Before Racing for 2015

We have just completed a series raising alert to the danger that insecurity, sectarian and other kinds of violence have plagued the country with an urgent need for emergency handling of the nation’s security. Many have even called for the declaration of a state of emergency on some of the worst- hit states in the clutch of terror and bloody insurgency, which have now spread from the core North (North East and North West) to the North-central, with the recent cult-propelled blood-bath in Nassarawa and the perennial bloody clashes between Fulani herdsmen and Tiv pastoralists in Benue and the ethno-religious clashes in Taraba. Now President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has declared State of Emergency in Bornu Yobe and Adamawa States and the Senate may have given it an unequivocal nod. This effort aimed at finding counter-insurgency strategies must be effective and firm if any positive result will come from them. True, the Federal Government has also set up a committee to redress the Boko-Haram menace, the fresh waves of violence in Taraba, Benue and Nassarawa have compounded the security situation in the country. The question that those in governance at all levels of the national economy have failed to address is determining what the priority should be; finding peace and securing the nation or racing after tenuous power, come 2015.
This knotty question may appear simple to solve on the surface for discernible minds who ordinarily are bemused that there is any difficulty at all in making the right chose if the people in power are guided by vision and patriotism. But just look at the fight of the jackals raging in our country today, setting aside the real issues of governance and building an enduring democratic culture with an economic base and appropriate superstructure to drive development and national growth. Let us exemplify from the various internal wrangling and struggle going on among our politicians today—either within parties or between parties; between individuals and group of individuals. Look at the rapid and startling transformation effort going on in River State under the strong and envisioned leadership of Governor Chibuike Amaechi—education, infrastructure (roads, power, etc) making Rivers State one of the fastest growing metropolis in Africa, if not the entire world. Look again at the tornado-like uncommon transformation rage sweeping across Akwa-Ibiom State under the impassioned dynamism of Godswill Akpabio (infrastructure, roads, flyovers, free and compulsory education for all residents of Akwa Ibiom, the international stadium and airport, and so on. These otherwise uplifting and exemplary development are taking place in states run under the same party-the People’s Democratic Party. Now, take away the gaze and cast your mind on the political imbroglio going on in the Party with the two dynamic leaders at the centre of it all, with the alleged active participation in the destabilizing politics of the leader of the entire party, the President of the country.
Think of the cassu belli of the destructive internal strife in the party. Evidently, the politics of 2015 is central to the squabbles. While Anaechi is the Chairman of the entire Governor’s Forum, a situation which should gladden the political heart of the acclaimed biggest party on the continent, it is the very reason why the intra-party crisis accentuates. Besides the suspicion that, based on his astronomic record in his State, Rotimi Amaechi might be nurturing ambition as running mate to whichever northern aspirant to the Presidency—an ambition considered unthinkably inordinate and one inhering tremendous threat to the status quo, the second term possibilities of the incumbent President. Now, for this alleged ‘crime,’ and for his own ambition to be returned as Chairman of the Governor’s Forum, the war drums are beating over his head.  Some panicky steps have been taken. The Ngige dosage has been meted to Amaechi. The State Assembly of Rivers State has been severely traumatized, with the suspension of twenty-seven member loyalists of Amaechi, coupled with the present ‘army of occupation’ by the police of the premises of the State Assembly Secretariat, and Amaechi himself having his security details whittled. A further step in this direction is the election of Godswill Akpabio as Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum—a political action which cannot improve the relationship between these two transformatory Governors, with its possible distractive and deleterious effects on the growth effort they are making in their individual states. All of these, and the existing crisis in the party, definitely sets an ominous tone for the immediate future of the partisan politics of the nation.
  With this kind of situation, and the uncertainty of the opposition politics being crystallized by the recent merger of several opposition parties (an inconclusive exercise, given the refusal of INEC to register the party under the name  All Progressive Party) to erect a formidable and competitive political formation and strong alternative to the dissension-wrenched PDP, the real problems of our country—problems of insecurity, absence of peace, un-concretized, ideologically obfuscated programme of national reconstruction tagged the Transformation Agenda, suffer severe set-back. Those who truly love and believe in this country and wish to demonstrate that love by mounting strategies for 2015 should first of all work hard to make that country a reality today by building strong institutional structures that will sustain the democratic culture of our dream. Otherwise we will pouring barrels of water in a basket. Let those who want to govern this country in the future build the country today so that they may have a nation to govern.