2023 Elections: PDP has already won!

There is a well-known (self-proclaimed) “Anointed Man of God” who has become one of the so-called mega pastors. When the pastor started his ministry back in the day, he concentrated on actually preaching “the word” as contained in the Holy Bible. It didn’t pay and he was as poor as the proverbial church rat. His “breakthrough” came and the money started flowing when suddenly he started seeing visions and prophesying. He operated under two premises. Firstly, that as long as some “prophesies” came true, his congregation will remain committed believers and secondly, the chances of a “prophesy” coming true would increase if it is non-specific in nature so that he could basically claim any event as a “manifestation”.

Consequently, his modus operandi was to forecast dire events happening in unspecified locations. Later, if for example, an aircraft crashed in India, or a ship sank in Norway, or there was an earthquake in Japan, or there was a mass-shooting in the US or even simply a routine ghastly road accident in Nigeria, he would claim it as a manifestation of his prophecy! He also understood the truism that if you give a blind man a gun and enough bullets, he will eventually hit the target! Therefore, he “prophesied” on an almost daily basis on diverse matters ranging from weather forecasts to the results of football matches and even the results of elections! One particular “prophesy” appears to have come true already.

Last year, he prophesied that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would be the winners in the 2023 national elections. After the results of the recent All Progressives Congress (APC) national convention, it appears as if he has been proved right! PDP members who decamped to the APC have taken over. As a result, no matter which way the election goes, PDP stalwarts will win! The new APC Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu was a two-term PDP Governor of Nasarawa State. He, like so many other former governors, had numerous allegations of financial impropriety levelled against him and indeed in March 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned him on N15 billion fraud allegations. Now it is understood why former APC Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole once famously said, if you join APC, your sins will be forgiven! Adamu accepted the invitation with open arms and in January 2014 while his corruption trial was still on, he together with other PDP Senators, who were supposedly party stalwarts decamped and joined the APC. In response to the growing public ridicule of APC, who came to power on a promise to end corruption and punish those guilty, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity said the scriptures taught the virtue of forgiveness of forgiving sinners who repent and change their ways! Indeed, if the APC can tolerate so called “repentant” Boko Haram killers, there is no reason whatsoever why they should not accommodate “repentant PDP!” and allow them to take up leadership positions in the party. Iyiola Omisore (National Secretary); Victor Gaidom (Vice-Chairman South South); and Osita Medener (Vice-Chairman South-East); are all former prominent members of the PDP. If Goodluck Jonathan reprehensibly agrees to contest under the APC flag then the party’s top echelons will become completely PDP. It really doesn’t matter to APC leaders that their members find it distasteful. Nobody is asking for their opinion as APC leaders have implemented a means of circumventing democracy and avoiding voting, by confirming “consensus” candidates. This doesn’t’ mean a consensus of party members, but rather a consensus of aspirants. The opinions of party members no longer count for anything. The APC message is clear, if you don’t have the millions necessary to purchase a form, then you have been excluded from the party’s political processes, simple! This is simply a slap in the face of Nigerians. In 2015, APC leaders told Nigerians that PDP was a curse on the land and disgruntled Nigerians trooped out massively to vote for change for the better, but the only change which came was for the worse. The APC has been accused of not honouring its election promises. But this simply isn’t true. They promised to increase GDP and truthfully, they increased gas, diesel and petrol! Quite disappointingly after transforming the APC from an opposition party to a ruling party, it has been handed back to the very same PDP leaders whom they condemned seven years ago! There is no gainsaying that Nigerian politicians don’t really care about what they have said in the past. For example, Atiku Abubakar once said “I will never go back to the PDP. PDP is beyond redemption”. Peter Obi once said, “I will never leave APGA. I’d rather quit politics. PDP is a curse to the South-East”. Femi Fani-Kayode said “I would rather die than join APC”, Governor Bello Matawalle said “May God punish me if I ever leave PDP”, Rotimi Amaechi said, “I will not join these people who carry brooms like witches. Over my dead body!” All of them, together with many others, are today’s APC “leaders”! Now, the question remains how what right has APC leaders to tell the nation that PDP was bad? How will they ever be able to explain that to them change meant worsening the situation and then returning power to people who were formerly rejected?