Gathering and scattering, as good or bad, night or day, perch on diametrically opposed spots in life’s long continuum.
Still politicians, since the dislodgment of PDP from federal power in 2015, would rather scatter to have a crack at power, than gather to consolidate policies and programmes.
Nasir el-Rufai, former Kaduna governor and, before him, Salihu Lukman, famed ex-APC contrarian, have just validated that trend. But that’s perfectly democratic.
The ruling APC can’t expect its opponents not to dream that whatever hubris struck PDP, which earned it fair banishment into the Siberia of power, wouldn’t strike APC too.
Still, this scattering is often a swashbuckling “me-too” complex. It’s scalding emotion to strafe the ruling order, and willy-nilly bomb it down.
But back to el-Rufai and Lukman, the twin-totems of this latest excitement en route to Sweepstakes ‘27.
In his APC last days, el-Rufai sounded every inch a party puritan — again, no crime: indeed, a democratic virtue! — alleging the ruling APC had left the rocket that propelled it to power to rust and rot.
Lukman too had played that same role, when el-Rufai, as glorious Kaduna governor, had easy access to President Muhammadu Buhari, as informal golden son — the he, who must be obeyed or, in any case, be indulged!
Lukman excoriated his felt neglect of the ruling party, by its ruling elite. It was the lone voice, of the sole party puritan, shrieking in the wilderness!
Even, with the Bola Tinubu order, he had levied that same charge, primarily for making Abdullahi Ganduje (North West) APC chairman, to replace Abdullahi Adamu (North Central). It was one Abdullahi replacing another. But Lukman felt the new APC chair should have come from Adamu’s zone for party balance — hardly illogical!
That was Lukman’s high horse, until he declared he was opting out of APC. But if he loved APC that much, and pushed without let for its wellbeing, why his present rabid push to unhorse the party from power? Gathering and scattering!
On his own, el-Rufai railed and huffed, scowled and growled, against the alleged neglect of the party, and accused President Tinubu of running a one-man show.
But he didn’t attend the APC national caucus meeting, maybe called at last because of his constant hectoring. A day or two later, he declared he had resigned from APC for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to wrest federal power. Gathering and scattering!
Not a few nettle el-Rufai that his alleged bitterness, for not making Tinubu’s cabinet, self-bungled him out of APC.
But beyond political “yabis” (Fela-pidgin-speak for high-wire banter), why would el-Rufai, virtually in government since 1999, sans the Umaru Yar’Adua/Goodluck Jonathan years, be embittered because of missing yet another ministerial slot?
Perhaps, he felt more betrayed by his native Kaduna APC? As Adams Oshiomhole virtually strapped Godwin Obaseki to his back, to sell as governor to the Edo electorate, el-Rufai also backed Uba Sani, to sell as next Kaduna governor.
Yet, el-Rufai’s Kaduna legacy, which he expects protégée Sani to guard and protect, has been rubbished. Governor Sani though, has refused to speak ill of his benefactor.
But between active ungratefulness a la Obaseki, preening and rippling, and the passive ingratitude of Uba Sani, which rankles more? Perhaps all of these scalded el-Rufai’s restive and hurt soul!
But whatever the reasons for his SDP gambit, and the Lukman manic rally for a united opposition to unhorse the party both laboured to build, the two gentlemen would appear to labour under the notorious complex of “it’s either my way, or the highway”!
Again, that’s no democratic crime. The masses don’t change the society. Only the critical mass does. But that critical mass requires a huge dose of courage and daring.
The snag, though: between healthy daring and hare-brained gambit, there is but a thin line. The one harvests a political after-life, of which President Tinubu is living proof. The other crops political death-at-dawn!
So, which have el-Rufai and Lukman chosen? Verdict ‘27 looms! Gathering and scattering!
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo just weighed-in, in this mid-term politics of movement without motion, with his customary traducement of others, to bury own rot, as two-term elected president.
Now Obasanjo’s public essence is rot, though he loves to posture as some Pope worthy of emulation. But from his records, nothing is farther from the truth.
Still, he over-reached himself this time, claiming PMB’s was the most corrupt tenure in Nigerian history. Definitely, in his avid ardour to perjure others, senility has set in?
You feel that portraiture is unfair? Take a trip to Laderin, in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Obasanjo that gamed the polity for “donation” as sitting president, to build a personal shrine; and PMB that built the Wole Soyinka train station for everyone, in a season of acute adversity, which of the two is grandmaster of corruption?
PMB, a far junior officer that gives Obasanjo due honour, despite the Owu chief’s un-elderly tantrums, has taught his old commander-in-chief the ABC of decorum in and out of office. While Obasanjo’s OOPL oozes the self-settlement rule of Obasanjo’s presidency, PMB’s many infrastructural revamp continue to serve millions of Nigerians.
Still speaking of bad-mouthing: Obasanjo also tried to thumb-down Tinubu’s critical infrastructure, as the Lagos-Calabar coastal expressway, with a rail section to boot. Pray, which rail or road infrastructure did Obasanjo deliver in his eight years of self-distraction?
But Works Minister, David Umahi, already gave a fitting riposte: the nay-party, with their negative hubbub, should stay off that highway when completed! Spite can’t obviate the sweetness of honey!
Still, President Tinubu (PBAT) has his job cut out for him, in his race against time, to beat the naysayers to the 2027 tape, give inflation a red eye and win over the masses.
A brief PBAT-PMB comparison. PBAT, a natural progressive, has chosen neo-liberal tactics to drive his reforms. PMB is a natural conservative. Yet, he adopted more socio-democratic methods during his tenure.
But both, no matter their tactics, have made greater strides in infrastructure — far more than the PDP years. Indeed, despite Tinubu’s neo-liberal pains, he is implanting discrete IOUs, in several critical demographics: student loans, the nascent credit culture, and aggressive IT training, to power a prosperous youth segment, etc.
That’s why Obasanjo is revving up his virulent traducement, ahead of 2027.
He attacks critical projects that he knows, if completed, would finally bury him and his presidential mirage — which anyone hardly remembers anyway, but for Obasanjo’s eternal screeching and constant personal nuisance.
Still, the Tinubu-Aregbesola crisis has been unfortunate. Noise in regnant circles often demonizes Ogbeni as some traitor and implacable foe to the President. That’s not true.
Ogbeni’s street value could have better assuaged the masses, than cost-mouthing ministers that seem to alienate them. What a missed opportunity!
Still, the electorate must know that those who love to scatter, after helping to gather, often do so for selfish and egoistic reasons.
Nigeria’s redemption and sustainable development compass, from all critical facts, appears closer to 2015, than 1999.
