By Joe Igbokwe

Since President Muhammadu Buhari took the oath of office on 29 May, 2015, I have been following the political developments with keen interest, especially the events at the National Assembly. I have witnessed the vicious attacks on All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership by those who lost the elections and those who fed from the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) inept leadership in the past 16 years. I have seen those who should know better attacking APC leadership insisting, that the party is not prepared for leadership. I have seen interlopers, intruders, mercenaries, grovellers, supporters of any government in power and hangers on working so hard to fix themselves back into the system to continue the systematic vandalisation of the project Nigeria. In all this, I thank God that we voted PDP out of power even though I know that it is not over until it is over.

Those who lost the elections have not gone home to rest. They are bitter, they are angry and they are cursing and abusing the drivers of this monumental change. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who led the team that showed PDP the way out has been the target of the vicious attacks by these shameful losers. They call him names; they say he is greedy, they say he wants everything including the Presidency and other key positions for himself. But these people are wrong. The leader wants Nigeria to succeed. The leader put everything in place, both human and material resources to push this change. The leader sacrificed time, energy and strength to push this change. Now can a man be punished for doing good? Can a man be crucified for helping to change the way we think, the way we do things, the way we plan, the way we reason and the way we apply our common sense even though common sense is not common? Can we continue to rubbish our brightest and bests because of groundless and unfounded petty jealousy? When has it become a crime to work so hard for your country in times of need?

How can any reasonable person ask APC to go to sleep with the daylight robbery we saw at the National Assembly? How can APC allow common thieves in the house it has laboured to build for 16 years because the enemies expect that we should keep quiet and look the other way? How can any decent man allow the open stealing we saw in the hallowed chamber of the Senate when 49 PDP Senators purchased 8 APC Senators and closed the door against 51 APC Senators because the thieves want Dr Bukola Saraki as President and Senator Ekweremmadu as Deputy Senate President? Are the teeming supporters of APC throughout the country aware of the meaning of this political calculations and permutations by the defeated PDP?

Do we know that APC has plans of what to do with Nigeria and the people it needs to drive the change? Do we know that one ugly person in the fold can pull down the whole house? They say a tree cannot make a forest but one man who is not good can pull down an organization. A Senate President and a Deputy Senate President who are not keyed to the APC agenda to rebuild Nigeria may be a cog in the wheel of progress. Students of the Bible must find out what happened to the people of Israel because of one ugly man called Achan or Jonah who endangered the whole people in a boat because he was running away from God. The same Bible tells us in Isaiah 65: 22 “They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands” .

A retired US Army General, General Powel says “Organization does not really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything either. Theories of Management don’t matter. Endeavors succeed or fall because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds”.

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. A day’s planning is done in the morning. PDP has been shamelessly dancing and entertaining themselves because they think they are gaining some ground and they are even thinking about 2019. This is a party that got itself nailed in the coffin through rampant and systematic impunity in every sector of our national life. Professor Itse Saggy says: “They (PDP) have established a system of very low values, total lack of commitment to the country and have demonstrated utter disdain for the welfare of the Nigerian people” In the words of former President Obasanjo, “Those criminals, crooks, persons of dubious character, the corrupt and corrupters and those whose track record are so blemished that no amount of white washing and propaganda and re-inventing of their personal profiles can cover up their dirty past must be prevented by all lawful means from corrupting, contaminating and compromising our democratic process”. Those who created yesterday’s pain do not control tomorrow’s potentials. Actions carry consequences!

This is the PDP that ruined our lives for 16 years, destroyed all things we hold dear and dared us to do our worst. May APC leaders never think that change will come easy. Machiavelli has told us that “Nothing is more difficult to bring about than a new order of things because those who profit from the old order will do everything possible to prevent a new order from coming about.”

I still share the sentiments of Mr. Warren Buffet that “in a chronically leaking boat energy devoted to changing vessels is more profitable than the energy devoted to patching the leaks.” It is a blessing in disguise that these problems are coming from this beginning. I think it is better for APC to roll up its sleeves to deal with this Saraki and Ekweremmadu challenge now instead of patching the leaks. The vessel may capsize on the way and everybody will be drowned. This is why I want real APC supporters, the ordinary Nigerians, those internet warriors, those agents of change who worked with empty stomach, those unknown Nigerians and the poor Nigerians who desire change to continue to stand behind APC in this struggle for a better Nigeria. Great success comes from great support.

For our great and dogged fighter Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu I urge him to remember once again a page document titled: THE PENALTY OF LEADERSHIP which the late Chief Bola Ige of blessed memory gave us at the Muson Centre in year 2000 when he turned 70. Hear Chief Bola Ige: “In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leader be vested in a man or a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition, the punishment fierce denial and detraction.”

—Igbokwe wrote from Lagos