Desperate Politicians!
Published by toyin on Tagged Corruption, Governannce, Lagos, Nigeria
When I went through most of the national dailies last week, the major issue that took most of the space was PDP’s plan to regain Kano and of course, take over Lagos. This intention was revealed by no other than Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, PDP’s national chairman. He made the statements at a reconciliation meeting for estranged PDP members in Kano. He declared that it is unbearable that a ‘big’ state like Kano is not in the fold. Neither does it make any sense to him that the nation’s economic center is governed by another party.
Now, there’s no problem with one political party looking to expand its frontiers. It is a normal thing all over the world for political parties to campaign and seek to win over other areas, states or electorates that are not within its control. Such efforts are usually aided by concrete achievements and visible accomplishments and not based on rhetoric or propaganda. It is even more imperative to note here that the success or otherwise of any political party is largely determined by the electorates. That is the people make or mars any political party. This however, is largely the reverse in Nigeria.
While I may not be too familiar with the political happenings in Kano, I am aware of the fact that PDP lost that state to ANPP in 2003 and since then have struggled to make any in road back into reckoning. But there must be a reason why the party lost the state ab initio. My sincere conclusion is that their failure is premised on the poor performance of PDP in the state and of course the Sharia fever that engulfed the north towards the 2003 general elections. The incredible sophistication and awareness of the electorate in Kano makes it impossible for the will of the people to be absolutely suppressed like in other states of the country.
Similarly, Lagos, a major battle ground since the inception of our latest democracy in 1999 has witnessed the greatest political stability in the whole of South West. While other states in the region fell to PDP’s ruthlessness in power play, Eko, through the indefatigable ex governor Tinubu held the forth and withstood all the darts thrown his way to maintain the staus quo in the state. After his experience in 2003, Tinubu decided that the best form of defense is attack. To put this into practice, he led others to form a new political party to replace the factionalized and fragmented Alliance for Democracy.
The new party, named Action Congress AC fielded candidates in all states of the federation in the run up to the 2007 elections which was tagged as the most rigged elections in the history of the country. At the end of the day, AC won in Lagos and didn’t make any further success until the Court of Appeal upheld the elections of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as the Governor of Edo state. This made the count for the party to stand at two states.
Moving back to Ogbulafor’s declaration of intent on Kano and Lagos, one discovers that the main thrust of PDP’s ambition cannot be based on any developmental yardstick but coercive measures that brought them the now maligned victory at the polls in 2007. If PDP with all the power at its disposal couldn’t win the two states under discourse in 2007 anybody would be pardoned for wondering why it now hope to do so with the glaring non performance of the party in view of all and this beat my imagination. And I am particularly interested in that of Lagos where I believe, we are close to what governance is all about in the whole of the country.
With the emergence of Babatunde Fashola (SAN) as the governor of Lagos state, political accountability and performance has been taken to a new level. He took to his job like a man possessed and Lagos has never had it so good within such a short period of time. He has touched virtually every aspect of governance in the state and he’s now seen as our own Obama; a man committed to doing the right things for the benefit of the majority.
Even governors of the opposition parties agree that Gov Fashola is a rare breed. Governor Jang of Plateau said that the cerebral lawyer now turned public administrator is the best among equals. He was speaking from his heart and he spoke the minds of millions of Nigerians that are conversant with Lagos. Fashola, against popularism took on the rot and menace that Oshodi had become and did what even military administrations could not do; achieve orderliness and decorum on that abused stretch of the state.
Having made up its mind that Lagos must be ‘captured’, surely it should be save to assume that PDP has a platform to achieve this. I strongly believe that this platform would be its score card in areas of security, education, health, power, infrastructure etc. But we all know that the ruling party at best have been average (a very low average for that matter) in all departments of governance never mind the big stain of corruption and its accompanying stigma on major members of the party. As it is, the party is mired in one scandal or the other.
How does Ogbulafor expect to capture Lagos where the Federal Government cannot point to one major project in the last 10 years? If there’s any I‘d be humbled to be educated. Where the progress of the current administration is being celebrated all over the world, the PDP government is threatened that a state governor of an opposition party is exposing its non performance, inefficiency, abject failure across all levels and inability to make simple, decisive governance decisions.
Looking at the kind of projects that the Lagos State Government has embarked on, one is left in no doubt that this is an administration that is determined to make both social and economic impacts. Can the same be said of our federal government despite all the jingles on the seven point agenda? What is the agenda in returning money every year back into the treasury due to poor budget implementation? I’ve had to listen to analysts suggesting that the fact that the monies were returned to the treasury is a feat in itself; that the returned funds could have been looted!
Is this also not an indictment of our much hyped fight against corruption if we cannot trace funds that were earmarked for certain projects but rather gloat over mediocre governance due to budgetary refunds? My sense of confusion with this government is further enhanced when I look at the types of contradictory statements coming from officials in this administration. One says an auction process has been done and certified, another claims it is not over yet. While some believe that the touted 6000 Mega Watts power generation is a mirage others claim that in fact, we have achieved it!
No coordination, no direction, we are been led on a trial by error basis and yet PDP wants Lagos; a state that is neglected and deprived of any federal government’s presence for the past ten years! Are we not in a strange land indeed where decorum is also a foreign word in public affairs and conduct?
A look around all federal roads in the metropolis is a clear indication of the weakness of PDP! Nigeria’s premier ports are based in Apapa and yet the roads leading to them are almost impassable. Guess who is rebuilding the intra city roads within Apapa; Gov Fashola! Yet PDP would want to capture Lagos. What a dream?
The minister for works tried to see for himself how bad the roads have become when President Yar’Adua was on his way to Abeokuta to commission some projects. After been stuck in the hold up for several hours, he turned back! But promises were made that ‘something’ would be done but as usual, nothing has been done till date to even mend the roads say less of reconstructing some portions that have totally failed.
What would be PDP’s selling points to the electorates both in Kano and Lagos? Would it be lack of power, insecurity, poor (actually terrible) infrastructures, unmitigated corruption, poor handling of the economy, political assassinations, lack of direction, dead political will, uncontrolled politicizing, poor housing and educational chaos? I am at a loss in this regard!
I told a politician friend of mine that the only way a government can legitimately perpetuate itself is through good governance and accountability. If our politicians think that we would continue to hold our peace in the face of election rigging, intimidation, violence and corruption, they must be short sighted and oblivious of history. The time is now ripe when the Nigerian people would take a stand, a united stand to wrest power from the fools that parade themselves as leaders in our clime.
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