Kalu and APC: The posers (1)

The atmosphere of political realignment is getting interesting by the day. We are hearing that the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) may implode and give birth to a new political party and that political heavyweights like Atiku and Tinubu are involved. Tinubu failed to show up at his party’s gubernatorial campaign kickoff in Ondo thereby sparking off rumours. The Sports Minister Solomon Dalung gave the alibi that he was sick while some other people said it did not matter that Tinubu was absent. When I heard that and told myself that that is how politicians of little or no value react to serious issues. If a politician of Tinubu’s clout has reservations about his party operations, members with good conscience ought to be troubled by such a development and it should be their responsibility to find ways to ameliorate the situation rather than fuel it. The division in APC would not be a good development for our nation. For decades we have prayed for a strong two-party system and with the existence of PDP and later arrival of the APC, we are almost getting to our desired dream of a two-party system with support base cutting across the various cleavages in the nation. Whatever is the situation, the flux on the political horizon is becoming somehow interesting.
Two weeks ago, the political atmosphere got thickened with the unexpected declaration of a political juggernaut, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu for the APC. It was a move that took many political watchers, including his close political associates by surprise. Before, Kalu would have made a big fanfare out of his intention to make a switch, but it is likely the many lessons he has learnt from big time political betrayals from men and women he trusted must have taught him the value of being reticent, especially over issues of great political significance like the one he just embarked on. Our politics is full of hypocrites and parasites, they are not there to keep friends or loyalty; principles and integrity mean nothing to them, they are the ones that teach a leader to cut corners, bring the goodies and the people can go to hell. Good governance for them is measured in terms of how far a leader can go to satisfy their selfish desire and agenda. For this group, once the brook dries up, off they go looking for another oasis in the desert to satisfy their thirst. It is pretty certain Kalu must have learned the hard way that in politics as in the general society, there are three categories of friends to watch out for and these are the “constituents” who would just hail you when you triumph without caring to know what the issues are; “comrades” are those who have no special attachment to your well-being but would only tag along so long as your abilities, capacity and locational positioning would enable them work with you to achieve their own objectives, and then the “confidants” who are with you for who you are, circumstances don’t alter their affection. Am sure the long walk in political wilderness would have wrought Kalu into another man, and if you ask me, that is very good.
The crossover has already happened so that is no longer news but it has generated so much perceptions, reactions and presuppositions, and that is what is of interest to me and I want to believe many other Nigerians. Some have asked why Kalu with all his wealth still would be interested in politics, especially of our kind, which is very adversarial and fraught with recrimination. The truth is that democracy is a participatory endeavor; it envisages that every citizen participates in the management of his affairs and where this is not possible, the greatest majority. Democracy abhors passivity and if we tell ourselves the truth, the absence of credible men and women in the political process is what has made it possible for charlatans, ill-equipped and evil minded citizens to find themselves in hallowed positions of power and authority. We want progress, yet we have created a system that throws up mostly the bad, that is an irony for no man is capable of that which he has not mastered. It is aberration of the highest order for a society to keep raising a gang of evil leaders and at the same time expect them to be authors of justice. This kind of perspective would be like expecting a lion to give birth to a fowl; it doesn’t work that way.
Ideal democracy, which we should crave for, wants everybody to be in the political pool, and this includes the good and the bad and gradually the Darwinian theory of survival of superior species would take place. I am sure if this were to be the case good would after a short while establish a perpetual triumph over evil, and by that time the people would get the system, processes and the kind of nation they desire. Some of us want to keep away from politics because of the dirtiness associated with it in our clime but the question would be: when the harbingers of change run away from the task, who would do it? Even if God were to help, he would need men and if you ask all of us, including Kalu’s traducers, the unanimity would be that Kalu has vision and carries a good heart. Some have asked why APC, a party Southeasterners perceive as short-changing them, and then what becomes of Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), a party Kalu led others to form. My deduction would begin with a question: if not APC, what is the option? The state of PDP should be of concern to genuine lovers of democracy and our nation. What is happening to that party is capable of retarding democratic advancement and governance for decades. One would think it should be the responsibility of people like Kalu to return there and fix the party, but then everybody knows the recent history of Kalu with the party and how every effort to return to a party he co-founded with others was rudely rebuffed by those who feared his larger than life political standing. Kalu’s efforts were such that many times he announced himself member of the party only to get an answer that he was yet to join the party. The attempt to bar Kalu became so ridiculous that the PDP authorities in Abia had to carry away all party registers in all the 17 local governments and even sent a delegation sponsored on public account to go to Abuja to make the case that Kalu should not be admitted into the party, a move that was highly unconstitutional and yet it was sustained. Today, the promoters of the power establishment in Abia, Kalu’s state, are still the same forces. It is possible that sometime in future, they may have reason or see cause to work together but today, that option appears farfetched. If you were Kalu, what would you do if the stakes were stacked against you? Stand and watch? Or devise a means to escape enemy actions? Which one would you do?