This is the end of the year period, it is also the beginning of a new year, though, just as this is a season of long open letters, which reveal much to the public, when usually, the aim of any written correspondence between two parties is to deny the third party, the ability to gain knowledge into a matter that does not concern them, after all, why is it supposed to be signed, sealed and mailed in confidence of its delivery only to a certain address. But, before now in the previous years past, what used to be the norm is that this period is usually a time for prophecies, where men of God, clairvoyant forecasters of the future, loquacious fortune tellers and even those who think of themselves as little gods and goddesses, who can predict what becomes of other people’s destiny, take the centre stage and issue a lot of prophecies about the good, the bad and even the ugly things that might probably happen.
And although many a doubter, of which I am very much inclusive, would situate their yearly projections as nothing more than an act and an art inspired by pure conjunctures, yet many of their projections usually comes to reality, if not, why do many an individual still continues to listen to them and even believe them. Indeed for anyone wishing to forecast what shall be the fate of the country in 2014, within the visionary range of Nigerian as a democratic enterprise. A little peek into politics and the leadership equations, shall tell us who or what determines the determines the destiny of a nation, not as in who rules them, because that is a settled fact, since the incoming year is not expected to herald new elections and the current president will still preside over the country, though who or what succeeds him after, himself included, would be determined by the politics of the years to come and that falls within the ideal success or evident failure of the opposition parties merging in Nigeria, but most especially, whether the People’s Democratic Party could be able to contain the implosion from within and without its outward non partisan borders.
The fact that the ruling party in Nigeria had to shed its membership, before a strong and viable opposition could emerge, says a lot and confirms the impact, importance and inevitable permanence of the ever rapacious behemoth, which had before now, swallowed many candidates of the struggling opposing parties, leaving in its wake, empty shells of many a political organization. In fact, the ruling party is a true reflection of Nigeria or at the very least, the depictive caricature of a disreputable nation, where the image one mostly sees are the repetitive trait of crime, corruption and cataclysmic bad governance. The leadership of the party is also a representative highlight of a typical national citizen or more appropriately captured, as the classic Nigerian story. Take the national chairman of the umbrella logo bearing party, presumably, making an observation from the distance or even taking a glimpse from a very close quarters, the man looked like anyone’s granddaddy, whom you know must have had all the follies associated with being youth once and who must have engaged in all the vices unique to Nigerians, yet, either due deep reverence, fear or sheer political correctness, you would rather prefer to see him as saintly sage full of wisdom.
From another angle, take the national leader of the ruling party and the principal official within it ranks, the story of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is a classic Nigerian tale, perhaps not as dramatic as the others but an atypical rags to riches recount nonetheless, of a kid who wore no shoes going to school, now presiding over a nation managing to fritter away most of its resources due to monumental graft, misapplication of funds and a clear case of open thievery, which except for a few selected individuals is exactly the same biography or is similar to the life history of the many personalities who had once ruled this nation. In a nation afflicted with get rich quick syndrome and having such a national party as representative grace, every politician worth consideration as of note, must belong to the ruling party and when ominous time for change comes, it is the politicians of old, the same tainted breed, not the clergy nor the holy men of valor or even feisty academic critics, who are expected to cross over to create the needed change in leadership.
It is the trite logic in developing democracies, where the ruling elites have not created a settled block of opposing parties, like the Democrats versus the Republican in the United States of America or the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom. In the case of Nigeria as a young democracy, with parties that are barely a decade in existence and where ideological conviction is almost non-existent, what would create an incentive for change is not moralist chivalry or sanctimonious preachment but the need to preserve the system, from the self destructive ailment of over staying a welcome. What I am implying here is that anything that replaces the ruling party in Nigeria will not be a good substituting an evil but the classic realism of a lesser evil taking over from a stale opponent.
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