When the self-styed progressives choose to go violence, they become incurable and irredeemable. They go all out for violence with relish. They leave no stone unturned. It is violence in the real sense of it. Then, let it known that the progressives are at war and at work.
That has been the pitiable situation the incorrigible progressives put us in recent times. And the losses that followed are irrecoverable.
That is exactly what the All Progressives Congress (APC) threw up in its ward and local government congresses in the last two Saturdays. The “progressives” literally took the country by storm.
They demonstrated anything but progressiveness, as they arrogantly opted for chaos, violence, disorder, shooting, maiming, killing, et al. In all of these, they were behaving true to type.
They could not have acted in a better way. They are innocently showcasing their honest character. It is the true stuff they are solidly made of. The real progressive in them has shamefully come into the open.
No more hiding place. See how the “progressives” are dancing naked in the village square and carelessly too. They do not care a hoot whose ox is gored. These are actually the progressives in violence.
If this is how to be a progressive, then we have our great fears for our wobbling home-grown democracy. All the states are in turmoil because the “progressives” are in action. No state is practically spared.
The floodgates of lawlessness opened on Saturday, May 5. Since then, there is no closing the gate; there is no stopping it either. It is embarrassingly becoming wider by the day.
Even the Ekiti State governorship primary election was not left out. Ballot boxes were brazenly snatched and smashed, stretching security to the limit.
The litany of woes and savagery in other states was unimaginable. A rough rundown paints this gory picture:
One killed in Delta; fracas and free-for-all in Ekiti, Rivers, Cross River, Ondo, Oyo and Adamawa. Here, elections were pushed to the following day, including Abia.
In Imo, election materials were missing. Governor Rochas Okorocha is still fuming. He had to carry his bad case to President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura the following day. He couldn’t wait for him to come back to Abuja.
But that did not help his hopeless case. He lost out completely in the local government congress the following Saturday. He had strived hard to stop it, but could not muster enough support. He remains perpetually aggrieved has refused to be comforted.
Parallel congresses were held in some states, including Ebonyi. But they told us Lagos, Niger, Enugu, Kwara and Edo, among others, had peaceful congresses.
The week that followed was dominated by accusations and counter-accusations by the so-called progressives. They kept on exposing themselves. It was distrust, self-destruction all the way!
That was how the APC entered its local government congresses last Saturday. They greatly improved upon the violence and confusion that attended the previous Saturday’s ward congresses. They stubbornly refused to learn useful lessons from the disasters of the ward congresses.
The results? Utterly damaging: Student shot dead in Oyo; one killed, three arrested in Lagos; gunshots in Edo; hoodlums disrupt exercise in Ogun; protests in Bauchi and Niger; parallel congresses in Enugu, Abia, Zamfara, Ondo,
Kwara, Ebonyi, Edo and Bayelsa.
Okorocha could not swallow it any longer. He was pissed off. He angrily blamed Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, national chairman of the party, for his unending woes. He equally accused the National Working Committee (NWC) members of being accomplices.
He reasoned his opposition to NWC tenure elongation was responsible for his purported persecution by Oyegun & Co. Bolaji Abdullahi, APC spokesman, swiftly cut him short:
“With due respect, Okorocha is being malicious and unfair to the NWC. If he has mismanaged his relationship with his people, in a way that they now constitute an encumbrance to him, he should not transfer his frustration to the NWC.”
With its congresses, APC has exposed its pretense and deceit. We never knew the congresses would come out “clean” like this. This gave its main opponent, PDP, a free ride to coast home unhindered.
PDP was perhaps in one of its best moments on Sunday when its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, poured out:
“From the rascally attempt to overrun a court of competent jurisdiction in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to halt the wheel of justice; the burning of their own secretariat in Owerri, Imo State, the gruesome murders of their members in Lagos and Oyo states, to the malignant disputations and lust for power by its leaders, it is clear that the APC is not organic, but a souless mob without any form of conscience and integrity; an evil wind that blows no good.”
This is a complete dress-down. Strangely enough, APC could not utter a word in defence. The party asked for it; and it got it in full and good measure.
All the same, the PDP should not celebrate yet. They are from the same stock with APC. You cannot come out clean yet. We keep our fingers crossed waiting patiently for the “democrats” in PDP.
We are keeping vigil on its congresses. We have our genuine anxieties. We know you come from the same source and parents. There is no reasonable difference between you and APC in character, attitude and behaviour. You are all leopards and do not intend to change your spots.
We dare you to prove us wrong, if you can. Great doubts!
That is why we are enjoying every bit of the APC congresses while they last. The melody must not be derailed or even halted. The louder the music, the better for us, let the beat go on.
Woe befalls whoever dares to deprive us of the fun of these good times.
And to the disgruntled nPDP in APC, it serves them right. They deserve every portion of the treatment they get. That is what happens to greedy and aimless deserters.
They do not merit pity from any quarters. They are just crying wolf where there is none. Nobody should trust such politicians. They are traders in politics. Such traders do not see beyond their immediate gains. They do not invest like astute businessmen. They trade; and now they are being traded off.
They should be accorded no attention, no sympathy. Their kinds jump before they look; and speak before they think.
We should throw them away with their dirty bath water.