What do you do when politics takes over the airwaves? This column is all about programmes, events and personalities on air after all. The 2019 elections are just a few months away. No doubt, interesting times are ahead.
We awoke on Tuesday (July 24, 2018) in Abuja to the news that Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu (Senate President and Deputy Senate President) were being ‘held’ in their homes by the police. Why? The airwaves were buzzing about plans to change the leadership of the Senate, and to frustrate some lawmakers from defecting from the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress.
TV stations found it difficult to keep up with the news. The Internet and social media proved more reliable at some point. And that’s where I read that Arise News had the most useful up-to-date information on the ‘siege’. It’s no longer news that the Senate succeeded in convening with Saraki presiding; and that the mass defections by law makers from the APC, mostly to the opposition PDP, still happened.
By Wednesday, the morning (mourning) after, reactions to the events of the previous day were top of the news from TV to radio. Representatives of the two major parties made the news round. Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, came out in all his official regalia. However, almost everyone responded predictably. Aside from President Muhammadu Buhari, who graciously wished the defecting lawmakers well, most reactions were to be expected.
The Peoples Democratic Party reacted like a new mother who couldn’t hide her joy. Never mind that some of these ‘returnees’ only left the PDP a few months ago. From the APC, there were as many reactions as there are purported factions. Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, traced the reason for the defections to local politics.
Adams Oshiomhole, APC’s newly-elected national chairman, had quite a lot to say which summed up to ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’. “This party that I’m privileged to chair is not worried at all. We are not disturbed, I’m not going to miss my sleep…You’ll find that a lot of those who claim to have decamped, on a good day the vote they got that makes them members of the Senate, our president got much more votes in their constituencies. So, we are not fooled at all. You have a lot of so-called big masquerades with very little or no electoral value,” he had said.
This reaction was coming a day or two after Oshiomhole had threatened to expel Labour and Employment minister, Dr Chris Ngige, from the APC. The party chairman had stated, “If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep in his cabinet people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers.”
Comrade Oshiomhole is obviously missing his labour (NLC) days. Meanwhile, reconciliation was supposedly top on his agenda when he became APC chairman. Now, he believes people like Rabiu Kwakwanso, who delivered Kano State to the APC in the last elections, are big masquerades with no electoral value. I get the feeling he really believes his party can win the 2019 elections even without Nigerians.
Oshiomhole definitely knows something we ordinary folks don’t.
“Nigerians should unite to stop vote buying.”
-INEC, Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 3.32pm-ish.
In the past few months, we’ve been told to leave killings, kidnappings and widespread insecurity to God. So, this is a fresh angle. At least, INEC believes that with unity, Nigerians can achieve anything. Is INEC helpless against vote buyers? Perhaps, now’s a good time for Nigerians to unite to tell this INEC to sit up or ship out.
“The governor-elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, says he will probe the administration of Gov. Ayodele Fayose…Dr Fayemi says it is necessary to probe the state’s finances in the last four years to avoid the mistakes of the past.”
–Channels TV news headlines, Friday, July 20, 2018, 11.58am-ish.
Four years ago, Fayose, did the exact thing Fayemi is now proposing: he probed the state’s finances under four years of the Fayemi administration. There were many serious allegations which Fayemi never bothered to clear. Beyond its propaganda/nuisance value, what will the probe achieve?
Perhaps this is the time an independent panel should be set to probe both governors.
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