NIGERIA’S GOVERNMENT: A HOUSE DIVIDED

Going back in time, during the 2015 APC presidential election campaign that took place across the six geopolitical zones of the country, no one would have guessed that those brooms held up in harmony at the campaign ground by the members of the All Progressive Congress party would soon be one the party members will turn to a weapon against themselves. Three years on and all we see about this current administration and its parent party [APC] is a huge mansion with its occupants bent on bringing its walls down.

The current state of affairs between Buhari’s government and some fast declining members of the party is one that has forgotten the fact that the house they seek to pull down is one that houses the whole nation. For the past 12 months, they seem to have taken no lesson from the popular scripture Mattew 12;25 which says “Any kingdom divided against itself is being bought to desolation and laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself shall last or continue to stand .

One popular figure whose actions and statements have been a catalyst in dividing this current administration is the radical Senator Dino Melaye. Going down memory lane, we’ll remember he volunteered to be the Master of ceremony at most of President Buhari’s campaigns and today he seems to be the public enemy. The senator who is a fan of social media has been involved in several short articles of criticism against his party released on popular blogs ,Facebook, Twitter he has also uploaded Instagram videos where his words have always rubbed salt on the wounds currently nursed by his party. In one of his videos, he sang a song calling PDP his new home and mocked APC claiming he had been suffering under this administration. About three, four months ago, Senator Dino was terribly disciplined by an administration run by his own party members, from the disgraceful arrest to the wounds he sustained while trying to escape from the police van .

Now we ask ourselves how this nation will ever move forward if it is currently under the control of a party that shows no wisdom in tackling its little internal issues with members. A government claims to know how to lead us to redemption by solving our big problems while its parent party constituting of senators, ministers, governors and the President can’t deal with their minor issues. Other popular political figures like Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Pat Utomi and Governor Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai among others have also uttered words of criticism against a government run by their political party. This is another evidence that the party is not fit as a ruling party.

The 2016 national budget raised some questions after a huge sum of about fifty billion naira was allocated for the purchase of vehicles for federal lawmakers. President Buhari was questioned on live Tv as to why he would allow such to pass over his table. He responded saying he had previously rejected the idea while engaging in a discussion with the House of Assembly whose members seem to fancy the idea of wasting the sweat of tax payers on exotic cars. It is important to know that more than seventy percent of the house of assembly are members of the All Progressive Congress.

Nigerians need to realize the fact that APC has very few number of people who have the interest of the nation at heart. The party consists of a massive number of greedy politicians willing to eat up the wealth of the nation and leave crumbs for the masses to feed on. Many of us might not be a fan of Buhari but even if he has good intentions for Nigerians there is no way its ever going to come into limelight, because as far as we know, he might be a good man or a bad man but most importantly, he is one under the canopy of a divided political party.

A friend once described Nigerians as passengers in buses driven by hoodlums masked as corporate drivers who always find every reason to fight their conductors forgetting the passengers’ safety. This analogy is very practical when you consider the fact that thousands of APC members are gradually decamping to neighboring parties due to various political conflicts in the party, most of them joining the People’s Democratic Party[PDP ]. Before we know it, we will have a government being run by people with varying perspectives which will do us a whole lot of harm.

At around the middle of this year, the Senate president Bukola Saraki decamped from APC to PDP after several clashes with his party. The issues stated from assets declaration to attempts by security personnel under the influence of APC to arrest him . It is very normal for political parties to have internal problems once in a while but it becomes a problem when it occurs too often. Nigerians are made to watch and suffer as this APC government neglects them to publicly display their nakedness.

Finally, it is advisable that before any party or potential administration must be allowed to kick start their campaigns or motives for next year’s election, they must learn to put their houses in order to avoid putting Nigerians in the way of their inefficiencies.