23022018 - Confusion over Yobe girls; angry parents stone gov

VANGUARD, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018—31
Powerful parties, weak people
THE ruling African National
Congress, ANC, in South
Africa, and its Nigerian counterpart,
the All Progressives Congress, APC,
are each a ‘Congress.’ However,
while the ANC is a political party
which during the Anti-Apartheid
struggle, transformed into a people's
movement, the APC lays claims to
what it is not; a political party. The
fact that a butterfly has wings and
can fly, does not make it a bird.
Founding South African
democratic President, Nelson
Mandela was as big as a politician
can come; his image loomed large
not only over his country and Africa,
but the entire universe. Yet, he was
contained within the ANC to the
extent that when he was released, the
position the party had for him was
Deputy President under the less
charismatic and far less known
Oliver Tambo. But Tambo was quite
sick, and the party in its wisdom,
named the Secretary-General,
Alfred Nzo, the acting President.
This was more because Mandela
had been in jail for 27 years and the
party was not sure if at that time, he
was sufficiently abreast of ANC’s
principles and policies to lead it.
Mandela himself was disciplined
enough to understand that despite
his overwhelming influence in the
country and worldwide, he was no
bigger than the party. In his
autobiography, Long Walk To
Freedom, he wrote: “My first
responsibility (after being freed) was
to report to the leadership of the
ANC.”
Mandela had all the
characteristics of a messiah but what
the ANC saw was a man; its cadre
who had survived a long, harsh
imprisonment for the struggle and
had returned to join it. Outside the
party, he repeatedly told people, he
was no messiah. In contrast, even the
APC Chairman, Mr. John Odigie-
Oyegun wants Nigerians to accept,
even if they would not believe, that
President Muhammadu Buhari is a
messiah. Just six days ago, he told
Nigerians: “ I want to tell you that to
this nation, God sent a messiah, God
sent President Buhari to heal the
wounds of this nation.” As for party
discipline, in comparison to the
ANC, it virtually does not exist. The
APC is not a body that can exercise
power and control over its members
be they poor or wealthy, elected or
unelected. Party supremacy is of
course non-existent, as there must
first be a political party, before it can
assume and assert its supremacy. So
while the APC in 2015 had its official
candidates for the Senate Presidency
and Deputy, House Speaker and
Deputy Speaker, it was unofficial
candidates opposed to the party
leadership that swept the posts, and
they remain in power to-date. Unlike
the ANC in which the party leader,
leads, in the APC, the party leader
concedes leadership, at least to both
the President and the National
Leader. But this is not peculiar to the
party; all the Nigerian registered
political parties I know, are like the
While the ANC is a
political party which
during the Anti-
Apartheid struggle
transformed into a
people's movement,
the APC lays claims
to what it is not; a
political party
APC, contraptions and makeshift
political platforms for elections. The
fundamental difference between the
ANC and Nigerian political parties
is that while the former was formed
with the people, the latter are formed
for the people; while the ANC
members own the party by paying
membership dues and funding the
party, almost all registered parties
in Nigeria including the APC and
the opposition People's Democratic
Party, PDP, pay their members even
to attend basic party functions while
their national conventions are
avenues for the ‘members’ or
‘delegates’ to enrich themselves, to
reap bountiful harvests where they
have not sown. So unlike South
Africa, multiparty democracy in
Reordered 2019 election sequence: Politicians to
answer own names on election day
THE National Assembly
(NASS) reordering of elections
is all over the news. So too the ill
advised intervention of INEC trying
without much success to bar the
Legislature from performing its
constitutional responsibility.
Of the three arms of Government,
the NASS is The Lawmaker. INEC
is only a Law Executor as errand boy
of The Law Executor, the Executive.
As elections edge closer, it won't want
to be a Lawbreaker. And there are
quite a hand full of other Law
Breakers on the side of the executive,
already tainting that Arm's image
not caring that the voter's decision is
just around the corner. If INEC isn't
happy with the NASS legally valid
reordering, if it thinks it has locus
standi, as the lawyers say, it should
take it up with The Law Interpreter,
the Judiciary.
You can't do The Law on the pages
of newspapers or radio and TV. For
the Change GMB APC the reordered
elections singling out each of the tiers
and levels of political power for
individual attention of the voter is
the best thing that has happened to
Nigerian Democracy in recent times.
Especially for those of us from the
North where the GMB appeal has
regularly been used and serially
abused by opportunist politicians
since 2003. The SAK bandwagon
has done more harm than good to
politics and more importantly
governance, good governance in the
North.
The 2019 voters GMB must have:
Core North Buharists, plus Tinubu
& Team:
With the reordered elections
pattern the President is now not
beholden to any Governor, not even
to his party. It is clear with this, all he
needs are politicians of his core votes
bank, the traditional GMB
supporters upnorth, and od course
Tinubu and his team to make up for
any shortfalls likely from the North,
particularly the Christian middle
belt that has been effectively hacked
away by the wicked use of terror and
propaganda these past year.
SAK & 2019; Politicians on their
own:
The 2019 elections will sure be,
"Kai da Halin ka". That is to say you
are on your own, or words to that
effect. For the mess made of the APC
Change mantra, all Governors and
politicians need GMB that is why
they orchestrate the lie that the
reordering is targeted at him so he
intervenes and they ride back to office
on his SAK bandwagon. Even when
they have destroyed any semblance
of participatory democracy in their
states. Apart from Bukola Saraki
and a scant few, no Senator or House
of Reps member is sure of a ticket on
the APC on his own steam without
his Governor's say so.
As such the reordered 2019
election sequence will liberalize the
democratic space such that where
the APC Governors who have the
party under their thumb deny them
a ticket they can pick any and work
the electorate to return to Abuja. The
same thing will happen where the
Governors continue their
hardheaded "kaci, ba kaci ba, kaci"
nomination of candidates, for all
levels of elections. Note the LG
elections by conscienceless State
Election Commissions not one bit
ashamed of the "Independent" tag on
them. The latest of February 10th, in
Kano was a mockery of we haven't
seen in 40 years of politics. This
travesty of "democracy" our "elected"
civilian administrations claim and
worse the "independence" their
electoral agencies so shamelessly
rub in our faces is so galling
particularly for the Kano of Malam
Aminu Kano and Muhammadu
Abubakar Rimi.
That 5 million votes 'dash' for GMB
Someone fed my APC Governor
funny figures that over 2.6 million
votes were cast. Those preparing his
LG elections victory speech went a
step further and had him say, he will
"dash" our GMB five million votes,
leaving Kano and Kanawa the butt
of mean jokes. This "dashed" some
wicked ignorants the opportunity of
having a field day on the social
media with photos of under aged
street urchins allegedly voting at the
no-show Kano LG election.
True or false, we again get reports
of the same Kano APC authorities
claim those photos were of the 2015
election. This can't be from the Kano
Government. Its enemies must have
planted this as well as the tale and
photos of the underaged voters. And
all at a time of the worst voter apathy
in Kano ever. All comprehensively
reported by all of Kano's radio
stations as the "elections" were
supposedly on, where the "elections"
took place, if at all. All these justifies
the reordering of elections by the
NASS, and they are no doubt in their
right to do so. Everyone will now have
to answer his father's name on
election day.
elRufai and his troubles
Our chat here some weeks ago,
raised an alarm on the fate of APC
in Kaduna after the elRufai's sack of
teachers got many responses. One
actually suggested I was a "goat" for
worrying about 200,00 votes that our
party, APC could lose if nothing was
done in good enough time. I referred
to the Governor's Shia troubles, and
the chiefs especially of Southern
Zaria, his friend Senator Hunkuyi
and Senator Shehu Sani.
One MUSA DANTSOHO
thought I was of the 'Akida (ideology)
APC'. I may be accused of being of
Nigeria is a mere nomenclature
sanctified by a dependent electoral
body that claims to be independent,
propelled by underage voters, some
less than half the official electoral
age, dignified by leading political
structures with an abiding faith in
rigging elections, certified as ‘having
substantially complied with the
electoral law’ by observers funded
by partisan donors, and blessed by
the ‘international community.’
Despite its good pedigree and
orientation, the ANC is exhibiting
troubling signs that it can be both a
good and bad example of party
supremacy. Cyril Matamela
Ramaphosa was sworn in as the fifth
President of South Africa on
February 15. But of the five
Presidents, Nelson Mandela was the
only one with the people's mandate
to have completed his tenure and
handed over to a successor elected
by the electorate. When his successor,
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki lost the
ANC presidency to his Deputy, Jacob
Zuma, the party, exercising its
supremacy, could not wait to get him
thrown out. With nine months left to
complete his second term in office,
the ANC forced Mbeki to resign on
September 20, 2008. Apart from
losing the internal ANC elections
and being considered somewhat
dictatorial and aloof, Mbeki had no
known scandals, and internationally,
had a good image. These rumblings
led to a split with leading ANC
members like former Defence
Minister, Mosiuoa ‘Terror’ Lekota,
former Deputy Defence Minister,
Mluleki George and former Premier
of Gauteng Province, Mbhazima
Samuel Shilowa, breaking away to
found the Congress of the People,
COPE.
The man who completed the
Mbeki term was Kgalema Petrus
Motlanthe whom parliament
elected by 269 of the 351 votes cast.
'akida' politics, but am not of Kaduna.
He says: "Gwangwazo, you just
have to wait and see how far your
'Akida APC' will reach in 2019. Do
you think El-Rufai, as Governor
would merely watch this bunch of
opportunists in Garba Sani
(meaning Senator Shehu Sani, I
suppose) & co., destroy his political
career?
"Out of political stupidity of the
likes of Sani, they let others make
fun of educational system in Kaduna
State and by extension, the North in
general. After all, none of these critics
have their children in Kaduna State
public schools".
But then the facts at issue over the
2019 elections can't be disputed. The
votes are at issue. What is more as
nothing has been done to ameliorate
the pitfalls for the Kaduna APC
ahead of 2019 yet, elRufai has taken
impunity to another level. The PDP
in him keeps coming back as he
demolished a political opponent's
house at 4am. Wonder of wonders!
So government works so well even
at night? The excuse for demolishing
the property (for overriding public
interest!) was over unpaid land rates.
The real reason is it is used as the
factional headquartasked hag had
the "democratic" audacity to
suspend the Governor from APC. And
yet, the focus should be on the votes
in 2019.
Asiwaju Tinubu as GMB's secret
weapon Thank God, GMB is as
focused on those votes as we are.
Springing Asiwaju Tinubu on APC
as his 2019 secret weapon after all
The fourth President was Jacob
Gedleyihlekisa Zuma. His team lost
the December 2017 ANC elections
to then Deputy President
Ramaphosa. For a man dogged by
scandals, it was not long before the
ANC, exercising its supremacy,
demanded and secured Zuma’s
resignation. With such culture, it is
not unlikely that the ANC may in
future force Ramaphosa out of
office.
Another powerful party is the
Zimbabwean African National
Union, ZANU-PF, in neigbouring
Zimbabwe. Exercising party
supremacy, ZANU-PF has
dominated the country’s political
landscape since 1980 and decides
who runs for what office and who
does not. In December 2014, it
sacked Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
The party picked President Robert
Mugabe as its Presidential
candidate in the scheduled 2018
elections and on November 6, 2017,
sacked Vice-President Emmerson
Mnangagwa. All these seemed
settled matters. However, the
military nine days later organised a
coup putting Mugabe under house
arrest and forcing some powerful
party leaders to flee. It forced
Mugabe to resign and the party
reconvened to appoint Mnangagwa
president. It then continued in its
old tradition. This is to the extent
that when on Wednesday, February
22, former President Mugabe
turned 94, the day was declared a
public holiday to honour him,
acknowledge and propagate his
immense contributions to the
country and the Black Race.
We need genuine political parties
in Africa who can assert themselves
and impose party supremacy over
every member, but they should not
be so powerful as to make the people
weak. As the ANC slogan goes: “The
people Must Govern!”.
the turmoil in the party shows he is
conscious of the votes. On those
votes, in Kano the fact at issue is
beyond the Ganduje and
Kwankwaso brothers rivalry, very
important as it is. Every four-year
election cycle Kano has delivered an
added 200,000 votes since 2003. It
wasn't any different in Kwankwaso
and Ganduje's 2015 turn. These votes
clearly need to be properly
husbanded. The first State Visit GMB
paid late last year confirmed that
there may be apathy of unimagined
proportions if things continued the
way they are in Kano, as in many
states of GMB sure bankers. And the
Kano LG elections validated these
fears if any validation was required.
Tinubu, Kwankwaso and
Kano Buharists, now and in
2019
With the justifiable fear of
diminishing votes especially from the
middle belt there would be little
reason to insist on assuaging the
Christian content of the North which
is why Tinubu wasn't on the GMB
2015 ticket. He should be on in 2019
as the South west doesnt vote along
religious lines. Also as part of
reconciliation Kano should have
more Buharists in the Central and
State Government and on the
frontline of 2019 elections. Up there,
Kwankwaso needs to be part of the
Government now, and upfront in the
GMB 2019 campaign, such that he
is at the core of Government to await
2023.