Buni’s fellow North-east governor of PDP extraction said in recent past that, APC is all about President Muhammadu Buhari, and as he concludes his tenure come 2023, the reality will prevail on the party.
As I watched the governor pronouncing that prophesy, I recalled TB Joshua’s prophesy of who would succeed Obama as US President. The deceased man of God heightened and sustained the suspense of his congregation before eventually revealing his prophesy in what English grammar refers to as a simple sentence. A simple sentence consists of just a subject and a predicate.
That was all the prophesy contained. “I saw a woman”, was all he said. The thunderous uproar of the congregation in response to that prophesy still lingers in my skull. The irony of it was, we all saw that woman via the prism of the US media, so much and so serious that no sane gambler would have aligned his fate with Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. It was so humanly evident that everyone could have turned to a prophet, at least for that moment. We eventually all got hit by the reality that prevailed eventually.
The governor’s prophesy of what becomes of APC post Buhari was a prophesy akin to that. At a point in the recent history of the APC, you need no high spiritual standing to prophesise her down fall.
Lest we forget, we were talking about a party in control of the central government, majority in states and the National Assembly, yet, glaringly unable to productively exploit the gains of her electoral victories.
Top leadership of the party that ought to be the springboard for accelerated growth and development got drunk by arrogance and impunity and began to behave in a manner best described as a bull in a China shop. At that point it was perfectly safe as the governor did, to prophesise the doom that lay in ambush awaiting to cash on the misfortune that beset the party. Such prophesy is by no means a spiritual rocket science that is an exclusive reserve of certain people. It was more like stating a phenomenon that was a faith accompli.
It however came to pass that certain president, hitherto taken for granted in matters of party politics rose to the occasion at the ripe of time and bequeathed on the party certain Mala Buni, hitherto also taken for granted in terms of requisite rugged leverage to usher the party out of the woods.
Belief they say is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad. Believe in self and in the efficacy of justice and fair play is without doubt, the rescue weapons with which the Buni led CTECC has been able to reshape the precarious destiny that once posed uncommon existential challenge to the party.
The Mala Buni alternative has so far brought to the fore, great lessons of humility, focused vision and unwavering faithfulness in selfless service. These have in turn changed the trajectory of the party from doom to boom, so much that the gentleman governor is seen as a man on silent mission of annihilating the opposition, and thus ushering a one party nation. Far from that however, the undercurrent of unfolding events is to the effect that, the mighty are also in desperate need of justice and levelled playing field to unleash their political assertiveness. Where such are lacking on account of the impuneous disposition of certain political demigods, the exudos of once party faithful away from the party becomes inevitable.
This underscores the universatality of justice.
Buhari remains a factor in the survival of the APC both interms of his person and the virtues he epitomizes of integrity, justice and incorruptibility. All it thus takes to engender the sanctity of the party beyond the Buhari presidency is the institutionalization in the party, those same virtues Buhari believes and lives for.
An attempt at synthesising the thesis of the Mala Buni approach to leadership of the ruling party reveals a course that is worthy of believe by party faithful that desire alternative platform away from injustice and impunity. While the caretaker committee delivers to the admiration of party faithful, care must be taken not to repeat the mistakes of the past by handing out the party to desperate opportunists that will commit the party to pursuit of personal aggrandisement over the well-being of the party. The hasty attempts recently to truncate the committee via rushed and selective interpretation of the verdict of the apex court on Ondo governorship election are pointers to the challenges ahead of how internal factors can hamper the gains so far achieved in ushering a formidable APC with survival capacity beyond the Buhari presidency. Time shall tell.
Adamu writes from Bauchi via [email protected]
