Evers since the APC came on the Nigerian political scene; they have made naming, arresting and prosecuting looters of the Nigerian treasury their main campaign strategy. They have only done the naming without evidence by sending the EFCC after political opponents and dissidents. They applied strategy in 2015 and it seems to have worked for them – they won the presidential election, with the majority of governors and legislators. Indeed, they ended the sixteen years reign of the PDP, which they pointed out to the Nigerian electorate as the party looters that bled Nigeria dry and caused much of the hardship that was perceived then.
It is understandable that they could then sway the minds of Nigerians, who at any rate had made up their minds that there was a lot of corruption being perpetrated by the political class. Despite the fact that there were APC State Governments, the focus was on PDP, which occupied the centre. We did not have to be shown the books to know that so much money was being sleazily obtained to sustain the expensive lifestyle of our hegemonic politicians. They threw their effusive opulence around indifferent to emotional pains they caused the masses. At the proper time the angst against them rose not principally because of the suffering they caused but for the frustration, they had built in the psyche of the less fortunate. The natural consequence of such a state of things was to hit back at the slightest motivation.
The APC understood this and employed it with clinical precision, using high propaganda to boil emotions over. They got Nigerians on a leash and guided them like hound-dogs after the scent of predetermined suspects – PDP. The dogs were very willing to bring down the quarry as if in the hope of retrieving the lost pieces of meat thought to be clutched between their jaws. Alas the packs brought down the quarry but are yet to be beneficiaries of the stolen meat they could not find with the prey. PDP fell at the hands of Nigerians incited and unleashed by the APC. The irony of the scenario is that majority of the dog handlers (APC) were recruited of from the ruling class of the PDP. Yet, the dogs could not smell the guilt on them.
In power, the ruling APC still has the hound dogs (Nigerians) on the leash and in spite of their having been caught dipping their hands in the common soup for bigger meats, they are still the ones barking “thief! Thief”!
The question for Nigerians to answer as we go into the 2019 General Elections with the mindset that we do not want thieves to return to rule over us, is are we looking for the real thieves or those that we have been brainwashed to see as thieves? Must we follow the words of the APC in choosing who we know are most injurious to the state of the nation? How can people that bled the states and the FCT dry with cases that the Buhari badge wearing EFCC Chairman has refused to investigate or prosecute diligently, be the ones on the rooftop shouting thief? Are we so stupid not to take rational decisions on our own?
Funny enough, the APC has gone back to the pre 2015 election mode of branding the PDP as the looting party. This is in spite of the fact that since 2015, they have controlled most of the states and the Presidency and we have not seen them do anything different. In fact, we have seen them commit greater economic crimes and social injustice against the Nigerian State and people.
In defiance of us, and mockery of our servitude they even challenge us to say if the PDP did not do what we challenge them of doing. But then we ask, did they not say they were coming with change? Did they not say they would stop corruption and put corrupt people in jail? They even ridiculed former President Jonathan in his attempt to give a precise definition of corruption when he said that stealing is not corruption. Today they have redefined it to mean that being a member of APC means you can never be corrupt. This is in spite of the monumental scandals of cutting grass in an IDP Camp with N250million, taking N500 million bribe from MTN and sundry other financial crimes. Today, instead of prosecuting their own caught in the act, they use their broom in the glare of all to sweep evidence under the carpet. To them, if Nigerians continue to see their icon Muhammadu Buhari as a personally incorruptible man, APC with it stench of stolen rotten meat, can always get away with murder.
In spite of the fact that their champions are the epitome of corruption, the APC have held on to the stigmatization of the PDP as if the crime is on the household and not the individual or individuals. They APC have taken us on a journey way back to Animal Farm where the Pigs (APC) that came to power on the wings of popularly revolt, have turned out to be worse than the Human overseers that they drove out of power. Nigeria has become in the hands of the APC, the Animal Farm where life is short and brutish; corruption of the pigs tolerated and rationalized; suffering of the masses increased to bring in the commonwealth only to be enjoyed by a particular tribe and their collaborators who are always willing to betray others for their personal comfort.
Alas, they are counting on many Nigerians as the dogs they would use to force the nation to accept their inglorious rule. When will the dogs catch the scent of the real thieves?
The APC’s strategy is to demonize the familiar logo. Are the rest of us not clear headed enough to smell the coffee? The next election really should not be about the logo but the looters. It should not be about pointing fingers at the abode of the former thieves but a lookout for the resting place of the real thieves.
If in the final analysis, it boils down to profiling the households interested in leading Nigeria, we must be wise enough to choose the lesser of two known evils. And if we were to candidly assess the PDP as against the APC, it would not be untrue to say that while the PDP came and steal, (I hear though that they have repented and are willing to pay restitution), the APC came to steal, to kill and to destroy. It is for us to determine which is the greater of the evils
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