APC, PDP Alliance without Accord

WHEN the going became tough, the NPN and NPP entered into an accord while the UPN remained the

opposition. The smaller parties, mind you of the second republic, waited in the wings, watching the wind vane, sniffing where the wind was blowing and timing with the aid of the political pendulum. Joseph Wayas of the NPN was Senate President while Edwin Ume-Ezeoke was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Recall also that Olusola Saraki, one of the timbers and calibres of the second republic, was senate majority leader. Yes, he's the father of Bukola Saraki, now the Senate president. You see, the Saraki political dynasty is alive and waxing very strong. And so, the offspring of the snake has to be very long like the father who sired him otherwise he could be disowned. ''I'm not responsible for the pregnancy that produced you'', he could be told. Just to remind you where the senate president is coming from! From very honourable loins, you could say! A political strategist and tactician who the APC men, perhaps, failed to appreciate his pedigree, and fell into his ambush position.

We will come back to this issue of ambush and what it does a carefree expedition. But let's follow this Accord Concordia. Yes, the NPN-NPP accord did not last long. Because of divergent ambitions of its founders spotted in the merger it was described as an Accord Unique. When it got broken, the author, Cyprain Ekwensi, still very active then, said, ''an Accord Unique could die to give birth to an Accord Concordia''. An accord of the progressives between the UPN and NPP emerged and the political sing-song of 'change' dominated the air. Yes, we had a choir, not of frogs, but of political supporters. The political arena reverberated with 'change' as we have today. Our brothers in the North under an amalgam of smaller parties over there, still under the progressive movement knew no other song than 'chanjii!'. The difference in the progressives in the PPA merger then was that the parties in the Alliance never lost their individual identities. Again, we will deal with why and how some passengers could not catch the train at a critical moment at gamesome and great inaugural of the National Assembly. Meanwhile, it is time to appreciate how the Flying Eagles go crushed under the heavy weight of German machines. The Germans, as it is with their technology so it is with their football. ''We lost to a better side'', admits Flying Eagles coach, Manu Garba. And a different stroke here! Samson Siasia blasts Manu's poor tactics saying ''his poor tactics cost Nigeria a place at the quarter finals of FIFA U-20 World Cup''. That's football politics for you. And folks, especially football lovers, are asking, “when shall we smile or laugh again in jubilation? “Each time, it is like a bereaved group returning from the grave yard after a burial. We want to run about the city once again carrying a trophy, not an obituary message that 'we lost again and again'. To a better side! What a nonsensical twaddle!

  And talking about obituary, the Nigerian media lost TIF, that is, Tolu Fatoyinbo, a football commentator of the Ernest Okonkwo and Ishola Folarunso generation, a musicologist and choir master who Radio Nigeria and their friends will find it difficult to forget. And in Anambra state, the media also lost Princess Ifeoma Anumba, the state NUJ secretary in situ. Going, one by one! Yes, 'it is one-by-one', Chibudom Nwuche of Rivers state once signed in a condolence register. And talking about Rivers state, the barometric height and temperature of politics there is not cheering at all. The Governor's Lodge is allegedly ransacked, no single furniture, window blind, rug, not even a kitchen knife or spoon is left for Nyesom Wike. And the new governor is requesting the Rivers House of Assembly to approve a loan of N10 billion. And the APC agitators say 'for no specified project', and added, 'Wike has confirmed our fears that he has no agenda for the development of Rivers state, rather it is looting the common patrimony of the state with impunity by influencing the House to approve a N10 billion loan without the  purpose of the approval being specified. Wike is kick-starting a looting spree', accuses Rivers APC. On the other hand, Wike and Rivers council chairmen are threatening a showdown over the dissolution or otherwise, of the newly elected councils. ''Rule of law is the beauty of democracy. We shall resist you with every legal means at our disposal''. When the placard-carrying, protesting council men reached Moscow Road of the House , they were tear-gassed. Chei! They resisted the tear-gas! N10 billion loan, APC says is the money with which to bribe the guber-election tribunal. And the political temperature continues to rise.

  Meanwhile the ogogoro death toll in Rivers state is rising, hitting a frightening figure of over 70. Mass suicide assuming the semblance of Jones Town of the Caribbean island of 1982! I hope the Jimbono(kai-kai ) drinkers of Awgbu, Orumba North of Anambra state, still remaining are listening. A 7th victim of jimbono died recently. The remaining ones are mere walking corpses. Sail you on, drink jimbono to satiety!

  The Lake Chad Basin Commission, because of the exigencies of the moment has transformed from an economic group, economic c-operation to a MultI-Regional Military Force. Yes, Boko Haram requires group action to stall the insurgency. Supports the maxim that when groups are stated, everything is stated!

  At the peak of oil distributors' strike, petrol tankers lined up the streets of Lagos, and colonized and blocked even flyover bridges. At the snap of the authority finger by the then government of Lagos state, oil tankers disappeared from the flyover bridges. Now, they have come back, blocking all accesses to Apapa and environs. A spark rushed into my head; all books on Urban Politics have to be revised to accommodate new developments such as urban economy including roasting of maize by the road side, urban sanitation, urban fluctuation, urban transportation including Molue, urban trucking and haulage for which the FRSC is meeting with truck owners and their ogogoro drivers, urban housing and congestion, urban urchins and wharf-ratism, the metroline and urban tram-ways. I do not think they were captured by these old books on Urban Politics. And one begins to ask; must all fuel tankers in this country and the West African sub-region move down to Apapa and Ijora to pick fuel? The over-centralization and concentration induced by corruption that must have a change. Like the clamour for economic diversification, we need also to 'diversify' (decongest) the urban centres.

  Port Harcourt Refinery to start operations in July! He-hei! Where is somebody, bring Omoba to laugh. The changes appear to be coming. Where is the Turn Around Maintenance funds held up in the pipeline? Who says that the fear of Buhari is not the beginning of political wisdom?

  Barr Mrs Rita Maduagwu has been elected new Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. She succeeds Mrs Chinwe Nwaebili. Barr Harford Oseke is the Deputy Speaker. Yes, Anambra state is gender-friendly. Except for one, other women who have been speakers helped to stabilize the politics of the state. And so, the Ecclesiastes chorus rang in the minds of many: the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise, or wealth to the brilliant, or favour to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all.

  It was not for nothing after all that President  Muhammadu Buhari, PMB, quoted Shakespeare; 'there is a tide in the affairs of men…Bukola jumped into the spring tide and Ike Ekweremadu into a tide that was ebbing. And that was that. PMB seemed to be prophetic and extricated himself far in advance from what was to play out at the inauguration of the National Assembly when he said, ''I'm prepared to work with any leader the House or Senate selects. It does not matter who the person is or where he or she comes from''. One thing is to win power but a different thing to retain and consolidate power. This is where experience counts. You see, we have maintained, as Rick Joyner does too in the 'Titanic Syndrome, that it was not just the iceberg that sank the perceived 'unsinkable Titanic' but complacency on the part of the ship captain, Mr Smith and the crew. ''The degree of complacency of the leadership of the Titanic was incomprehensible and clearly the reason for the (Titanic) disaster''. Why did APC men allow cracks and crevices on its wall through which the opposition PDP crept in? Chei! They played into the ambush position of PDP. What was the meaning of that meeting on the morning of the inauguration? To keep the President, the Clerk and Nigeria waiting or what! Meanwhile PMB's inauguration paper was already in the hands of the clerk. Failure to inaugurate would have caused a breach of the constitution. The only vacuum constitutionally allowed was from where the national assembly adjourned sine die to that 10'oclock morning of the inauguration, or if Mr President, for weighty reasons, deferred the inauguration. Could it mean that party leaders did not work in tandem with the president? 'I'm for due process, PMB never forgot to tell Nigerians. Through complacency APC senators missed the train. And Robert Greene has it that power rarely ends up in the hands of those who star a revolution…but in the hands of those who bring it to a conclusion.

 ''APC spits fire''. Foul! The bubble has burst. PMB has said that the election was wonderful. And the APC national chairman, John Odigie Oyegun, has said that the elections of Saraki and Dogara were in order. ''They were elected by their colleagues and that was constitutionally in order. For the APC as a party it is all over. Those who want to go to court have the constitutional right to do so''. And Femi Gbajabiamila said, ''I will work with the speaker. I'm not going to court…go to court for what? The party is going to remain strong, united and move forward so we can deliver the deliverables. The party leadership has spoken and Lai Mohammed should appreciate that the time for couching beautiful press releases is over. It is time to go to work. According to some commentators, the APC has slept off the senate election. The party was stung by bees that swarm around PDP. For the Igbo which marginalized itself, they woke up to exclaim, ''there is Gode-e-e'', following the accidental re-election of Ike Ekweremadu from the opposition party and from the South-East as deputy senate president. And for the APC and PDP, in the senate, it is an alliance without a written accord. The APC has tasted the sour, unripe fruits of complacency. Pity!

Ekenem Unu!