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| Femi Aribisala |
From Bad to Worse by Femi Aribisala
Indeed, everything under this APC government has gone from bad to worse. The economy is worse. The cost of living is worse. The security situation is worse. The naira is worse. The unity of Nigerians is worse. The corruption index is worse. The electricity situation is worse. The ministers in the presidential cabinet are worse. The liberty of Nigerians is worse. The rule of law is worse. The political climate is toxic.
We are not just saddled with an incompetent government. We are saddled with one that merely watches while we are being murdered in our homes, farms and churches. We are saddled with a government that tells us the choice we have is either to lose our land to carpetbaggers or lose our lives. We are saddled with a government that defines itself as a northern, instead of a national, government; with all its security architecture in the hands of northerners.
In 16 years in power, the PDP not only cleared Nigeria’s debts of some $30 billion, it borrowed a total of only N6 trillion. However, in just three years, the APC has returned Nigeria to the debtor status and borrowed a whopping N11 trillion. We are yet to see what all this new debt has been spent on.
Lack of Integrity
The APC is the party that boasts of integrity but lacks integrity. This ensures it embarrasses itself with one scandal after the other. From the Babachir Lawal’s ‘grasscutter’ scandal, Abdulrashid Maina’s pension and recall scam, the NHIS scandal, the EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu’s scandal to the recent Kemi Adeosun NYSC certificate forgery scandal. The APC fails to act against corruption while nevertheless fooling itself that it is a champion of the anti-corruption struggle.
Unlike the proverbial charity, APC’s anti-corruption war does not begin at home in the APC. The party encourages and molly-cuddles the corrupt. Indeed, it has an open-door policy for the corrupt. Once you are in APC or you decamp to APC, you are automatically whitewashed from allegations of corruption.
Once you have corruption allegations to answer before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), all you need to do is defect to the APC and you will be welcome with open arms. Your corruption case will also suddenly disappear. This is the case with Godswill Akpabio. He had a pending case of corruption with the EFCC but has now quickly defected from the PDP to the APC. That singular act is likely to whitewash him and dustbin his case.
The anti-corruption struggle for the APC is in declaring Rotimi Amaechi innocent until proven guilty, while proclaiming Diezani Allison-Madueke guilty until proven innocent.
Whatever anyone may think or say about the PDP, it is a national party. As a matter of fact, it remains the only national party in Nigeria to date in this republic. Its membership and strength stretch from North to South and East to West.
Not so the APC. The APC is a sectarian party. It is an agglomeration of regional parties that merged together for the sake of capturing the presidency. Once this happened, their sectarianism came back to the fore.
On his inauguration, the president told Nigerians: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.” However, the APC has turned out to be essentially a North-West and South-West party that has effectively divided Nigeria along regional lines. On his election, the president went to the U.S. where he declared that: “The constituents (that) gave me 97 per cent cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5 per cent.”
That means the president can largely overlook the South-East and the South-South in appointments. It also means Fulani herdsmen from the North can continue to kill innocent farmers all over the country, while government sees no evil and hears no evil.
When a substantive Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman was finally approved, the president broke another protocol by choosing a man from his own region, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, continuing the lopsided policy whereby the chief organs of the federal government (the presidency, the legislature and the judiciary) are now all headed by northerners.
APC is an expired drug. Nigerians now know what it means to vote against good luck.