By Dahiru Hassan Kera
The history of democracy in Nigeria is characterized by military interregnum and civil unrest. The country has witnessed political instability from the first republic up to the return of democracy in 1999, and there has been a sizeable phobia of military interruption of to the civilian regime which has equally threatened the sustainability and stability of democracy.
The fundamental forces that shaped democracy and governance in Nigeria were undeniably the military and career politicians with significant influences from business moguls and the press. Mirthfully, the uninterrupted democratic dispensation from 1999 to date implies that democracy has come to stay in Nigeria, culminating in giving hope, courage and increased citizen participation in governance.
This negates the hitherto despair and despondency among Nigerians on the issue of leadership and governance.
Certainly, the 2015 pre and post-election has significantly altered the Nigerian political settings, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been in power since 1999, was ousted by the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC) after 16 consecutive years of uninterrupted reign. PDP within that epoch bred politicians with high and intimidating credentials.
It gave many people a platform to grow, and put the country on a sound socio-economic position. But unfortunately, when the party was faced with challenges that to its possibility of scaling through 2015 general elections, most of the unprincipled cum credulous politicians were seen ungraciously packing and later connived with the new APC to vilify, criticize and malign their political history. There have been campaigns of calumny, religious bigotry, political intolerance and narrow-mindedness against the PDP and mostly by those who were voted under the same PDP.
Unfortunately, the one and half year of APC’s stewardship has vindicated the PDP that was blamed for the economic woes of the country.
There has never been an incident where a political party or government would continue to play the blame game on the preceding government for more than a year. The sharp increase in petroleum pump price, the return of armed robbery and kidnappings, creation of avengers, steep increase in commodity prices, the economic downturn of the nation, the era of inconclusive elections, political intolerance, the political crisis rocking various states and National Assembly within the ruling APC, among others, are the attributes of poor governance and administrative ineptitude of the present government.
Ironically, the non-violent conceding of defeat by former President Goodluck Jonathan that should have been a cogent lesson to learn by the APC administration has been given and greeted with sloven dispositions. The recent political intolerance shown by the APC in the politics of Rivers State has indicated that the party couldn’t learn from PDP’s political fair play and politics without bitterness they’d enjoyed during the 2015 elections.
The overbearing interference by the federal might in Rivers has been of concern and a threat to the nation’s democracy. Elections were conducted by the body of same electoral umpires and adjudicators who oversaw the 2015 elections and pronounced Buhari as the winner but surprisingly the Rivers APC and their national organs could not concede defeat and allow peace to reign in the state as it was done to them by PDP in 2015. An American musician, Whitney Houston, sang; “Life ever change, sometimes you could laugh, sometimes you could cry, for every win, someone must fail.’’ Yet, Dakuku Peterside and Rotimi Amaechi could not learn from all these.
Since defeating his APC opponent, Peterside with a landslide and subsequently pronounced winner of the Rivers State gubernatorial election on December 8, 2014 by INEC, Nyesom Wike was drawn into a legal battle by the APC, challenging his victory from tribunal to the Supreme Court. It even moved the court from Rivers to Abuja where APC could leverage to alter the judgement but still Wike triumphed, leaving Peterside, Amaechi, and their bedfellows in shame.
To show his political prowess, PDP in Rivers state under his purposeful leadership has won virtually all the state and National Assembly rerun elections conducted in March 2016 despite intimidations and unsolicited deployment of heavy security apparatus from Abuja. And the recent burning down of INEC office in Bori, Khana local government area ahead of the scheduled July 30, rerun election for Rivers East Senatorial District between Magnus Abe of APC and Olaka Nwogu of PDP could be another indicator that some elements are bent on destabilizing the state for their own unachievable selfish interest. However, the intervention by the new IG of Police and the DSS boss to broker peace between Wike and Amaechi, if done and accepted with all sincerity, could go a long way in restoring peace.
Luckily for the people of Rivers state, armed with determination and passion for developing the state and rescue it from its hitherto comatose status, Wike, a legal eagle and a seasoned democrat par excellent, could not be deterred by all the legal brawls and other externalities. within his one year in office, he was able to construct 42 roads, pay the backlog of salaries and pension arrears, completed the headquarters of the Greater Port Harcourt Development Authority that would employ over 200 professionals, provide about 100 operational vehicles to security agencies in the state, rehabilitate schools and hospitals, construct 2 water booster stations and others too numerous to be captured here. He was quoted during a town hall meeting as saying, “You will not regret giving us your mandate. We don’t care who awarded the project, our concern is to execute projects that will impact positively on Rivers state.’’
With his display of dedication and commitment, Rivers state will surely be rescued and taken to greater heights.
Kera wrote from Abuja. Email: [email protected]
