Two weeks ago in this column, I asked what the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the emerging coalition of some of the country’s leading politicians, will do differently from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). An amused reader called and engaged me in the argument you are about to read.
“Sir, were you just flying a kite or you seriously did not know?”
“Sir, no one knows everything. As our people would say, who asks for direction no dey miss road. I ask questions so I may know”
“That, then, is a surprise to me! You who should be educating us are the same person asking us to show you road!”
“Knowledge does not reside in a single personality”
“Very well! I will start with the person announced as the ADC chairman, David Mark. Are you in all honesty telling me you do not know what David Mark will do differently if his party, ADC, gets into power?”
“Believe me when I say I don’t know!”
“That is most unfortunate! David Mark has been widely reported as one of those who opposed June 12. IBB who annulled the election reportedly said he did so under pressure. He was reported as saying, ‘They will kill me and my family if I do not annul the election’. David Mark has been fingered as one of the ‘they’ and he has not denied it. Worse, he has also been reported as threatening to shoot MKO Abiola the very day the winner of the most free and fair election in the history of this country is announced winner of the election. Again, he has not denied even that. So, he was an inveterate enemy of the return to democracy and one of the architects of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election…”
“Assuming all you just said is true, that is bygone already! MKO Abiola is dead; he cannot be brought back to be president. The very best that can be done for him has been done already by President Muhammadu Buhari. MKO’s victory in that election has been admitted and recognised; he has posthumously been given the highest honour of the country, GCFR, and June 12 has supplanted May 29th as Democracy Day – and a public holiday to boot. What else do you want for MKO? Monetary compensation or what?”
“There is nothing bad in the government giving monetary compensation to Abiola and Kudirat! I even understand that the Federal Government is owing the late MKO a huge sum of money. What is wrong if the Abiolas are paid what their father is being owed? But come to think of it, how much money can compensate for the state murder of MKO Abiola and the gruesome assassination of his wife, Kudirat, in broad daylight on the street of Lagos? But that is not even where I am going!“
“Get there quickly!”
“If the political party of someone like David Mark grabs power, they can annul June 12 a second time! They can cancel June 12 and reverse Democracy Day to May 29th! They can strip MKO Abiola of the GCFR award and re-write the history of our pro-democracy struggles! They can dance on the graves of MKO and Kudirat as well as desecrate the graves of the other known and unknown patriots who took Babangida and Abacha bullets fighting for us to have the democracy that we enjoy today. It’s a shame that…”
“Wait a minute! I don’t understand what you are driving at! Is it…”
“What did you not understand? This is not rocket science or are you just feigning ignorance? Alfred Rewane, Dr. Omotoso, Bagauda Kaltho, Suliat Adedeji – all died for June 12! Alex Ibru got blinded for June 12! Dr. Olu Onagoruwa lost his first son for June 12! Thousands of hapless Nigerians were mowed down in broad daylight all over the country for June 12! Their spirits will take offence even if Nigerians living refuse to stand up and fight for them”!
“I see! But the same David Mark was Senate President from 2007 to 2015, the third most powerful political leader in the country, and senator representing Benue South from 1999 – 2019?”
“Maybe it is his sin, and the sins of others like him, that is today telling on Benue state and the entire Middle Belt! Tell me, what progress did the country make under David Mark? Is it not that he and his co-travellers got us deeper in the miry clay? And has the Benue he represented not become the country’s killing fields? So what is he coming back to do if not to NYSC us? “
“NYSC? National Youth…”?
“Now Your Suffering Continues!”
“Lord have mercy! I am sure there are other ADC leaders who won’t allow David Mark to have his way, even if he proposes in his heart to do those things that you have mentioned”?
“Birds of a feather! Never vouch for any of them, even Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s presumptive presidential flagberer…”
“How did you know? Peter Obi has said…”
“Forget about Peter Obi! He is a small boy! He can rub shoulders, but cannot knock heads with veterans like Atiku and David Mark. When Mark calls the shots, Atiku emerges as the winner. The best Obi can do is play the spoiler game once they outwit and outsmart him, like Nyesom Wike did when he, too, was left in the cold in 2022/2023 by a combination of David Mark and Atiku…”
“But that will be dangerous…”
“It remains to be seen! While Wike is a fighter, Peter Obi is a trader. He may have a price; and he is dealing with established masters in that field – Those who have mastered the art of buying and selling …”
“Buying what and selling what? ”
“Are you a novice in Nigerian politics? Have you not heard it said that Atiku seldom wastes his time here in Nigeria once he loses an election; that he retires to Dubai to await another election cycle when he returns to do the needful and snatch the presidential flag from those who toiled day and night in his absence to build the party?“
“Needful? He is now helping in building ADC…“
“The good grief of those being taken for a ride! For your information, the highest bidder carts the trophy home. No one is interested anymore in party programmes and manifestoes. Even poor and hapless voters now operate cash-and-carry. Many presidential aspirants and candidates are there not to contest and win but to negotiate and settle…”
“Are you for any reason insinuating that that is what Peter Obi is in it for?”
“You are jumping the gun! I will soon come to Peter Obi! But how many times will he “lu’le” (contest and fail) like Buhari and Atiku before he wisens up?“