New Telegraph

PDP: When two elephants fight…

Embattled Uche Secondus was elected the PDP National Working Committee Chairman after a bitterly contested election held at the Eagles Square, Abuja on 10th December, 2017.

 

Staunchly backed by PDP governors ably led by Rivers State’s Nyesom Wike and the then Ekiti State’s Gov. Ayodele Fayose, Secondus trounced three other contenders, scoring 2000 votes.

 

One-time Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, came a distant second with 230 votes, AIT’s owner, Raymond Dokpesi, scored 66 votes while Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, another one-time Minister of Sports and Special Duties, scored zero votes.

 

Nine aspirants earlier cleared for the contest withdrew before the D-Day when it became clear to everyone that the election would merely be a coronation; those who withdrew included Chief Olabode George, ex-Gov. Gbenga Daniel, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, and ex- Gov. Rashidi Ladoja. Wike and Fayose rallied (or is it railroaded?) their colleague-governors into Secondus’ corner.

 

Fayose snubbed his fellow Ekiti man, Tunde Adeniran, and “Lagos boy” Olabode George, the benefactor without whom he might never have become governor, because of the political permutations that reportedly paired Sokoto State’s Gov. Aminu Tambuwal and Fayose as the PDP presidential and vice-presidential candidate respectively for the 2019 presidential elections.

Man proposes, circumstances or, better still, God, disposes. So, as God would have it, veteran presidential candidate and former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, later, in October 2018, stole the thunder from under the belt of the Wike/Fayose/ Tambuwal group by clinching the PDP 2019 presidential ticket, beating Tambuwal, Senate president Bukola Saraki, and ex-Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso and other contenders to the trophy.

 

 

When Atiku chose ex-Gov. Peter Obi as his running-mate, not only did the Wike/Fayose/ Tambuwal group lose every foothold in the PDP 2019 presidential ticket, the South-west, which should have produced the PDP chairman had Fayose not pushed the slot away from the zone for his own personal aggrandisement, also lost out on all fronts.

 

It lost the PDP chairmanship to Secondus; it also lost the PDP presidential running mate slot.

Things have, however, fallen apart between Secondus and Wike. The PDP gladiators are back in the trenches once again. New alliances have emerged.

 

As in the past, the name of the game is personal interest. Carol Moseley Braun says: “There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just permanent interests” Patience Johnson, in “Why does an orderly God allow disorder?” situates it in politics this way: In politics, no permanent friends, no permanent enemies but permanent interest”.

 

Like in most things Nigerian, this definition of the place of interest in politics is carried too far. Selfish interest determines the political behaviour of many a Nigerian politician. Conversely, in other climes, this quote is meant to emphasise the supremacy of national interest over the interest of individuals.

 

One-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, once said: We have no permanent friends. We have no permanent enemies.

 

We just have permanent interests”. The widely touted American master of shuttle diplomacy, Henry Kissinger, put it this way: America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”.

 

Carried further afield, we can quote Carl Schurz’s “Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!” In Nigeria, it is not about Country but about the individual politician’s stomach and pocket!

 

That is why alliances shift easily at the least  of excuses; and that is also why defections are rampant and follow no ideological or sensible pattern. That is why comrades turn coat again and again; and this morning’s bosom friends become inveterate foes before dusk.

 

And the game of musical or barber’s chair continues ad nauseam. This is what is playing out at the moment in PDP’s “Night of the Long Knives.” The PDP ship rocks hither and thither and the opposition party flounders as no love is lost between Secondus and his erstwhile godfathers.

 

It’s payback time for Wike et al. French philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau, is right, then, when he said: “The strongest is never strong enough to be always master unless he transforms strength into right and obedience into duty”

As he fails to have his way this time around, Wike must be rueing what hit him as he returns to the drawing board.

 

And as Secondus, the poster boy of 10 December, 2017, desperately clings unto straws to escape being booted out of office in ignominy, he must have begun to understand that power is transient and that those who ride on the tiger’s back unto power risk ending up in its stomach if they dare disembark.

 

There are always useful lessons to learn by the men of power, one of which is: Of what use is power when you cannot be master over your own actions? Another lesson is that what goes around comes around, as sung by Justin Timberlake.

 

“Rain-maker” Majek Fashek crooned that no one plants cassava and reaps cocoyam. Scripture puts it beyond controversy that whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap (Galatians 6:7). Five years ago PDP stalwarts sowed the wind; today they reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7). FEEDBACK Still on Eid-il-Kabir Some claim 114 years is a more likely age that Abraham received the command to sacrifice Isaac.

 

That will make it more likely that he could still overpower the boy, especially if he caught him early in the morning, while the boy was still groggy from sleep! Ishmael would have been 28 years then, at the very top of the fitness ladder, putting the lie on the alternative narrative  regarding the candidate God had requested for sacrifice. Not that it’s any easier for a 124-yearold to take on and bind one who is a mature 38 years!

 

Secondly, you claimed repeatedly that two religions, Christianity and Islam, came out of Abraham. You forgot the very first, the faith of the Hebrews themselves, Judaism.

 

While at this, it needs be said that while Christians and Jews have no enduring antagonism between themselves, Islam has been fundamentally at war with the other two, whatever or however loud the protestations and proclamations of its adherents to the contrary.

 

And one must judge a person by his acts, not just by his words. –Niyi Beecroft. NB: Thanks for pointing out the oversight on Judaism.

“In this country, amid the clash of arms, the laws are not silent. They may be changed but they speak the same language in war as in peace.” – Lord Atkin in Liversidge v Anderson [1942] AC 206 at 244.

 

We condemn the abduction of Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya by Nigeria because it did not follow due process. We condemn the attempt by Nigeria to have Sunday Igboho deported from Cotonou without following due process. We also insist that Abba Kyari cannot be arrested and deported to the United States without following due process.

(Forwarded by Femi Falana, SAN). Your question on the NYSC comes to mind: Are the two political parties still relevant in the affairs of the contraption called Nigeria? See them jumping ship! I can tell you that the reason for all the permutations is a mirage. Let them continue to fool themselves!

Let the southern arse-lickers amongst them continue to row upstream against a raging storm! –Pastor Jube Olawale. I remember that the acronym NYSC, which stands for the National Youth Service Corps, was being sarcastically translated as “Now Your Suffering Continues” even when the project was still very much relevant.

 

At least, by then there was still the probability of getting a job or finding something tangible to do after the service.

 

But presently, with the high rate of unemployment, lawlessness, kidnapping, insecurity, bad roads that have turned into death traps, and the worst state of the economy due to bad governance, especially as witnessed under the Buhari/APC misrule in the past six years, it is quite obvious that the NYSC has lost its relevance and one may ask for its scrapping.

However, I would suggest that the project should still be sustained but be reviewed.

 

The prospective corps members should be posted to serve within their area or close to their state of origin.

 

At least, the one year of service could serve as a transitional period for fresh graduates to put themselves together and strategies on how to survive in the present state of hopelessness that the country has been turned into by greedy politicians.

 

This is better than being thrown directly into the unemployment market after graduation.

 

Dr. DF Olukotun. I really desire that our leaders in the West, East and Middle Belt quickly wade in, review and take a final decision on the NYSC issue. – Abimbola Dosu.

The tragic accident involving the five corps members is so sad! I wonder why they had to travel at night.

One of them was even pregnant –Princess Oyeronke. LAST WORD: The exit of Lionel Messi from Barcelona after 21 years teaches that whatever has a beginning surely must have an end.

Once something starts, it must come to an end. Secondly, no one is indispensable. There are many others waiting in the wings to replace you!

 

No matter who dies or exits, life goes on! Imagine Barca winning their first trophy of the season without Messi

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