Yes, Politics Without Bitterness! It was Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim, the erstwhile chairman of the then Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP), that popularized this phrase during the second republic (1979-1983). Although Alhaji Ibrahim was apparently shortchanged in the scheme of things, he neither destroyed anybody nor tried to run down the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari nor those controlled by the then Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP).
The leader of GNPP presents a lesson to the present politicians (especially the opposition, whichever party that be) on how to play politics without deforming the polity, unlike the one we have today where if you are not in party, then the baby must be thrown away with the bath water – you must destroy the country and the people whom you intend to govern.
The manner of politics being played by the All Progressive Congress (APC) is certainly not the type of politics played by Alhaji Ibrahim. It was not the type played by the then Action Group (AG), which could be said to be the precusor of the Action Congress, a major member of APC. The do-or-die approach innunciated by former President Obasanjo appears to have been bought hook, line and sinker by the party: anything done by the government party is always visited by scathingcritisism and abuses, even to the person of the president.
Politics is about power and the use of power to control the national resources for the benefit of the majoriry of the populace. The power, it is believed, belongs the people and (in a democracy) it is bestowed upon the politicians to manage on behalf of the people whose resources are required to be managed to the best of their interest. In our clime, however, a few people corner the peoples’ power and use it to oppress them. They tell us that power belongs to the people with their mouth, but oppress and disable the people by their actions. They come to the people and say good things to them when they are trying to seize power from them, and turn around and become their overlords and garner the commonwealth of the nation to themselves and their cronnies.
When they create problems, they take themselves and their children to other countries where they will not be hurt. But when the troubles they created settle, they come back to continue from where they had stopped. While there is unemployment, it is not for their children. Or, tell me, have you seen the children of politians line up to apply for jobs. They rather get choice jobs in the banks and oil companies and blue chip organizations. It is the common man’s children that suffer unemployment. After using the youths as thugs they abandon them: and now we are seeing the result of such abandonment in the restiveness and terrorisms that abound in our land.
Whether in opposition or in the ruling party, the interest of Nigerians should be uppermost in the mind of the politicians. Although that is what they want us to believe, but their utterances and actions show the opposite. The way the All Progressive Congress is going about opposition is
dangerous. If they destroy this country, they will have nobody to rule (should they take over power).
The call by the national interim secretary of the party on its members to block all executive bills, including the 2014 appropriation bill is dangerous and, indeed, politics with a large dose of bitterness. It is like sentencing the population to death. They are well aware that without the annual budget it will be impossible to run the government and they will return to blame the government for not doing anything. Why must they shut down the country because they want power. Why must they shut down the government and kill the people because they want power. If they get the power, what will they do with it if they have killed all the people or destroyed the country?
They tell us the ruling party is not doing well, call them all sorts of scornful names, but they are busy wooing and accepting members of the same PDP who decamp to APC. Is it not the same people they are accusing of corruption and maladministration that are the members of the government party? Is it not this same people they are now populating their own party with. This shows that there is no real difference between them and PDP or any of the other parties. They are all comrades in loothing, corruption and self-seeking. It is just a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
While I am not holding brief for the PDP or any other party, the APC does not seem to see that it is a party that has no place for women or the youth. None of its interim leaders is less than 50 years old and they are all from one religious sect. Is this the type of Nigeria they want to give us? From the antecedent of a good number of their members, and their utterances, coupled with the recent fightings in some of the APC-controlled states, it cannot be wrong to believe that the party enjoys violence.
What is the point calling for the blocking the passage of the 2014 appropriation bill and the non-confirmation of the appointment of the new service chiefs? Must they kill the people of the country so as to capture power, and would they use this power to rule the dead?
Whatever they do, they should bear in mind that Nigeria and Nigerians are the essence of their politics. They should learn to play their politics without bitterness.
By: Uwadilachi Ijioma
