The near-apocalyptic ferocity of the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) mission to reduce Nigeria into a one-party state by all means resonates with the tenor of military-style tyranny, where all the supporting democratic institutions are reduced to mere appendages to only serve the interest of the ruling party. Under an APC-headed Presidency that is less than six months, the nation’s 16-year-old democracy is apparently endangered by the ruling party, which has vowed to take over political control of all states under the opposition with the instrumentality of incumbency at the centre.
The consternation generated by this in the polity is perhaps accentuated by the abstruse pattern the post-election petitions/litigations is taking, whereby states in which the elections were won by the ruling APC are upheld by the election tribunals; while those won by the PDP are nullified, cancelled, or the outright disqualification of opposition candidates, as in the case of Taraba State, on very faulty legal grounds. This unpalatable development is no doubt a recipe for political turmoil. This is why fears are being entertained in some circles that the APC has an evil political agenda that is purely antithetical to the democratic ethos.
Not quite long ago, a Nigerian online news publication, Secrets Reporters.Com, published an APC classified document entitled “Political Penetration: South-South/North-Central Strategy Plan” which provided graphic details of how the APC had perfected a robust, sinister plan to capture Rivers, Bayelsa and Kogi states. The classified document which was presented to the APC by a special committee in August this year also marshaled out how Governor Nyesom Wike’s election was nullified, including that of the 20 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The document equally maps out the “work-plan” to capture Bayelsa State by all means in the December 5 governorship election, including the demand for the extradition of late Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, whom the APC saw as a major obstacle to the realization of its takeover mission in the oil-rich state.
A further anatomical assessment of the document showed that most of the judges who have been penciled down to handle the post-election petitions and law suits have been compromised ab initio, having been specifically recommended to handle particular cases in order to protect and secure the interest of the ruling party. It also recommended the immediate transfer of the INEC officials suspected to be sympathetic to the PDP in the affected states. In a nutshell, if the APC is to have its way, as outlined in its expansionist strategy plan, then multi-party democracy in Nigeria will soon be history.
One has to quickly adumbrate at this juncture that the APC is a major beneficiary of the liberal disposition of the Jonathan Administration, under whose watch the opposition thrived and mushroomed into the party forming government today. That administration espoused the concept of political competition as an integral component of a healthy democratic system. It is also noteworthy that for the entire 16 years the PDP controlled the Federal Government, the opposition also held sway in states like Lagos, Zamfara, Edo, Osun and others. As it were, the PDP didn’t move heaven and earth to liquidate the opposition parties to have 100 percent control of the 36 states in the federation. With a change mantra as key campaign jingle, the APC has yet to live up to its much-vaunted grandstanding as a better alternative to the PDP. Saying this, one is not trying to paint the PDP as an angel per se, but it did not go all out as the APC is currently doing to wipe out the opposition by hook or by crook.
Expansionist Ploy in the Midst Economic Troubles!
There is enough empirical evidence that Nigeria is headed for a no-holes-barred, full-blown economic recession by the first quarter of 2016. The Central Bank of Nigeria has already sounded a note of warning that if quick steps were not taken, there would be recession in the country. It is no longer news that oil prices in the international market have continued to take a nosedive, and because the Nigerian economy depends majorly on the Niger Delta oil, there is real trouble ahead of the country.
However, while Nigeria faces an imminent danger of economic recession with its attendant job losses, social dislocation and hardship, the APC-led Federal Government is busy working out strategies to annex states under the political control of the opposition PDP, using the pliant judiciary as a tool to achieve its penetration plot. Instead of focusing on the economic future of the nation and initiate appropriate policies to diversify the economy, the APC-led Federal Government is prosecuting political persecution against states under the control of the PDP, in order to dislodge them from power. Sadly, in this sad satire of our politics, the Nigerian judiciary has openly made itself a caricature of Justice, by being a willing accomplice to the present administration’s grand plan to bastardize the Nigerian democracy and turn whatever remains of our “Rule Law” on its head.
Rather than work out short- and long-term economic programmes to place the Nigerian economy in good stead, the APC-led Federal Government is busy gallivanting across the globe preaching the gospel of corruption against the nation. As if that is not bad enough, the government is stridently shouting from the diplomatic rooftop that Nigeria is broke! This may not be the best way a government should win support from other countries and open its economic doors to lure potential investors into the country to do business? A thriving domestic culture of corruption is not an attraction to direct foreign investment. Can a country whose economy walks on the throes of bankruptcy be a choice destination for foreign investors and businesses, as President Buhari is labouring so hard to make the world believe?
Suffice it that if former President Goodluck Jonathan was still in power, some segments of the Nigerian print media would have used the present dire economic situation as a rational basis to launch unceasing vitriolic attacks on him and his administration. They used everything he did, whether good or not, to criticize his administration. If Jonathan had not appointed ministers for more than five months after his inauguration, they would have called for his impeachment long ago. But today they are silent. That is the present day Nigeria, looking more like George Orwell’s popular parody “Animal Farm” every passing day.
One will advise the APC-led government that claims to know how to fix everything under the sun to begin to re-engineer the Nigerian economy before it is too late. They said “Nigeria can survive without the oil from the Niger Delta.” One doesn’t argue with them on that. Let them practicalize it– this is the opportune time to put their economic craft into action. The APC’s malignant plot to take over all states under the control of the opposition by all means possible, including using the judiciary as a pawn, is antithetical to the true tenets of democracy, and a grievous threat to the Rule of Law, and justice. That this agenda is being executed at a time Nigeria’s economy faces recession underscores the true character of the so-called change mantra of the APC-led government.
*Mr. Dennis is a public affairs analyst and media consultant.