After chasing shadows for months since Comrade Osho baba-led National Working Committee was sacked in June 2020, the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, finally overcame its avoidable teething troubles to hold its convention that is long overdue.
Some bad belle people would rather say that the ‘C’ in APC should be cabal and not congress. If you think such persons were completely wrong, you have probably been carried away by the drama of the past weeks in the party that you didn’t realise that the intense power play has been about power-sharing by the governors and nothing about the ‘ordinary’ members of the party. Or did you hear anybody say how the power tussle would benefit the ‘ordinary’ APC members in my village or the poor party members in yours? You see! Frankly, the way governors have hijacked the party is just worrisome, but then, that’s their way.
With the way the APC abuses its twin brother, the Peoples Democratic Party, you would think a party that promised ‘change’ would do things differently, but then the APC seems to copy many ‘funny’ things from the PDP and take its implementation overboard. Yet, its members will come out and be struggling to establish the difference that does not exist. Like the PDP, APC also came up with a Unity List. If I may ask, who prepared the list and under whose authority? Was it with the consent of the party members? With all that is happening, the convention seems like a controlled jamboree, mainly to ratify the candidates that cabals have generously put together.
Anyway, to those who have been murmuring that the Mai Mala Buni-led caretaker committee did not want to relinquish power, sebi he will soon step aside now. I understand their sentiment; that instead of six months, the committee ended up spending close to two years. Who no like power? But, seriously speaking, after the convention today, the party would have new NWC members and Mr Buni would finally go back to his state to face the governance for which he was elected, just that 2023 is near and Mr Buni would want to seek re-election in his state o, Chai! Politicking continues, that is.
I must say it is cheery that the convention is holding eventually, and one can only hope that the convention would bring about some needed changes in the way the party is run and the way its government does its things. Good luck, Progressives!
Still on brutality by the naval ratings
You probably would have read about the naval ratings who brutalised a medical doctor, Owen Edo-Ojo, in Lekki, Lagos a few days ago. Since the authorities have refused to make examples of those who committed a similar offence in the past, it is obvious that others are encouraged to do the same. That’s why it has become the style of some men in uniform to brutalise harmless civilians. Sadly, what do their superiors say? “We are investigating.”
Is it that the leadership of these security agencies don’t know that this funny response has become distasteful or they simply don’t care? After all, they knew nothing would happen. They have always investigated and nothing comes out of that charade they call investigation.
One thing our security agents don’t seem to know is that in developed countries, men in uniform are respectable people, but here, that uniform seems to have been misconstrued by those who wear them to mean superiority. That is shameful!
The brutalised doctor is now fighting for his life, while the family and Nigerians are kept in the dark over the penalty that has been meted out to the naval ratings who carried out the dastardly act.
I’m not happy, honestly. We cannot continue like this. The Chief of Naval Staff must step in to make sure those ratings are thoroughly dealt with. He must even go further to make sure that such does not repeat itself. And that applies to the heads of other security agencies. Until errant security agents are dealt with, such irresponsible behaviour will not end and it will be a bigger shame on the leadership of this country. Haba!
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