Gani Adams
I had made up my mind not to write any
piece relating to politics this week. Partly because I wanted a breather
from all things political, as Nigeria gets closer and closer to the
appointed time for the 2015 elections. But, you know how it is; man
proposes, God disposes. As soon as you look away for a moment in these
times, something else happens that you simply cannot ignore, which is
exactly what happened to me this week.
Many Lagosians will not forget in a
hurry, the protests by the previously dormant Oodua People’s Congress, a
Yoruba ethnic militia group based in the South West, and the so called
Coalition of Concerned Nigerians against the Independent National
Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, last Monday, because
of what they claimed was the poor distribution of the Permanent Voter
Cards in the South among other issues. The faction of the OPC which
carried out the protest was seen brandishing weapons such as guns,
machetes and knives, harassing motorists and pedestrians as they
disrupted traffic in major parts of Lagos, particularly on Ikorodu Road,
where they destroyed any campaign poster of certain political parties
in their path.
It is also important to note that the
other day, there were protests by the Movement for the Emancipation of
the Sovereign State of Biafra in Awka, Anambra State. They were also
calling for the resignation of the INEC chairman and rejecting the use
of card readers in the forthcoming elections. Could this be a
coincidence? Or, the last ditch efforts of a sinking government to
ensure enough confusion in the land and hassle a good number of the
populace into voting the President for a second term. The President met
with the leaders of the OPC in Lagos in a calculated move to secure
their votes and those of their members and less than four days after the
meeting, the streets of Lagos knew no peace, thanks to the group. The
Yoruba proverb, “The witch cried yesterday, and the baby died today…”
readily comes to mind and rings so true in this scenario. Yet, the
leader of the faction of the OPC group that executed the protest claimed
that it was non- partisan! When it was clearly a pro Jonathan rally. If
the OPC is truly non-partisan, why didn’t the protest take place at any
other random time or before the President’s alleged largesse?
It is a well-known fact that politicians
employ different strategies and tricks during the politicking period in a
bid to woo the electorate to vote for them. However, when a politician
of the stature of the President who is still battling terror caused by a
militant group in a section of the country decides of his own accord to
“resurrect” another militant group (who also have a bit of a violent
history, but by some miracle have been mostly reduced to playing the
role of security guards in residential areas of the South-West) by
engaging them for whatever purpose, then there is a big problem and we
all might just be sitting on a time bomb which will explode sooner than
later. It was not enough that the OPC was awarded a lucrative contract
worth billions of naira to secure crude oil pipelines in the South-West,
the group had to be used as agents for fomenting trouble all because of
the desperation of one man to cling to power at all costs!
At this stage, the President should be
aware that the die is all but cast. Most people know who they are going
to vote for come Saturday, and no amount of coercion will change most
minds that have already been made up. Trying to win votes by
intimidation or violence will always be a move in the wrong direction.
It is rather sad that the one who should be aware of this the most
appears to be too desperate to care. With Boko Haram still proving to be
a huge mountain to surmount despite the relative success of the
Nigerian Army in tackling them in recent times, and the Movement for the
Emancipation of Niger Delta as an ever present threat to national peace
should President Jonathan lose the March 28 election, it is foolhardy
and portends no good for anyone to wake a sleeping dog, which in this
case is the OPC who have been generally quiet and peaceful in the last
few years.
Mr President may just regret this costly
mistake he has made by frolicking with the ethnic militia group if he
wins the election, as he will have to deal with the monster he helped
create…or in this case re-create.
- Ms. Ajekigbe, a blogger on socio-political issues, wrote in from Lagos
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