When President Muhammudu Buhari came on board to fly the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the party’s presidential candidate during the 2015 presidential election, some Nigerians foresaw a glimpse of hope following his integrity quotient and his readiness to rebrand the country through a corruption free and sound leadership.
Some concerned Nigerians who were tired of the abysmal display of the then ruling party, saw the APC as a suitable replacement of the Peoples Democratic Party whose over 15 years of fiasco laden administration incurred the present economic hardship for the country.
It is worthy of note to say that, the manner in which President Buhari was accepted by the generality of the people of Nigeria was overwhelming especially because no opposition party in the history of the country ever had electoral effrontery to unseat an incumbent government.
But the Nigerian people were taken aback to see that, after one year of being in the leadership at the centre, the president appears to be extremely silent over some cogent issues that bother on national destiny and the welfare of the people of Nigeria as enshrined in the party’s manifesto during the electioneering campaign thereby putting the destiny of our great party, the APC in jeopardy.
While we expects the president and his handlers to hit the ground running by putting down a structured economic modality and result oriented leadership plan, it was however disheartening to note that, it took the present administration almost six months to inaugurate its cabinet members.
Besides, majority of the promises made to the people which wooed them into loving the APC have not seen the light of fulfilment and this has glaringly resulted to a national ecclesiae as the Change Mantra we fought for with the last drop of our blood has turned to ‘Change,’ denoting poverty, scarcity and lack.
While some Nigerians are complaining of sentimental appointment by the president, where a certain region is favoured above other regions in the country, we in the APC, are aware that the various political blogs that make up the APC comprising of ACN, ANPP, CPC, and a faction of APGA are not finding it funny as it is obvious that, those from the platform of the CPC enjoy the favour of the president more than others.
I am writing this article out of passion, interest, and commitment to nurture, grow, and develop our great party, the APC. However, it is pertinent to inform my esteem readers that, I will be dishing out informative and educative articles periodically to serve as a guide post to national sensitisation and public enlightening.
It is indeed obvious that, my dear party, the APC has been carried away by the euphoria of electoral victory and have jettisoned the vital component of governance that will benefit the people of Nigeria and unite APC members.
It is glaring that we urgently need to embark on party reform in APC with the aim of leveraging on our party’s popularity and checkmating the undue manner of handling avoidable errors which are capable of undermining our party’s ideals and unity.
Mr. President Sir, Nigerian people elected you to occupy the highest office in the land, the Aso Villa, in such a time when there was a palpable lacuna in the national leadership. With their bare hands, they thumb-printed the ballot papers for you. They procured your victory through their permanent voter cards as well as their determined resolve to set a platform for the journey of a new dawn.
The poor and the ignored people of the society were mostly the ones that fought for your victory. With their sweat, they graded the road for your safe trip to Aso Villa; they therefore deserve to enjoy the core dividends of democracy.
Since the reign of the Fourth Republic, it has been known that between the leaders and the led, there seems to be a master-servant relationship which has culminated to sharp inequality in the Nigerian society thereby besmirching the core values of an egalitarian state. This, you said you would fight during your campaign where Nigerians can have equal treatments across board.
The leadership that Nigerians are expecting from you sir, is the kind that is rooted in love. This is further buttressed in the first stanza of our most respected National Anthem which says, “…To serve our fatherland with ‘love’ and strength and faith…” Love remains one of the core ingredients for service as its absence will wreck the motive for leadership.
When love is absent, leadership becomes hardship and instead of constructing and improving on the lives of the people, the leaders will end destroying the institutions in the land as well as the people they lead. With love, Nigerians brought you to power through their votes and in the same token you will lead them to the desired shoreline of their prosperity.
As a God elected father over the Nigerian state, you have said in many of your speeches that, in your regime, there will not be disparity between you and the people that elected you. Only love will make you walk that talk.
Only a love filled regime will confer its people with basic needs where according to you, no Nigerian will go to bed with hunger. A love filled policy and workable approaches are what every leader needs to fight poverty in the land. But today, Nigerians are not only going to bed with hunger, they are dying of hunger while some of them out of impatience have started stealing pots of soup to survive.
Your Excellency Sir, may your love for democratic shepherd-hood over your new bride (Nigeria) be so lavished on her to a degree that she may not have a need to look somewhere else to fill her love tank.
Nigeria has been in and out of love for over a decade and half, the love union which has been marked with spiky infidelity. However, infidelity in leadership occurs when a leader fails to practice what he preaches and the followers are not loyal to obeying the law of the land.
Sir, Nigerians have suffered infidelity in the hands of its handlers before now. The Peoples Democratic Party, to whom the country was first betrothed, deceived her, denied her of her deserved welfare, developmental packages and then divorced her without any alimony to cater for her children.
To avoid repeating the errors of the PDP, it is high time we put our house in order so as to redeem our image and tell Nigerians that we have better alternative than the Peoples Democratic Party whose impunity and maladministration wrecked and undeveloped the country.
Ohikere wrote in from Abuja.
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