APC AND ITS CULTURE OF JONATHAN BASHING

All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant and publisher of the Leadership newspaper, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, does not fail to impress the negative-minded persons when he chooses to deconstruct Nigeria and her present crop of leaders. He is scathing, and for those enamoured by his caustic and often times insulting and rude comments, he comes off as a social critic. He is no different from the party on which platform he seeks to run for the presidency. Their attack lines are quite similar, even though leaders of the party consider him a clown thinking he can get anywhere with the party.

As far as Sam is concerned, Nigeria is a banana republic where he wants to be president just like other organisations he is associated with. It is said that he brooks no challenge wherever he holds sway, and has been known to chase his staff members out of the office when he thinks they have run afoul of him. The organisations he has some measure of affiliation with are replete with former and serving staff members who cannot believe that such a man wants to run a country like Nigeria. And, why not? Everything and anything is possible in Nigeria, for who can prevent the snail from stepping forward when animals with horns are called upon.

But is he as straightforward as the ramrod General he wants to replace in the APC? Many will swear that he is not and can never be. Sam Nda-Isaiah, believes that Nigeria, the country he wants to preside over, has collapsed as a result of corruption and bad governance. In the collapsed country where the publisher's businesses thrive, this man who is a bundle of contradiction in speech adds: 'Our country needs to be rescued quickly, as a matter of fact, and that is the reason I decided to run for president on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). What is happening in Nigeria now is the consequence of corruption. This country has collapsed as a result of corruption and bad governance. We are at a point in this country where our dear country needs to be rescued.'

Short of adjectives to describe the state of the country, Sam believes that Nigerians should be scared of what is happening to the country he wants to lead. It is a wonder whether those who ought to know better as journalists really know what a failed state is. What are the ingredients of a failed state when businessmen can continue to make money, have their newspapers on the streets daily, and yet declare with magisterially that the country has failed?

As far as this man is concerned, security is not the responsibility of everybody; it is the responsibility of the president. Since the president has ubiquitous eyes, Sam says security is the whole duty of the president, adding that the job of citizens is to report strange happenings to the authorities. The implication of this statement is that this publisher who wants to run Nigeria is either confused or he is simply being mischievous.

Like its presidential aspirant, the APC, seeing that all its political gymnastics have failed to impress Nigerians, has resorted to extreme language and total disrespect for the person of President Goodluck Jonathan, describing him the nation's number one enemy. Its reasons for the position are as befuddling as they are laughable.

It claims, now that it is losing grip in its strongholds, that Nigeria, not the strongholds, has been thrown into unprecedented crisis that is manifesting in Rivers, Edo, Adamawa and Nasarawa States. APC, in its statement, accused the president of deploying the police and the army to intimidate and harass ordinary citizens in general and

opposition supporters in particular, as he did recently in Ekiti; yet, apart from APC and elements within it, the ordinary folks in Ekiti who voted for the PDP don't seem to be complaining.

For fear of losing the elections in Osun, the party is alleging Jonathan wants to lock down the State as he did Ekiti; raising suspicions that the APC fears that such lock-downs may affect its prospects of winning. Is the party planning to rig the elections; or why is it so afraid of peace and tranquility to be enforced by the security forces on Election Day?

The APC alleges that in Ekiti, several billions of Naira was allegedly scooped from a massive political war chest to subvert democracy, even though it did not state where it was scooped from, but adds that it was used to induce voters and upturn all known political theories. No one knows which political theories APC is referring to, but it appears to the initiated that the party's game plan collapsed in Ekiti, and appears collapsing in Osun, and it is providing excuses for its failure.

APC adds: ”Under President Jonathan, there is no longer the need to make any electoral promises or carry out people-oriented and quality of life projects. Just distribute bags of rice, expired or not, to a people

already famished by a clueless federal government, and tuck in a few naira notes into the pockets of electorate who have been deliberately impoverished. This is a clear subversion of democracy.'

The nagging question from this summation then, is: with the APC holding the reins of power for four years, does it mean it did not improve quality of life in these States and adequately educate the people that they have become so cheapened that bags of rice and a few Naira notes can sway them? It means either the APC has failed woefully in these states, or the PDP is a better alternative.

The sour grapes of the APC and its abusive language on the president may not be achieving any laudable purpose, as it shows that the shenanigans of the party are showing their soft underbelly; and this means it has to go back to the drawing table to re-strategise because the cluelessness of the Jonathan administration appears to be wiser than the best of the APC.

Written by Abba Adakole.