The death of President Umaru Yar’Adua was a painful one to many Nigerians due to the circumstances that led to his death, but Nigerians should be prayerful that the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should not be the most painful to all Nigerians.
Jonathan’s emergence as the president of this country is causing the polity more fear than freedom occasioned by the shallow Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoning formula. The good thing that Nigerians thought that has happened to them after over four decades of the northern fiefdom, is giving Nigerians headache that a good medication is now being sorted for, to tame the volcanic cerebrum.
And there is no how this erupted headache in the political circles of the country can be tamed if the ruling PDP did not use the adult glove to nip the virus of “zoning” it inflicted on itself that is now spreading to the entire polity. The “zoning” brouhaha has occupied the centre stage of the affairs of this country to the detriment of the already impoverished Nigerians.
The fear is that whether Nigerians like it or not, it is on record that two persons can’t work together unless they agree. What do we make of the section region or persons in the East, West North and South who are hell bent that the North must complete its eight years in the office because ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo who’s a Southerner enjoyed the PDP’s “zoning” political largesse?
But whether the PDP’s zoning formula is repealed or not, the PDP should be shamefaced for its gentleman agreement which has kept the hopes and happiness of the hapless Nigerians at bay in the recent times. The consequence of the PDP’s zoning formula, not Nigerians, is that the debate has thrown Nigerians into the cave of fear and no one can envisage where the next rofo-rofo compass is navigating to. The PDP should tell Nigerians when Nigeria as a country was changed to be answering PDP, because hardly does one hear about the name Nigeria in this political dispensation, but the PDP.
Whether Nigerians are going to still live as one, is going to be determined by this cancerous zoning formula. Already, Nigerians were a people in a blessed country that the PDP has today turned to a cursed country with all the dividends that accrue from democracy becoming the dividends of a crop of Jezebels masquerading themselves as democrats in the federal, state and local government councils. Nigerians are not just happy; they haphazardly exist, not living.
PDP should understand that the insensible zoning formula it initiated due to its gluttonous features, especially in rigging of elections, is causing ripples on the calm waters of this polity and it does not give a hoot to remind President Jonathan that his government has not done anything to achieve one out of the 7 point or 14 point agenda. What the PDP is making Nigerians is to believe that its government is working by being in the news every time, but such news is on the negative side of the expectations of the thinking Nigerians. Is the zoning formula one out of the 7 point agenda? Is the pugilism now being practiced in the House another? What about the tempting of the opposition to join the PDP at all cost? Where is the democracy in the PDP-led government? Hogwash!
PDP wants Nigerians to believe that it is the largest political party in the world, whereas President Jonathan has just spent one hundred days in the office of failed promises, but rather political skirmishes, bickering and tinkering are not wanting. Is it in term of misgovernance and dashing of the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians for a better life and country into the mud that made PDP the largest party in the world? Mind you, PDP’s ex-President Obasanjo-led government was said enjoyed eight years of uninterrupted looting spree. Has their PDP contested that?
If President Jonathan’s presidency is just for the PDP, Nigerians should be informed so that we will know our stand in this country where politicians fiercely chase after crumbs that were supposed to be for the less privileged ones. Were Nigerians meant to suffer in a democracy more than the warring African countries? And yet, PDP is not asking itself “why”. Yes, Nigerians are suffering more than the earthquake devastated people of Haiti because the democracy is not bringing its touted dividends to all the Nigerian citizens except to a few men and women who have now trained themselves in the art of pugilism so that they will garner the stamina to fight over our collective treasury in their House.
Midwifed by the mediocrities of the PDP and its government, Nigerians have been forced to become a shadow of their selves, against their collective wish. The subsequent Nigerian governments after the military regime are like a HIV/AIDS patient that refused to take medication as prescribed to the patient by a professional but would be happy in the prescription of a quack. Nigeria was a blessing to Nigerians in the comity of nations, but the PDP has made it become a curse in the committee of onlookers.
It is not a low noise that the drivel of the PDP called “zoning” is the semblance of the authoritarianism that is being practiced in the country where any “zone” that captured the power would rather want to die than give up the power as at when due. This reminds one that the North ruled Nigeria for thirty five years and sobriquet self as “born to rule”. This was why today we have the PDP that would want to rule Nigeria for eighty years, as the self-acclaimed largest party in Africa without any largest programmes in Nigeria it can boast of that has in earnest bettered the lives of Nigerians in general.
The PDP and its government have left Nigerians in the murky oceans of politics where they continued bathing and soap continued entering their eyes. The ligament of the country’s democracy in being broken everyday by the PDP that Nigerians at home and offshore hardly repose their hope on having a better Nigeria soonest. Did somebody recently not describe PDP as a nest of corruption, apart from the Prof. Wole Soyinka’s offering that PDP is a nest of killers?
The PDP mumbo-jumbo politics in Nigeria is causing the polity more harm than good. But, for how long shall Nigerians be left in this muddled state in the failed ruling PDP-led government? The PDP should stop priding in shenaniganism emanating from its men and women in the government offices showcasing their unripe wisdom.
Nigerians hope is dry in the PDP and its government of over a decade. So, without the PDP no other party will win the presidential election in Nigeria? Why the PDP? Because, not even good roads, qualitative education, structured medical care, name them, and even peace of the heart that we have enjoyed in the PDP-led government. And someone is talking about zoning power to PDP for another eight years. Is Nigeria doomed?
