The wave of terror across the country is on the increase. It is ravaging the very foundation of the Nigerian state. A lot of bestial things are happening at the same time. We have the Boko Haram sect doing the unimaginable – killing, maiming, raping girls and women. We read and hear about kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killings and baby factories where babies are produced and sold at ridiculous sums. These are indeed heart-rending!
These atrocious deeds appear very difficult to manage in the face of their widespread nature. Although government is working very hard to stem the tide and bring perpetrators to book, the situation has remained very unfortunate. Most times perpetrators of this orgy of violence are faceless and they attack individuals, groups, institutions for either selfish motives or undefined motive at all.
While we are still contending with those enemies of the people, politicians on their own part are not helping matters. They are heating up the polity by their activities and utterances. It appears that they are out to destroy the country for their own selfish ends.
Not too long ago, we saw how politicians at the National Assembly tried to block the progress of the country for partisan reason. The opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), wanted to prove a point, directing its members at the National Assembly to block any legislative initiative in connection with the now-approved 2014 appropriation bill and ratification of names of new service chiefs on the floor of the Senate. That position was suicidal and it was a joke taken too far. These are not the type of politicking Nigeria needs at this critical point in time. The Nigeria project is for one and all, irrespective of party or religious affiliations. What would it profit APC or any other party for that matter to destroy the economy just to prove a point, all in the name of politicking?
It is true that the polity is in dire need of reform and that a credible opposition would supply the needed stimulus, not incisive opposition, not backward-looking opposition, not one that invites anarchy and one that truncates legitimate government. But it is my considered opinion that the APC appears to be going too far. If it is the way it has chosen to go about the political re-engineering of the Nigerian state, which it claims it is currently pursuing, I am afraid Nigerians will have to look elsewhere for the expected “messiah”.
It appears that APC’s mission is just to capture power at the centre at all costs, hence its bellicose posture of fire for fire and limb for limb. Most of its infantile utterances and name-calling against the president, which dot the pages of the national dailies, are unnecessary. In my own judgment, its leadership seems to lack maturity, charismatic sagacity, and candour. At best, APC leadership is a colony of strange bedfellows, hardliners, egocentric and proud politicians lacking in what it takes to lead a people of diverse cultural background which the Nigerian state represents.
A party that sees everything wrong in other parties, without self-appraisal, is not a good party. The party has reduced the carnage going on in the North-East to mere politics. It is busy casting aspersions at Mr. President without genuinely proffering solution to the insurgency. For instance, it is on record that no APC stalwart has raised a thought-provoking suggestion or made any effort at joining government effort to find a lasting solution to the Boko Haram onslaught and other criminal activities across the country.
Without sounding alarmist, we as a people are approaching a dead-end. Pages of the national dailies are awash with the alarming figures of dead victims of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. While government on one hand is working hard to stem the tide, appealing to all and sundry to help in restoring the nation’s lost glory and save Nigeria from disintegration, the opposition is busy threatening fire and brimstone. This position is far from the aspiration of the country’s founding fathers.
If APC wants to be seen as a credible opposition, it should prove to Nigerians that it is worried about the state of affairs in the country. It is also sad that the party is busy throwing its doors open for the disgruntled elements from PDP who have fouled the air in the ruling party and have also lost political relevance. If the broom party hopes to be seen as a serious party, and if it truly wants to struggle for power, it has to change its approach. From what Nigerians have so far seen about the party, it is doubtful, very doubtful, if it can record electoral victory at the centre in many years to come.
While Nigerians welcome opposition, an opposition that constitutes itself into a nuisance is far from the ideal. It must be an opposition that must be tolerant, humble, and capable of producing an alternative government. All atoms of bitterness, brigandage or do-or-die affair must be jettisoned.
Chukwuemeka Emere
