By Tunde Abatan, tunde2013abatan@gmail.com 08165660217
Ever since it’s creation by administrative fiat and convenience of British overlords in 1914,Nigeria ,a country which has produced and sent out it’s best in world stage in every facet of human knowledge and profession, have never had it’s ethics and values so degraded as it has done in the past few weeks.
Indeed,the event of last week,which saw the ‘dethronement’ of morality and destruction of values must make our founding fathers turn in their graves.
Not even during the several decades of military interregnum has our sense of value been sacrificed with the debasing of our local currency replacing it with foreign currency-the dollar, and it’s implication on the value of Naira which for some time found no place in the hand of our leaders.
Spending the dollar in it’s millions is not the issue but on what object is the real problem.
When emergent leaders depend on bribing their way to office with dollars,then it is the first sign that if they eventually got elected,the dollar which has so far replaced the local currency, which has already lost its intrinsic value, they will definitely kill the Nigerian in us.
Indeed,they have killed the Nigerian in us.
What is more,putting a price tag of a minimum of $10,000 dollars and maximum of $20,000 by members of the ruling class by a party in opposition is a sign of the leadership it is set to offer.
It may not be different from what it offered before it’s ouster by the ballot box.
That the top players in the People’s Democratic Party,PDP, a party sent out of power in the last seven years could struggle to outdo each other to get support of just 750 delegates for a presidential slot tells you the humungous amount of money in the pocket of men of yesterday who left power due to poor performance in office.
With the exception of Governor Nyesome Wike of Rivers state, Dr Bukola Saraki,immediate past Senate President ,most of the other aspirants led by former vice president Atiku Abubakar had left power 15 years ago.
Yet, that Atiku could still reportedly afford to splash a princely sum on delegates who equally took from other aspirants, speaks volume of money in the hands of leaders of an opposition party.
Perhaps,former President Olusegun Obasanjo declaration that Atiku has enough to feed 300 million citizens for 400 years is not an exaggeration afterall.
With the dollar rain,the aspirants must have collectively enrich the delegates by at least $55,000 United States dollars each.
This translates to a princely sum of N21.5billion naira approximately $41 million spent on a night .
It was a night when hundreds of thousands of university students are at home simply because a sitting government could not cough out N21 billion to equip universities on a quarterly basis.
What is more,the agreement with ASUU was signed and sealed thirteen years ago.
It also means that the four men- Atiku,Wike,
Tambuwal and Saraki could collectively afford to part with just N21 billion yearly to fund our education.
The dollar jamboree by the politicians and prospective office holders is akin to the millions of dollars Governor Mattawale of Zamfara -a state that default in paying WAEC fees for three years, expended on buying limousines for traditional rulers.
If delegates who probably managed to get to Abuja through their state governors could go home with $55,000 each, it means they have collected on behalf of their citizens the money needed to take care of their welfare for an electoral calendar…between 2023-2027.
PDPs Dollarisation of power and office last week will perhaps pails into insignificance the amount the twelve strong men of the ruling APC will spend when their own battle for President Buharis job takes place Monday June 6 and 7.
As an aspirant in the ruling party,the stakes are higher here.
Higher because the propensity of the ruling government coming back to power is 50-50 in spite of whatever image it had acquired these past seven years.
What the dollar rain of last week has thought us is that the size and amount of Dollars given to delegates determine who rules us.
In other words, our dollar denominated Delegates has already presented for us limited choices among the ruling elite…
Your financial power and not your rhetorics determines what you get in office .
Not even the Hopeless poor who leaves the comfort of their homes to give official stamp through voting, have a say in the decisions already made by the strength of Dollars in Delegates pocket.
The poor suffers as they bear the brunt of failed promises which the Dollar denominated Delegates have compromised for them.
Norths Game of Power:
However, what should not be lost on close observers of the nations politics is the smarter,cohesiveness and solidarity which political elite from the North always display to beat their Southern counterparts to the game .
For the North,the centre is where the power over Nigeria is and for an average political elite from the North,ideology or party affiliation takes the back seat when issue of who wields the Power over Nigeria crops up.
Unlike the Southern politicians who mouth platitudes etc,Northern power seekers allow personal interest to take back seat when matters of North- South power game is concerned.
Governor Wike who stood like a rock of Gibraltar behind Tambuwal of Sokoto years ago must have learnt his lessons with last Saturdays event when he was humbled by Tambuwals alienation.
Wike has since found out that Northern interest takes the front seat irrespective of solidarity he gave Tambuwal when he opened his states Treasury for him years ago.
Today,Atiku is the man for Tambuwal.
Had Tambuwal chose to pay Wike back perhaps story of last Saturday would’ve been different.
But painfully for Wike and other Southern politicians and leaders this is no season for friendship. For the North,it is either Power or Not.
This is where Southern politicians need to check themselves whether it is worth demanding for equality from Northerners who have shown mastery in the game of power and politics than them this past years.
Besides,had delegates from the South gave their solidarity to Wike when he needed them the story could’ve been different.
This is perhaps a big warning and lesson for the likes of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Tunde Bakare,Rotimi Amaechi and others who for once had to watch and play strategically.
Should the North supremacist tendency in APC keen on having Presidency at all cost, late comer Senate President, Ahmed Lawan may be the joker by the Northern power block in APC to retain power just like the PDP.
What this means is that wherever a Northern politician is,getting power for the region is absolute not minding whether personal interest is injured..
Though, Alhaj Ahmed Hayautudeen one of PDP aspirants espoused personal ideals by pulling out of the ‘dollarised’ primary, yet his voice is not enough to change the established norm.
For the Southern politicians, governors and other office holders, time is when personal interest should give way to national interest.
It is also quiet obvious that for a Northern politician at a time like this ,collective interest is allowed to take centre stage and this to me is the secret of Northern domination over the years..
Even when power is conceded like it did to Obasanjo,it holds the lever at all times.
Obis decamp to Labour Party may at best return the country to regional politics moreso if either of Tinubu or Osinbajo lose to a Northern politician in the race to who succeeds Buhari.
Time for the South to think is Now.
Old tactics won’t solve new problems.
