APC’s Platoons Of Economic Criminals, By Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú
When Buhari won the All Progressives Party’s congress, some of us had a sense that it was a tectonic moment in Nigerian politics. We banked on his integrity and anti-corruption stance and knew he would become president because the stars had aligned for him to win long before the primaries. What we were unprepared for, was his seeming unpreparedness having striven to become president for years.
That in itself is a symbol of entrenched mediocrity in the system. He may not have known the extent of plunder, and mass looting under Jonathan but he ought to have prepared to hit the ground running because no economy can withstand the sharing of dollars and the political gifting jamboree Jonathan unleashed without it tumbling into the pits. Buhari’s foot-dragging and total hijack by those who did not work at the altar of his election and perennial opportunists gave bite to the platoons of economic criminals within the APC and their commanders.
No one is in doubt that violent corrupt practices have always flourished in Nigeria, after all Nigeria is a racket and criminal enterprise. Within the criminal enterprise, the House of Representatives and the Senate are not just a crime syndicate, they are criminal brokers between the Federal Government, their respective states and persons. Since 1999, Nigerian legislators have exercised covert influence on our political economy by inflating the budget, inserting pork, laundering money, tolerating executive and judicial recklessness, as long as the crime state within the state is protected.
Advertisement
What has come to the fore with Buhari’s presidency is the long dominance of feudal power structures and our lack of a participatory political culture. We have mobile telephony and the ubiquity of information enabled by new and social media to thank for our new found awareness. Why is budget padding necessary? It is necessary because our criminal syndicate use clientilism to inhibit the development of a civic culture of active political participation, social cooperation and collective action. That is why horizontal solidarity across social strata is almost impossible in Nigeria and a major reason why development has become elusive. Instead of building a good and working country for all, everyone looks up to graft, grab and patronage.
What is going on in the Senate and now in the House of Representatives tells us that: you cannot shoot fire at your enemy unless your shot against your own kind is precise. Asking Abdulmumin Jibrin to face disciplinary action is counter-productive and pointless. Actually it is rank hypocrisy. Who is going to stand in judgement against him? We need the fratricide going on in the APC, it is healthy. This political cleansing is needed, it is compelling and must be encouraged by well meaning Nigerians. We want it to be as brutal and cathartic as the economy has been on poor Nigerians they have milked to death by their mindless looting. The sharing of billions is not only wicked, it amounts to economic rape in a country where most people can’t afford three decent meal a day. Let them have a taste of their own poison.
What Jibrin is spearheading is political mutiny against economic saboteurs; a ring to which he belonged. I foresee this happening everywhere and Nigeria becoming an archipelago of political mutinies in coming months because they all have sinned against Nigeria and the reckoning is here. It will be interesting how this onslaught from every angle will be handled by the party and the president it produced. What is clear is that, there is a brewing social, political and economic insurrection in Nigeria. The temptation exists to dismiss it as uninformed passion over nothing. But the coherence of voices and welling of angry intent should be of concern to all patriots. Nigerians are taking their economic and political future into their own hands. Because they are better informed; they are asserting the right to ask, the right to know, the right not to be patronised and the right that the elected must perform the duties that it is legally obliged to perform.
It is clear that the APC has mishandled its electoral success so far. Except in states like Kaduna, Lagos and one of two more, their governors have turned out to be total disappointments. There is a lot of ferment out there and a changing swirl of political attitudes and loyalty. How they manage the crisis within the party (if the party survives as a whole entity) and restructure the economy to work for the average Nigerian will influence the outcome of APC’s first electoral confrontation with Nigerians in 2019. Times are different now, the electorate is getting more sophisticated and voters recognise the power of their voters’ cards. The party will be judged by results and if nothing has changed, the voters judgment will be devastatingly cruel.
