sooner than later. As I said, I do not now Sule Lamido, but what I surely do know is that I abhor his style of politics and the only time that I reached some measure of concurrence with the Jigawa Governor was when he joined the G7. If he decides to opt out now, that is a terrain that I have always known him on.
Whatever the case may be, those who are serious with their agitation in the PDP have left the party to another one. Those who were aggrieved but feel that their natural birth place is the PDP and will continue to remain there, I wish them goodluck with Goodluck Jonathan, but for the records, they are making a fundamental political blunder that will be irredeemable if truly their love for PDP has transcended the first law of nature – the law of self-preservation.
Why millions of Nigerians celebrated the crisis in the PDP was not just because there are certain caliber of people that are tragically inhuman, but because the party has spearheaded over the ruining of Nigeria in the last over one decade that it has ruled. It has been a bad symbol of western liberal democracy and a bastion of immeasurable quantum of corruption.
Nigerians have since been tired of the PDP misrule and have been looking for ways out of the strangulation. The crisis in the party this time around provided sufficient reasons to believe that it has been torn apart and, most likely, would lose power in 2015.
The handwriting is very clear on the wall. Who says that the 16 states outside of the PDP hold are lesser mortals? Kano? Lagos or Oyo? Surely by the pedestrian political interpretation, it is clear to even the pundits that the reign of PDP terror is on its way out and those in charge are already desperate and the confusion is all over the place.
It is only in Nigeria that the members of the ruling class are so desperate when it comes to office and power. The reason is simple. It is the economic deliverables that drive our elites crazy and would want to get to office or remain in office by all means. Service is not central to the PDP in Abuja but the allocation, even if arbitrarily of the 52% of our resources that are allocated to the center.
I wish to add my voice to the ones already in the air by saluting those astute governors who jumped the fence of the PDP. No matter how mighty and tall an oppressor is, he must be told who he is and if he or she does not like what is heard, there are two options either to change its form or go to blazes. That is the PDP affair at the moment.
Nigerians in their numbers are ready to kick the party out of power so that things may change. So that Boko Haram may be a thing of the past, so that our schools, hospitals and roads could be made better. In summary, so that our resources could better and more efficiently be allocated in areas that would better the lives of the generality of the Nigerian people.
This defection is as courageous as it is timely. It creates an avenue for Nigerians to make a choice between tendencies. A tendency that we know and the one that promises to improve the lots of our people. No one needs to tell me anymore that the PDP has failed woefully.
As I write this piece, I am expecting a sack letter from either the Minister of Education or Professor James Adelabu because we have been on strike for the past five months. Nothing works in our system. Hospitals and schools have closed.
Those who were to travel out Thursday morning but couldn’t because a cargo aircraft had blocked part of the Abuja Airport and with all the expenditure committed by the Minister and her agencies, there was no instrument to shift the aircraft from the tarmac. This is unfortunate.
Failures everywhere and no successes only those identified by the so-called agents of government. I am happy that the defection had taken place. I call on Governor Babangida Aliyu to have a rethink and not to abandon the ship at the point of arrival. Those remaining in the PDP and are willing to check out, let them please their conscience in the name of Nigeria and its people.