By EZE CHUKWU
A healthy democratic system in any part of the world is dependent on vibrant ruling as well as opposition political parties; as the ruling continues to jostle for power, the latter goes for the jugular of the incumbent in order to swiftly overrun it. The opposition always have a way of making the ruling political party stand on its toes as policies made by the incumbent are thwarted and misconstrued just to make a mess of the supposed enemy’s camp, thereby leaving it glaring to the masses that votes earlier cast in favour of the incumbent were simply wasted and that the next election provides an opportunity to practically correct that mistake earlier made. Never would there be a time when workable policies are lauded by the opposition, even when such policies were people-oriented, as long as they were not ‘dished-out’ from its stables, they were absolute ‘konkonbility’!
The road to electioneering has not fared better either, as it has simply turned warfare where slanderous comments/publications hold sway. In the United States of America for instance, the polity has been so heated up that one of the candidates in the race to the Whitehouse, Donald Trump of the Republican party, accused President Barack Obama and his ‘cohorts’ of creating the terrorist group, ISIS.
The above bears resemblance to the alleged weakness of former president Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), not being capable of rescuing the abducted Chibok girls and consequently crushing Boko Haram, which was later to form part of the manifesto of the major opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In recent times, however, we have seen erstwhile ruling as well as opposition parties swap positions by reason of votes cast by the electorate, perhaps due to perceived life changing manifestos and of course the candidate’s character content, not ruling out the possibility of swift rigging. This ultimately means a change in the style of slandering. Rather than wait to be mocked by the now opposition party, the incumbent designs a masterpiece…the Blame Game. This tool seems to be most effective these days as whenever it seemed as if the uproar generated by a previous slander is dousing, another ‘shelling’ is launched.
More than a year in power, the APC continues to blame the PDP for every misfortune that has befallen Nigeria, some say even those problems created by the APC has continued to be shoved down PDP’s throat. When the budget could not be prepared in time, PDP elements frustrated the process; when revenue from crude oil dropped, PDP caused it; when the economy nose-dived, PDP was responsible. Even now electricity remains epileptic, of course PDP should be held responsible for squandering huge resources that would have been used to salvage the situation. Today, over N400 exchanges to a dollar in the parallel market, why not? PDP runs a bureau de change centre; a bag of rice sells for over N20,000 in the market today, PDP brought us this far. When it was now obvious that the PDP could not have been responsible for the abrupt disappearance of tomato in the market, an alternative was prepared in-lieu, the Tomato Ebola!
The same played out in recent past. In one of the South-Eastern states where for eight solid years the governor continued to blame his predecessor for whatever nightmare he had in his bedroom. Though the people bought his stories at first, but soon got tired of the whole blame game, which resulted in his being pelted with sachet water, tomato paste and so on, whenever he visited a section of the state, owing to deplorable state of infrastructure and the like.
Today, Nigerians are faced with this huge monstrous looking conundrum…hunger! Many families now find it difficult to feed let alone take care of other needs, as the economy continues to nose-dive. People, who could hitherto afford three square meals comfortably, now struggle to do same or have settled for less, as the market price of food items continues to skyrocket. The days of the PDP in Aso Rock are over, at least for now, so whatever it is they represent should also be forgotten and the real business of good governance resumed in earnest. If one must borrow the concluding part of this piece from a senior colleague, it would go thus; ‘Governance is not about scare-mongering.
It is about policies, programmes and projects. The present administration will be doing itself and Nigerians a favour if it puts on its thinking cap so that Nigerians will have something positive to remember it for. A resort to calumny will not help’.
Chukwu writes from Nnewi