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PDP and Buhari's mudslinging.


It is only in Nigeria that politicians are unashamed of ridicule and indecency, some at least. Or what else will one call the charade that ensued between General Buhari, the presidency and the Peoples’ Democratic Party? For making declarations to his party members, the presidency and the ruling PDP ran into the mud gleefully to prove to everyone that the country’s leadership is swift to reaction and gradually the country has descended into a mud fight. General Muhamodu Buhari’s declarations have since resulted into an exchange that is neither helpful nor is it in anyway productive to the polity. In a democracy (this is hardly one), there is room to tackle another party but it must be issue driven. The general spoke on an issue or issues but the reaction has been largely personal.

General Buhari had said that there will be a mass revolt in 2015 if INEC fails to conduct free and fair polls. Speaking to some members of his party the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) who came to wish him well on his return from surgery abroad, the former head of state said that there are several kinds of Boko Haram and that the biggest is the Federal Government.

In a swift reaction, the PDP spokesman described the general as a serial election loser who is not only blood thirsty but was suffering from combat withdrawal syndrome. The spokesman turned doctor now a specialist in diagnosing ailments without tests went ahead to proffer a line of treatment for the general: a readmission into the Nigerian army and possibly leading a contingent to Mali.

The CPC has reacted as expected. They described the President’s regime as being clannish and puerile. It went on to reaffirm the assertions credited to General Buhari. Meanwhile the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has thrown its weight behind the General urging the presidency to be wary of using language unbecoming of the presidency.

It is sad, very sad that the presidency has degenerated to this exercise of distracting everyone and itself from urgent national issues. At a time when there are challenges on nearly all facets of national life the least you expect is talk about a person who lost elections and then calling him names when he obviously raised salient issues that are yet to be addressed.

In case the PDP has forgotten, Nigeria was divided at the last polls. It was vehemently defeated in the north while it won in the south. Several polls conducted today show that Nigerians whether north or south regret Jonathan’s victory. The promised breath of fresh air has since turned out to be a sour smelling gale with consistent shows of impetuous abrasiveness, unwillingness to tackle corruption and gross mediocrity. General Buhari might be anticipating the next elections where should this trend of mediocre governance continue, and then an opposition party should win. The opposition cannot win the polls however unless there is an improvement in the conduct of elections. This is the message General Buhari was trying to convey.

General Buhari for his part has demonstrated time and again to be a patriot. It is important though to stress that at 70 years of age, the general should not continue to vie for the presidency. By 2015, he would be 74 years. The general may have succeeded in many areas but has failed in that he is yet to produce men like himself or at least a man like himself to succeed him. His party though enjoying popularity in the north failed at the governorship polls and the news coming from that party is not what anyone interested in viable opposition should get excited about.

General Buhari has paid his dues and will be remembered as a fearless, incorruptible ex-head of state whose regime brought discipline to Nigeria. There is not only one role though through which men may actualize themselves. The General should earnestly begin the quest to solidifying his party’s position as a viable opposition and strengthening whatever values he thinks fit. The General must realize that his popularity is not enough to get him the presidency in today’s Nigeria. General Buhari may have expressed a popular opinion in describing the federal government as Boko Haram; it is however unbecoming of a man of his exposure to make such proclamations public even if he has proof of such assertions.

On a national note, the presidency has been made a mess of by this yet again. Not every comment is deserving of a reaction and not every reaction should be this demeaning. Terms like the ones used by the PDP to describe the general should only be used at informal circles but not made national issues where even children can pick up the wrong impression. More importantly, the reaction of the PDP has proven yet again that its leadership of Nigeria is largely personality driven and not issue or ideology based. The inability of the presidency to separate the general’s comments suggests also that the presidency is not focused but heavily distracted on several fronts.

As for the Nigerian people, there is an urgent need to throw away indifference, shun sectionalism but bring to bear true watchfulness on these undeserving elements that currently masquerade themselves as politicians. The time approaches when the revolution so spoken off long ago must take place, a revolution not made with guns and bullets but of voters and their ballot. 

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