Looking at the politicians forcing a match under the cantilever called ADC, is redolent of a rehash of weather-beaten records with cracked rhythms. From Rotimi Amaechi, to Nasir El-Rufai, Atiku Abubakar, Bolaji Abdullahi, Odigie Oyegun, Mr. Grasscutter, Babachir Lawal, Tom Ikimi, Peter Obi, Sule Lamido, David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola, and others, these political geriatrics, whose main motive is essentially a self-serving diadem, and ought to know that their adventure in coalition politics is dead on arrival. If the coalition were populated by men of honour, bearing even a negligible modicum of scruples, they would have known that they should be asking Nigerians to hang them on crosses not to bring them back; they would today instead cover themselves in sackcloth and ashes with their heads buried in shame! Most of these impostors purporting to be the messiahs Nigeria needs have been front row actors in Nigeria’s political trajectory, and chief players in the APC’s and PDP’s politics of 2023 and even before then. They are up to their shucking and jiving again. The only reason why they’ve decided to bolt away is because they are currently destitute, and are not welcome in Aso Villa. Their saliva no longer bears the taste of the trappings of power; the oil and honey, their stuff of dreams, was pulled from under their feet; hence, the applecart must go topsy-turvy.
I do not frown at the credible yearning they claim is their motive. The insult is that these weather beaten political gladiators, think it is moral for them to be so brazen. They insult us all. They think we are credulous. Most of them have served this country in various capacities even from way back when Nigeria entered the current democratic Republic, and have been fingered as the real architects of the halitosis for which reason they now take umbrage at the present leadership in Nigeria. They have acquired illicit wealth, using the instrumentality of the offices they held, become inexplicably wealthy, jaunt from place to place and now spiel sesquipedalian dross on how they will make Nigeria better. I think they are broke!!! They are at best, old sinners in new cassocks, trying to go great lengths to raise their voices in singing hallelujah songs to woo their ghosts not us!. They sleep at night in stolen opulence, and speak during the day of hunger and poverty. Tell me, what can Atiku Abubakar have for Nigerians? What semantics does Rotimi Amaechi have to speak to our activated ears? What does Nasir ElRufai have in his pouch to convince us this time? Or is it David Mark, after his peculiar eight years as Senate President?
Coalition politics is attractive if and when the people can see and tell the difference. But when you assemble people for the sole purpose of wrestling power only to continue in your recalcitrance, you call us fools! There is no thematic genuity in the vision statement of the ADC, asides creating a platform to champion the ambition of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a perennial presidential candidate, whose desperation for presidency is now at an all time high. The new party and its coalition is at best Atiku-Device- Coalition, a new plane for the man who was described by Olusegun Obasanjo as massively corrupt. Like a written canard, Atiku has sworn to be a perpetual aspirant until death: since the inception of his ambition in 1990 till date, Atiku has been driven by self, his ambition has been rendered in desperation, thwarted by greed and will soon be buried as a laughing stock, hopefully. The ADC hasn’t got anything with which they can deceive themselves that the coalition is credible. The party hasn’t shown any alternative viewpoint policy-wise, to counter what presently obtains whether on the economic or political front. They are just pushing the old rhetorics.
In saner countries, all those coalition advocates would have been cooling off in gaol, as a consequence of their inaction and unholy alliances during their secret romance with our public till. Changing political parties is not dialysis; it doesn’t clean out the blood or character. These men have been part and parcel of power players for the last three decades, and they never altered the narrative or left any legacies. Now they inhale the rot created by their own actions and inaction, when they plundered state resources without qualms, and undercut the destiny of a nation that ought to be flourishing with several opportunities, but remains manacled. They are empty! They don’t have new ideas to espouse. What is their creativity level? Are they wearing a different garb? Are they championing anything new different from the polluted faces that we have become too familiar with?
What is their motive? For country or for own pocket? Old sinners trying to cajole us with new cassocks. Old politicians who have held one position or the other, where they were unable to make any impact, now trying to rebrand themselves as modern day adventurists and missionaries? Nigerians can’t be fooled again. We need to travel down promising and burgeoning routes to advance the cause of democracy, to build national cohesion and solidarity. For 2027, it is APC. ADC is a place for people whose political careers have ghosted them, providing a charnel house for deceased political careers. It is a rehab home for tired politicians, who are still struggling to keep fit but who are now shadows of themselves. We know them. We sabi them. No scruples. No ideas. No compunction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Prince Kassim Afegbua former commissioner for information in Edo State lives in Abuja
