By Israel A. Ebije

Nigeria is practising a democratic system where the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is acting as opposition within itself while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is performing worse than it ever did when it was in power. With the ruling and opposition political parties  in the country obviously programming objectives fashioned to satisfy their self-centered interests, a vacuum is created in the system where governance is steadily sliding towards anomie.

With the ongoing confusion, cabals in liaison with political appointees are becoming incurably daring. The National Assembly has been singing drivel at the detriment of the esteemed tenets of the legislative arm and at the cost of good governance.

Nigeria is a country  gifted with people who have penchant for creating parallel system, replicating reality crafted to poison the course of what is obtainable by law. The ruling party is expected to steer the affairs of the nation towards collective destiny of growth, peace and prosperity while the opposition party is mandated to make the ruling party stay committed, focused to deliver dividends of democracy. Sadly, these divides are embroiled in internal fisticuffs.

A look at the composition of the APC presents a picture of politicians who have been everywhere doing so many things but good. They belonged to every possible political party conceivable, shunted party platforms, benefitted from corruption and participated in table tipping to accomplish their ambition.

Some joined the APC marriage of necessity to extract pounds of flesh, some to stay politically relevant, some to actually act as internal opposition and others all of the above. It is, therefore, easy from the highlighted areas that the ruling party is a tower of Babel, and like it was in ancient time, building the change mantra Tower would certainly be an impossible task.

For the opposition party, the PDP, some powers that feel strongly in favour of a one-party state and those who want alternative platform ahead of 2019, a very sick opposition is very much required. The cabals interested in zero opposition have recruited some elites to constantly hack at any opportunity to resuscitate the ailing party. Those interested in jumping the APC ship they are currently battering have also engaged the services of some elites to cage the party until they are done destroying the ruling party.

The perspective of our political class has changed with variables primed at shooting down the very essence of democracy. May be we are doing it our own way, but the 2015 alliance and subsequent defeat of the PDP has not taught  us any good lesson.

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For the bickering APC politicians, a last minute alliance is always waiting for them. They can do anything they like, wreck their party platform and yet get away clean to perpetuate themselves.

We can now see why the ruling and opposition party platforms will continue to totter on slippery grounds until they cave under to produce another party. For many politicians, it is instructive for the major party platforms to be on fire. It must burn for them to steal money and latter votes of unassuming Nigerians. For them, a new party will give them a clean sheet just as APC provided some thieving PDP politicians. Yes, the 2015 election has only made Nigerian politicians more radical, less responsible and most notorious in abuse of office.

The present political situation, therefore, places Nigeria on a ticking time bomb set to explode once the spreading party implosion continues to spread like virus through the structures. The ruling party is nursing smashed nose while the opposition is blinded by several self-inflicted blows to the eyes. As the two major political parties are throwing punches, howling insults, the system is feeling the weight of the rumblings. The spate of recklessness is becoming legendary between the executive and the legislative arm of government.

The formation of APC and the greed of PDP has fractured their potentials, reducing party formations to prebends of some gluttonous elites engaged in ego measuring contest laced around hot cauldron of dock and dive maneuvers for who gets richest and whose length of influence goes the farthest. Alas, the composition of the two leading political parties is the sad reality of toddler cognitive reflexes reflected by the dramatis personae on our political scenery.

Our political recruitment system has only helped in producing elites who are only interested in recouping their ‘investment’ at the polls. A look at the monies required by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) for candidates in elective offices to pay before joining the race shows how the system gives only a limited class of Nigerians the opportunity to participate, regardless of their mental, social or administrative capability.

Most politicians occupying elective positions in the country are investors whose primary objective is to make good turnover on what they have spent. They are, therefore,  interested in their own pockets than keeping faith with the rudiments of their offices meant to bring succour to the ordinary citizens who elected them. They amass ill-gotten wealth and use it as baits at the end, sprinkle peanuts for  the electorate who are dazed and crazed with hunger to gnaw at, in return for votes.

Generally speaking therefore, it is safe  to assert that our politicians, regardless of the political divides, are super greedy, abysmally self based and pathologically programed to use their powerful positions to rape the country of its commonwealth. It is, indeed, clear that the present doldrums is a consequence of corruption, which has indeed become an incurable cancer devouring what is left of our democracy.

Ebije writes from Abuja.