We are at our low ebb as a nation now, perhaps, the lowest. We fervently pray we do not slide further down. That could be a great disaster.
We hope we are not consumed by our own actions and inactions. But we are afraid, the terrible works of our hands point in this direction. It is horrible yet avoidable.
Worst still, our utterances and body language are not near helping matters. We have gone berserk, rabid and demented, all at the same time. Every one of us has gone his/her way. We carelessly hammer at our weaknesses, ignoring our glaring strengths. We dwell effortlessly on our great divide. Sad!
It is like we are intoxicated and bewildered. We have shut our minds to whatever unites us. We make uncanny references to our ugly past, bringing back awful memories.
With all the strength in us, we stretch to the very limit those things that divide us. We tax our fragile unity carelessly. We are going for broke.
It appears we have sworn to a secret oath to bring this country down to its weak knees. We are doggedly working at cross-purposes; as if there is no common ground or a meeting point. Instead, we are gladly heading to a point of no return.
What has come over us? Many things are potently wrong with us. And we are very much aware of this. But we pretend as if nothing serious is amiss. We are deliberately killing this country gradually. We are selfishly pulling the delicate strings that astonishingly bind us together. It is a miracle this country is still standing. It couldn’t have been otherwise.
Some other countries could not survive this. They caved in and collapsed like a pack of cards. Many of them are still struggling to come out of the woods. Name them: Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Libya and even Egypt. They are still reeling in their mess.
For us not to pick a useful lesson from these is our greatest undoing. That is the danger that lies ahead. It is waiting for us to fumble and wobble. The danger is imminent but avertable.
We are a shameless species. We choose to see the same things differently from our various myopic points of view. We are nearsighted, greatly influenced by our inherent greed and deceit.
We are dissipating energy and resources on nothingness. Okay, what else would you call the much-touted Change mantra? Restructuring of course! Then why the on-going hullabaloo?
Label it whatever toga suits you: Re-packaging, reorganisation, re-construction, remodeling, re-orientation, revolution and re-arrangement. Or modification, adjustment, correction, transformation. Simply, take your choice, and you are home and dry.
In all this, the bottom line is change. Yes the same change the All Progressives Congress (APC) arduously sermonised during its 2015 electioneering.
How come the party is labouring hard now to disown its campaign promise? Change (a.k.a. restructuring) is the strength upon which it rode to office. Remove its change mantra and the party is completely empty. And that is exactly the situation report.
Because APC has jettisoned its change slogan, that is the reason it is drifting back and forth. That is why we are where we are presently. The reason for the APC’s Babel of voices.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is a strong pillar in APC. He is faithful to the people and his party. The other day, he spoke his mind again. He told us the restructuring of his dream. Courtesy: Saturday Sun, July 22, 2017:
“The restructuring I want to see happen is to bring the benefit of the change that our people were promised in the last general elections.”
He is conscious that “restructuring is not a magic bullet that would resolve all Nigerian challenges, but is a necessary first step.”
Very down-to-earth: “We need to return resources and power to the local level, and from the elite to the people. Only by restructuring we guarantee unity, equity, security for our nation.”
Atiku found a like mind in Timi Frank, APC’s suspended Deputy National Publicity Secretary: “The party’s promise of restructuring is non-negotiable. It is a debt, and it must be fulfilled without further delay.”
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo took up arms against them. He led the pack of opposition in the APC against restructuring. Luckily, he has the types of governors Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Rochas Okorocha (Imo) and party chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, in his team.
They vehemently disagreed with Atiku and his team. And they are proud to be counted. They lent credible credence to the APC’s Babel of voices.
In the ensuring confusion, APC pretended it lost the meaning of restructuring. It hurriedly assembled a 10-man panel in search of it. And the onus fell again on el-Rufai and his APC Restructuring Definition Committee. Whatever that means.
Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose promptly rubbished all that. He is chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum. He roared from his Ado-Ekiti base: “This APC distraction is meant to deceive Nigerians one more time. Whereas they promised restructuring in their party manifesto, they have come out openly to deny this obvious fact.
“Who does not know that their so-called committee is an ingenious attempt to decisive and sweep the raging storm over restructuring under the carpet?”
Timi Frank again came on board. He couldn’t agree less with Fayose. Though a co-traveller with el-Rufai in APC, he was frank in his utterances:
“Governor el-Rufai has not hidden his opposition to the issue of restructuring since Nigerians began to remind us of our promise, which is boldly written in our party’s manifesto, hence the need to remove him because he does not believe in it.
“I find it difficult to believe he will abandon his hardline posture on this matter. He once described proponents of Nigeria’s restructuring as political opportunists and irresponsible.”
Don’t mind el-Rufai. He came out later to recant; that was a political statement. It couldn’t have held water by any means. He had spoken his mind when it mattered most. And the message was not lost on anyone.
What other name for change? Restructuring of course! What goes around comes around; that is restructuring. We dare not run away from it. The more we run, the more we get closer to it.
We have just one viable option: Unless we agree to discuss it will all honesty and sincerity, it will continue to hunt, haunt and taunt us.
Until then, APC’s Babel of voices goes on…Unabated?
The more the merrier.

Related News