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Election Blues: Mourning The PDP's Victory
Prince Charles Dickson
In the next couple of weeks to the swearing in of the next administration I would be looking at what I call election blues, I would be looking at the general conduct of the elections, the roe of INEC, issues of credibility, fairness of the polls, the various kind of rigging that occurred, why the opposition failed and in event of little changing the task before the in coming government. The first issue I want to look at is the PDP's victory at the polls.
First let me quickly say that the entire election was a sham, a shame and a big slap on the face of Nigerians, and at this point harsh as it may sound and despite the controversy the statement evoked...Pat Utomi said it and I re-echo it, "If after eight years of poverty, no light, no food...and Nigerians indeed voted the PDP, then Nigerians are the most stupid people. One only needs to be on ground to understand the frustration, the pain and much more to really appreciate the context of the statement, which was made on Channels television.
But before we are slaughtered, the question is did we really vote the PDP, if in several States Resident Electoral Commissioners were barely announcing the collated results to local observers and the media, same time Professor Iwu was announcing the PDP victorious, only shows that we are just one set of funny people. No doubt we are, that is why an Adedibu had his son, godson, in-law all elected or selected and we express shock. Infact I wonder why we are expressing shock at the results, what were we really expecting... maybe Yar'adua did not personally rig, at least he did not need to, but again we have the product of a flawed system.
The PDP has bettered its 2003 record, while in 2003 it was the electoral votes that were manipulated, today, 2007 it is the voters' apathy that has been manipulated and we are all witnesses of the number magic that was performed. Virtually the entire East of the nation was disenfranchised due to late and non-arrival of materials for the election but the PDP won there massively. In Edo the Senatorial winners of each Senatorial district polled more votes that the Governor elect, number magic. In Akwa Ibom, the PDP won a Senatorial seat without a candidate, Buhari lost in his hometown, Atiku was far off in Adamawa, the likes of Bafarawa, Kalu, Utomi were participatory observers.
PDP 'won' this election, but did they really win, is this victory to the benefit of Nigeria, was this the voice of the people, the voice of God, or just the barking of a few crooks...why should we not mourn this victory, this election, I will tell us, in the next few lines as a reminder of what the PDP is, Ordinarily this should be a victory for democracy but this is tears for Nigeria...when you see a sucking baby crying yet still at the mother's breast then certainly something is wrong.
The PDP for al general purpose of a definition is almost everything wrong with Nigeria, a party of timber and caliber, a party of men and these days’ women that have made it by all sorts of means and want to keep things as they are. It is off course, the most populous party by claims in Africa, and this victory again proves it...it cut across geographical boundaries, it has religious and ethnic spread. To this extent and this alone it claim to be a national party that claims to have national consensus.
But this is the same PDP that has proved that it is pro capitalist, it sees itself as a capitalist party, and has continued to operate under the peripheral neocolonial and dependent economy, and this is because it has failed to understand or ignored the logic and nuances of the real Nigerian economy...debt relief or not. It pursues shadows, it chases policies and initiatives that are not only contrary to its interest but it pursues economic policies that undermine the very environment, which it operates.
Because the party is national without being nationalistic, it fails to develop a coherent system of ideas that could even protect the interest of the class it represents, which is composed of greedy and grabbing individuals, many of its members have constantly and consistently defended self perceived and peti-interest.
The party cannot pretend to have a solution to the chronic ills of our society; in its eight years we have been further pushed into the cyclones of dependency, A party without a well defined or articulated ideology. So with its recent tsunami called victory, one can only hope that the leadership of Yar'adua will betray the party and all that it stands for, this certainly would be a miracle. Because for all it is worth and stands for, we are far off the paradise we crave as Nigerians.
Let me wonder with you reading now whether this magic called reality would translate to constant power supply, provision of clean water, infra-structural development. Will the seven point agent of Mallam Yar'adua remedy the nation, can the Leopard change its spots, will the PDP shame us and make us keep quiet?
The elections would not be cancelled, it was not postponed, it was not boycotted, we cannot collectively protest. The die is cast, as we mourn the PDP's victory, rather than a fixated look at the failure, we owe to Nigerians to think how do we keep this leadership on its feet.
What the PDP did, is explained in this scenario...Juan comes up to the Mexican border on his bicycle. He has two large bags over his shoulders. The guard stops him and says, "What's in the bags?" "Sand," answered Juan. The guard says, "We'll just see about that. Get off the bike." The guard takes the bags and rips them apart; he empties them out and finds nothing in them but sand.
He detains Juan overnight and has the sand analyzed, only to discover that there is nothing but pure sand in the bags The guard releases Juan, puts the sand into new bags, hefts them onto the man's shoulders, and lets him cross the border.
A week later, the same thing happens. The guard asks, "What have you got?" "Sand," says Juan. The guard does his thorough examination and discovers that the bags contain nothing but sand. He gives the sand back to Juan, and Juan crosses the border on his bicycle. This sequence of events is repeated every day for three years.
Finally, Juan doesn't show up one day and the guard meets him in a Cantina in Mexico. "Hey, Buddy," says the guard, "I know you are smuggling something. It's driving me crazy. It's all I think about... I can't sleep. Just between you and me, what are you smuggling?" Juan sips his drink and says, "Bicycles."
PDP planned this, all we can say is that the Almighty help us, let Him come to our aid, as another PDP journey commences. The road is far, the earlier the better we start to face the issues for now we mourn what should really have been victory for democracy, we watched thinking sand and they smuggled in bicycles, again they have beaten us, but they and indeed no one can beat the Almighty.
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Posted by Robot| 26.04.2007 07:49