His name is Cairo Ojougboh. But from his latest expose on the open secret of why the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost power in March and April, he could well qualify for a contemporary Rip Van Winkle, that however lives in Cairo!
You will recall: the original Rip was a fictional character in the American Washington Irving’s short story of the same title, in a collection of short stories he titled The Sketch Book of Geofferey Crayon, Gent.
To cut short a long story: Rip schmoozed with ghosts in a neighbouring wilds; and as a result, slept for no less than 20 years. When he woke up, he found everything about him had changed — not the least America, which had passed from the colony of England’s King George III to a new, post-revolution order under George Washington.
What made the goodly Dr. Ojougboh, PDP’s national vice-chairman for the South-South, to break, as fresh news, the common knowledge of the PDP faux pas? Was he on some political sabbatical to Cairo, only to dash home to “break” the news — the news that everybody already knew?
And why did Dr. Ojougboh, a South-South native as former President Goodluck Jonathan, tarry this far to realise Jonathan was embarking on a political journey of no return, on his trenchant insistence to run for a second term, when political dynamics suggested it was pure political suicide?
Or did Dr. Ojougboh, like most in the deluded Jonathan presidential court, also feed himself the lie that, because Jonathan was not only in office but also in power (apologies to Gen. Ibrahim Babangida), all those dynamics would bow and cow before the majesty of Goodluck Jonathan, PhD, GCFR, president of the Federal Republic?
And indeed, if Dr. Ojougboh really thought Jonathan was wrong to contest, despite the clear and perilous handwriting on the wall, why didn’t he speak out then?
Was he a victim of the noisy orchestra; they of the empty din, that bluffed and blustered to no end, hoping empty threats and scowls, could make up for electoral numbers, which their candidate clearly lacked? Or suspect Rasputins that introduced the religious card, waiting for a miracle that just wouldn’t come?
The truth is President Jonathan’s first go was as controversial as any; for it breached a zoning arrangement that landed Obasanjo the presidency, knocked out his third-term attempt and installed the late Umaru Yar’Adua. That should have warned Jonathan to steer clear of a second attempt. But no!
Incidentally, Obasanjo that falsely swore to declaim zoning became Jonathan’s sworn enemy, over a second term! Talk of how power intrigue ultimately separates its own — since the union was never grafted on any noble principle.
Truth is: PDP was doomed — Jonathan or no Jonathan. But Jonathan’s intransigence, despite a suspect moral platform and rotten performance record on all objective fronts, fast-tracked that doom. It was a classic example of how hubris romanticises self-destruction.
But if the likes of Ojougboh had spoken up, driven by the rightness of their cause, and had somewhat gathered traction, perhaps Jonathan would have been saved the humiliation of the first sitting president to be democratically-ousted. Still, that is no means a minus, for it deepened Nigeria’s democracy.
Nevertheless, the Ojougboh late confession should speak to the Buhari camp. A leader obsessed with only what he wants to hear sooner than later runs into a sucker punch.
If Nigerian politicians take in this sole lesson, the polity would be the richer for it.