When folly completely eclipses common sense, actions descend into mischief so profound that one is forced to question whether the human capacity for critical reasoning has simply evaporated.
The ADC has now become nothing more than an albatross around the necks of its desperate buyers. Like the old fable of a cunning desert trickster, Ralph Nwosu has effectively sold a bag of ashes to some of Nigeria’s most slippery and morally bankrupt political actors, branding it as sugar and astonishingly, they bought it in bulk.
Enter Atiku Abubakar, the perennial political merchant, still struggling to convince Nigerians that his stewardship as Vice President and chairman of the National Council on Privatization was not an elaborate bazaar where public assets found their way into private hands. Reports suggest he allegedly poured hundreds of millions into the ADC, only for the party’s chairman to quietly swallow the spoils without distributing them across the party structure. Thus, a man whose early career was in the customs service now parades as a political investor, acquiring for himself and his weary associates a party already crippled by internal discord and disillusionment.
Predictably, the house collapsed. The courts intervened and restored the status quo – an outcome that should have forced a moment of reflection but reflection requires humility, and humility is in short supply among men intoxicated by entitlement.
Instead of retreating to confront their serial miscalculations, these overused relics of Nigeria’s political decay, figures who have lingered like a stubborn ailment since the Third Republic; opted for yet another display of political banditry. What followed was a protest so hollow, so devoid of logic and coherence, that it bordered on farce.
Watching the spectacle unfold was nothing short of comedic. A lineup of aging political actors, long past relevance, clutching banners and marching with all the seriousness of a cause that their fanatical followers and the bunch of miscreants who jumped on the rickety bandwagon clearly did not understand. One could almost imagine notorious figures of the past rising to join the parade – such is the absurdity of it all.
What exactly are they protesting? Corruption – an arena in which many of them are seasoned veterans? Governance, where their track records remain deeply questionable? On what moral pedestal do they stand to demand the removal of the INEC chairman, a man acting within the confines of judicial pronouncements?
At this rate, one would not be surprised to see convicted criminals joining protests against crime itself. Evans the Kidnapper should have joined the fray – a free jamboree of the absurd.
As Chinua Achebe alluded in his book, ‘A Man of the People’, this is the land, where a man is caught stealing from a blind man’s bowl at noon, yet is seen dining with the High Priest in the evening. (Not a quote) That paradox is alive and well till date.
When will it finally register that it is the courts – the very institutions that delivered these judgments, that should be engaged, rather than staging theatrical displays on the streets of Abuja? What we witnessed was not activism; it was a carnival of confusion, men of advanced age, wielding oversized banners, marching with the energy of dejected street urchins.
Perhaps the most telling image from the entire charade was the near absence of the once-vibrant Kwankwasiyya movement, a political force that once rallied passionately behind its leader. Their silence, or rather scanty presence at the protest ground, speaks volumes. Even loyal followership appears to have drawn a line.
How are the mighty fallen!
- Moji Danisa writes from Abuja
