Opinion
Corruption & 2027: Do Nigerians really have a choice in APC & PDP?, by Uzoma Ahamefule
A Nigerian politician will proudly tell Nigerians during election campaigns that he/she will deliver his/her polling booth, constituency or state for his/her political party. Such a rascal and arrogant proclamation is an intimidation to electorates, a threat to a free and fair election and anti-democratic. But the erroneous statement that invokes fear has been unfortunately made to look normal in Nigeria.
The choice Nigerians have to make between PDP and APC unfortunately is like an option given to a captive by abductors to choose how to be killed, whether by a slow means of being thrown into a cold room till the person’s last breath, or a fast one of being locked up in a room that is ignited to flame till the person burns to ashes. Whichever choice it is, it is tantamount to the same cruelty and excruciating death. That is the exact picture PDP and APC depict in the lives of Nigerians. In a nutshell, for the Nigerian masses APC and PDP represent corruption, failure, sorrow and agony.
The high level of corruption experienced under APC and PDP in Nigeria is unimaginable and it has crippled every business and activity and killed the economy. Members of these two parties have not only supervised corruption to its optimal level but have also engraved it into Nigeria’s system and imbibed it as a culture. The way they are still stealing the collective wealth of the country without any consequence makes the Nigerian youths believe that fraud and ill-gotten wealth pay. This mentality has killed moral value, encouraged fraud (419) and destroyed the future of the young generation. A group of heartless people siphoning public funds meant for maintaining roads, building schools and equipping hospitals etc. – the most common things every government should dutifully provide for her citizens – are wickedly wicked, and such groups ought not to be in the corridor of power.
The only business that is still flourishing optimally, very attractive and rewarding in Nigeria is corruption and Nigerian youths see it very viable and are joining en masse. The menace is so rooted in the country that every government sector has its own ugly style. The deep corrupt practices and indiscipline instilled into Nigerians by these politicians portray the country as one that may never function as a normal society. The whole system has been overwhelmingly messy in bribery and corruption. And if at all we will ever have the opportunity of reversing the vice and the ills, it will definitely not be under these two cancerous parties called PDP and APC as currently constituted.
A Nigerian politician will proudly tell Nigerians during election campaigns that he/she will deliver his/her polling booth, constituency or state for his/her political party. Such a rascal and arrogant proclamation is an intimidation to electorates, a threat to a free and fair election and anti-democratic. But the erroneous statement that invokes fear has been unfortunately made to look normal in Nigeria. Truth be told, anyone who makes such a statement should be closely watched, because the person will desperately do everything including falsification of election results in achieving that delivery. How can someone deliver a whole state or LGA to a candidate who is contesting an election if not through the instrumentality of fraud, thuggery and brutality – even killing? No individual has the capacity to singlehandedly deliver any candidate anywhere. Is that person the electorates that will vote? Definitely, if a man has got a good name, has integrity and is respected, he will surely influence people to vote anyone he supports. But to say that he will deliver a state for a candidate is an indirect threat and a warning that he will compromise the election. It is a place like Nigeria that a man will boldly tell people that he delivered his state to a candidate and he is hailed. Contestant’s records should do the delivery and not one criminal and his/her gangs who are good at moving around with armored vehicles and bullet proof cars from ward to ward on election days rewriting results, intimidating and snatching ballot boxes.
At this juncture it has become imperative to remind Nigerians that if we must get it right in 2027, we must demand the sack or resignation of the INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. The last election he conducted was a total failure and the worst in the history of Nigeria. Like Obasanjo once said, “We cannot reinforce failure”. If we want a functional society, the votes of citizens must count. Any year that starts to happen will begin our genuine walk to a total political freedom from the cobwebs of some criminal politicians called “godfathers”. It will throw up ample of good candidates with the required capacities and integrity that will patriotically lead for the interests of the people. A Nigerian politician who is evil knows that the day electorates’ votes count, will be the end of his/her reign of brutality and terror in Nigeria’s treasury. But these groups of political vultures are shameless and will never give up, at least not willingly. It is either Nigerians accept the status quo or forcefully reject it. The choice is open.
APC and PDP members have made politics in Nigeria to be seen as a profession where the more one is horrible, brutal and manipulative, the more the person is recognized, highly respected and encouragingly rewarded with money, political positions or contracts. Additionally, the person could also be forcefully imposed on the people as their elected representative through shabby and manipulated elections. How unscrupulous and deeply corrupt a person is seems to be the standard of measurement set by these people that determine how successful a person will be in Nigerian politics. They reward evil and made corruption so attractive by establishing it as a well-paid flourishing enterprise. This has in return damaged the psyche of Nigerian youths and destroyed patriotism.
APC and PDP always go for each other’s throat during elections, but do not be deceived for after every election, whichever party that manipulatively overpowers another, the majority of the members of the subdued party switch allegiance immediately on flimsy excuses and continue the same game of fraud and corruption etc. How many Nigerian politicians have been punished for budget padding? Who was arrested and prosecuted for the scandalous huge amount of monies reported to have been found in a house somewhere in Ikoyi, Lagos State? How many times have they constituted committees to look into allegation of corruption against some of them and how many of their reports saw the light at the end of the day? So, make no mistake of an absolute established fact that there is no difference between PDP and APC. Many of them are stinkingly rotten in corruption. They are the same bitter contents of agony and calamity every patriotic Nigerian is tired of and craves to get rid of. Results of affluence some of them display within short periods of going into politics are testimonies that make many believe the narrative that politics in Nigeria is a dirty that ought to be reserved solely for those without integrity and honor.
Typical Nigerian politicians are greedy and politically fraudulent. The moment they become victims of gang ups and evil they incubated, hatched and once enjoyed they ignite sentiments and religion, and gullible Nigerians will jump out like table tennis to defend the thieves. These groups of people are using us. We even sometimes quarrel and have problems with our relatives and friends in their defense. Some people are permanent enemies with some of their family members because of a politician. When are we the ordinary citizens going to stop defending them? The less privileged in the north are suffering like the ones in the south, east and west. Therefore, the problem is not we the ordinary citizens but these politicians who are in authority. When it comes to thieving and sharing our common wealth, their political zones, parties and religious backgrounds become irrelevant. When are we the ordinary Nigerians also going to learn and unite against these small groups of political Buccaneers and parasites for our liberation? How much stolen money have these shameless people who do not care about us invested in our various communities for the benefit of all? Is it not because of their greed and criminality that we do not have constant electricity, standard hospitals/schools and good roads? They have compromised and made kidnapping a lucrative business that forced many to flee their villages for the fear of their lives. Even those who do not have the resources to relocate have been forcefully sacked from their ancestral homes by internationally recognized terrorists but named bandits locally by the Federal Government. Can one justify the silence and inactions of defending us from aggressors by this group of unpatriotic bunch? The effects of the evil perpetrated by APC and PDP against Nigeria and Nigerians are so terrible. They have corrupted every institution even including the judiciary.
Since 1999 APC and PDP have been the two cancerous parties holding Nigeria down. It has always been reported that NNPC is one of the most corrupt sectors in Nigeria. Why do we lack the zeal and the patriotism to ask Nigerian past presidents who made themselves ministers of petroleum to give account of the oil Nigeria produced daily under their ministry and where the money went to? How can Nigeria’s soil be said to have uranium and the allegations of mining and theft of the resources by foreigners in collaboration with some indigenous criminals becomes the order of the day and yet we claim to have patriotic leaders?
For us to have a prosperous country that functions like a normal society and to be respected internationally APC or PDP is not a choice for Nigeria in 2027.
Succinctly, corruption has been embarrassingly institutionalized in Nigeria, stealing and dishonesty shamelessly made trendy and attractive. In a nutshell, Nigeria is a hijacked project and its steering wheels have been been firmly gripped by some sadistic assemblies of criminals in APC and PDP. The majority of these people who are supposed to be chained in different prisons for various offences against Nigerians are sadly in leadership positions dictating what happens in Nigeria’s affairs. It is a tragedy no one – high or low – will escape from.
Unless something drastic happens and urgently too, and Nigerians stand up in unity against this bunch of criminal conglomerates, we will continue to gnash our teeth in lamentation in the midst of abundance. My consolation has always been that karma is a bitch, for whatsoever one sows one reaps.
My heart bleeds for Nigeria!
Uzoma Ahamefule, a concerned patriotic citizen and a refined African traditionalist, writes from Vienna, Austria.
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