The Holy Book instructs: “God is not mocked, whatsoever thou soweth, that ye shall reap”
Most of us, particularly Christians among us are very familiar with this biblical injunction. But like everything else, we Nigerians are only fond of quoting or parroting such scriptural injunctions in our public or private conversations without putting them into practice. The consequences of such hypocrisy manifest all around us in Nigeria today.
It is in the light of the above that one must view the recent laughable call by the Edo monarchs for fasting and prayers as a way to the resolution of the ongoing political impasse in the state.
According to the Edo Council of Traditional Rulers, a day must be set aside for fasting and prayers in order to achieve peace and avert the looming dangers and violence that may attend the coming election in the state owing to the lingering political crises.
A well known African proverb counsels that a community must respect the advice of it’s elders in order to survive! This emphasizes the importance that is attached to the position of the elders in the African society.
In the current deliberate political crisis in Edo State, one may therefore ask: what steps have been taken by the Traditional Rulers (the elders) to resolve the issues involved?
Beyond the press and social media propaganda concerning godfather-ism, second term, Oshiomohle and Obaseki, what steps have been taken by the Edo monarchs to resolve the issues of Edo State Assembly proclamation by the Governor and the election of the Assembly leadership?
Is it ever possible to maintain peace by prayers alone without lifting a finger to do justice?
In a democracy, all players must be ready to play by the rule. If you aspire to win a democratic election, you must take steps to cultivate the majority of the electorate. No matter how powerful you are, you must be ready, in democracy, to stoop down to cultivate and persuade the majority to your side in order to win. If you break all the party and constitutional rules in order to win, then you are no more a democrat, you are indeed an anarchist!
Somebody is directly and indirectly promoting anarchy in Edo State and the traditional rulers must summon the courage to warn him before calling for prayers for God to touch his heart to do what is right!
That brings one to another particularly ugly aspect of the current Nigerian politics. What is currently going on in Edo is a mere tip of a gigantic iceberg which threatens the actual life of the APC as a political party.
The big question is: where is the position of the political party in our current dispensation, is the for the party to control the governments (President and Governors) that emerge from its platform or the governments to control the party?
This is the question at the centre of the current APC crisis. And it is the settlement of this question one way or the other that will determine whether the APC will survive and flourish or whether it will flounder and perish!
Usually a political party is founded upon an ideological consensus by a political group which forms the basis of its activities when the party gains power. So, it is the duty of the party to ensure that the government formed by the party pushes the policies and programs as conceived by the party.
In sane climes from where we copy the system we are trying to practise, that is the way things work there. Indeed that is the raison detre for the existence of a political party which facilitates the avoidance of a political Babel that is bound to ensue if individuals were to campaign for votes on their own.
But here in Nigeria, our political actors want things the other way round, a situation where the government functionaries control the party so that it can always do their various bidding! They forget the wise saying that too many cooks tend to spoil the broth.
Media reports indicate that there is a conspiracy by a significant number of APC Governors to remove Adams Oshiomohle because of his stubborn adherence to the principle of party supremacy which the Governors see as a stumbling block to their ambition to determine the major decisions of the party. They therefore want in place of Oshiomohle a party chairman who will be ready at all times to take their instructions and do their bidding.
So, the current premeditated crisis in Edo is the strategic move by the Governors to initiate the battle from Oshiomohle’s backyard. The conspirators only find Obaseki as the willing tool for doing their hatchet job. This is where all this noise of expulsions and counter expulsions from the party is coming from and they are all part of the tactical moves of political battle.
It can be seen from the foregoing that the call for fasting and praying by the Edo monarchs as solution for the orchestrated political crisis in the state is nothing but mere platitudes. It amounts to nothing!
Christ taught us to work and pray, he didn’t say we should pray without work! In any dispute between two parties, one party must be wrong and another must be right. And the settler of that dispute must have the courage to tell the wrong party where he went wrong and advise him to make amends.
Where a mediator in the dispute is claiming that both parties are right and wrong at the same time and also praying God to come and settle the matter, such a mediator is not only complicating the dispute, he would also be laying a very bad precedent!
For the current crisis not to destroy the party, the party leaders particularly President Muhammadu Buhari must urgently rise to the occasion and put a stop to the shameful shenanigans currently going on in Edo State.
The reconciliation committee set up by the NWC had been rejected by Governor Obaseki even before inauguration. I therefore expect the Party’s Board of Trustees to immediately swing into action and nip this crisis in the bud.
From the look of things, it would appear as if Governor Obaseki is prepared to fight his party chairman to the finish without caring what becomes of the party afterwards.
The party must take a definitive stand now as to whether it upholds party supremacy or that individual party members can do whatever they like once they have attained governmental power. But it must always be remembered that no organization that breaches the unity of command principle can survive and prosper.
If the State Governors are allowed to dictate the directions of the party in accordance to their whims and caprices as they are currently scheming to do, then the party organization would become subject to many sources of command at the same time. The consequences of such a situation in a political party is better imagined than witnessed!
The party’s experiences in Ogun, Imo, Zamfara and Rivers State are cases in point and if the APC Governors are allowed to have their way in the current internal struggle, then worse experiences await the party in future. Such would not only cripple the party irredeemably, it may also destroy it completely.
