THE APC was a gift of the lukewarm attitude of the Jonathan administration to the Boko Haram insurgency in the North, the ambition of its principal architects to rule Nigeria; and the pound of flesh that a group of rebellious PDP governors wanted to extract from the former president.
During the protests, the heroic gallantry of the protesters draws global attention to the democratic inferno in Nigeria. This has however been marred by lumpen elements and fifth columnists of the regime who looted stores and spew lies to give the peaceful protesters a bad name.
The fusion of the Western progressive caucuses, the Northern transparent groups, and a splinter group of the PDP anchored APC on a strong trajectory. Its wide acceptability gave it a messianic appeal, and a populist base.
Whereas the PDP became the punch bag of Nigerians, the villainous party portrayed by its lyricist as the killer of its offspring, which by all means had to be displaced, to rescue the nation from the brink; and unleash a more abundant life ahead, which facilitated wild joyous expectation all over the nation.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to go on voluntary exile due to his do-away-with-the-military-from-politics countenance. And from 1999, when he became the progressive czar of Western Nigerian politics, he became vehemently critical of presidents whenever they derailed against the interests of Nigerian people.
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General Muhammadu Buhari, transparency and uprightness personified, joined politics to free it from crooked politicians. As a leading opposition politician, he had cause to lead protests against unpopular policies. In the political annals of the nation, no politician has been regarded as the grand tribune of the people as him, whose uneventful eight-year rule left the nation worse than he met it.
Since 1999, no democratic regime has had the effrontery to turn democracy against the people as the Tinubu regime; and no administration has been rattled as his by the venomous rage of Nigerians, which underscores its serious rift with Nigerians.
In a nutshell, the principal architects of the APC were projected as a special breed of sterner stuff, who had the magic wand to resolve the knotty issues afflicting the nation.
Since the desperate appeals; legislative cajoling; ethnic bigotry, threats and intimidations; the use of the worst Madison Avenue type public relations; various inducements, and the divide-and-rule tactics couldn’t stop the youths from the protests, the airports became crowded with those who facilitated the mess, trying to check out of the country or Abuja to escape the rage of the protesters.
Since 1st August when nationwide protests against high cost of living, induced by IMF driven policies; and opaque governance began, the nation has been torn between the fury of Nigerian youths and the rage of its democratic state, bent on suppressing the rights of Nigerians to protest inhuman polices.
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With APC’s arrogant redemptive mission, to clean the mess of another party, and humanise democratic rule, it is ironic that its administration should, in less than a decade, be subjected to the fury of Nigerian people.
The hunger protests have undoubtedly deconstructed the democratic credentials of President Tinubu and the democratic conscience displayed by the APC in its formative years as a scam. The party instrumentalised democracy to ascend to power; and thereafter dictatorially bare its fangs against it.
When a redemptive party’s regime derails to become an Augean stable in urgent need of cleansing, it should expect similar blows it rained on the party it displaced from power.
Since 2015, Nigeria’s ruling party (the APC), has unfolded higher rot than the one which justified its birth, negating its arrogant mission. It has buried the rebellious past of its principal architects who led protests against bad policies as opposition leaders, but while in power, they are unfortunately going extra miles to prevent public protests against their injurious policies.
For the families whose members were gunned down, and those who sustained injuries, and those whose shops were looted, the #EndBadGovernance protests have left a trail of agonies. And for the Tinubu administration, its ego is deflated because its touted unlimited capacity to dump whatever it wants on Nigerians and go scot-free has been punctured by the protesters. For days they have been on the battle fields fighting hunger, corruption and economic brutalities of the ruling elites.
The protests illustrated the thin cord between Nigerians and their representatives in the National Assembly. Rather than asking President Bola Tinubu to restore fuel subsidy, and stop the devaluation of the naira, the most sensitive demands of the protesters; members of the National Assembly appealed to Nigerians to give more time to the president; unmindful of the severe hardships the policies have wrought on the political economy of Nigeria and Nigerians.
During the protests, the heroic gallantry of the protesters draws global attention to the democratic inferno in Nigeria. This has however been marred by lumpen elements and fifth columnists of the regime who looted stores and spew lies to give the peaceful protesters a bad name.
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It underscores a serious national rot that genuinely hungry Nigerians, for whom food is unaffordable luxury, whose unrestrained hunger dampened their sobriety to resist dipping their hands into private food shops, and stores where undistributed palliative goods are kept. They aren’t compulsive criminals, they are the veritable victims of the neoliberal onslaught on the nation, whose priority is to stay alive, before they regain the moral bearing to seek forgiveness for their transgressions during the protests.
Despite being reprehensible, special circumstances could dictate the pardon of theft. It is the untenability of the paradox of well-fed rulers, and hungry citizens, which pricked the conscience of Hajiya Mariya Dantata, the mother of Nigeria’s richest man, to pardon those who broke into her Koki stores to cart away bags of rice during the protests.
Since 1999, no democratic regime has had the effrontery to turn democracy against the people as the Tinubu regime; and no administration has been rattled as his by the venomous rage of Nigerians, which underscores its serious rift with Nigerians.
Having trivialised the concerns of the protesters, the 4th August presidential broadcast highlighted abstract economic gains in dry cold statistics known only to the top functionaries of government, without impact on the lives of poor Nigerians.
It is a political irony that the campaign platform used by the APC in 2015 to win election is now its greatest headache: it has neither fought corruption, insecurity; nor has it revamped the economy. Its arrogant redemptive mission has been betrayed, in fact shattered, by governments headed by its principal architects.
The hunger protests have undoubtedly deconstructed the democratic credentials of President Tinubu and the democratic conscience displayed by the APC in its formative years as a scam. The party instrumentalised democracy to ascend to power; and thereafter dictatorially bare its fangs against it.
The protests have demonstrated the unparalleled subservience of the regime to the Bretton Woods institutions. A hostile glare of an IMF executive carries more weight than the fury of millions of Nigerians, which gives the regime a high neoliberal substance that negates its humanistic pretensions.
The protests illustrated the thin cord between Nigerians and their representatives in the National Assembly. Rather than asking President Bola Tinubu to restore fuel subsidy, and stop the devaluation of the naira, the most sensitive demands of the protesters; members of the National Assembly appealed to Nigerians to give more time to the president; unmindful of the severe hardships the policies have wrought on the political economy of Nigeria and Nigerians.
In peace or turmoil, Nigeria’s democratic czars reveal their essence: a presidential aide desperately wanted to transform the right to protest into a treasonable offence, and negative ethnic profiling; whilst a minister, who had a misunderstanding with a senator wanted to crucify her as the sponsor of the protests.
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It is a political irony that the campaign platform used by the APC in 2015 to win election is now its greatest headache: it has neither fought corruption, insecurity; nor has it revamped the economy. Its arrogant redemptive mission has been betrayed, in fact shattered, by governments headed by its principal architects.
If the PDP lyricist was right that the party was the killer of its offspring; the APC has gone beyond killing just an offspring, it is right now engaged in the decapitation or decimation of generations of both young and old.
Jahun, a commentator on public affairs, writes from Dutse, Jigawa State Capital. He writes this column every Wednesday under the title: ‘The Other Perspective’. He can be reached via email@ aminuhabibu58@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +237 3903 8088
