Total seriousness makes politics a dull game
Perhaps, the fun is about to begin. The big masquerades are tip-toing into the arena. Their arrival might enliven this rather dull, soporific period, forcing people of my generation to rest their heads on the cushion of nostalgia; recalling when a general election in the country electrified it. But the men who saw fun and seriousness in politics have since given way to men who see politics as the serious business of capturing power.
I welcome the joker on the political stage. I welcome the political party that goes by the name of Justice Must Prevail Party. I like the name. And I like what the party is saying. It is led by an acting national chairman, Dr Olusegun Ijagbemi. It seems to be the first authentic African party in the land.
On June 14, the party leaders, Dr Ijagbemi, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former governor of Anambra State, who is the chairman of the board of trustees, Mrs Sarah Jibril, known in the party circle as Mother of the Nation, and Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed, took an oath barefooted outside the party secretariat in Abuja. I suspect this was an invocation of black power. Our ancestral spirits have been summoned to the aid of a political party to ensure, as its name implies, that justice must prevail in the country. We have found the answer. The juju man cometh.
What I really love about the party is what it is offering the nation. Dr Ijagbemi told reporters in Abuja last week that if his party replaces APC in Aso Rock next year, it would do the following. One, it would do what President Trump could not do: build a perimeter fence around Nigeria. The intension is to keep out nonNigerians and keep in Nigerians. Nigeria for Nigerians, right? Our first real patriotic political party has just emerged.
Two, the party would change the name of our country from Nigeria to Pisonia. I do not know where this strange word came from or why it is a better name than Nigeria but it is an authentic name as opposed to what was given to our land by Lord Lugard’s wife in 1914. Politicians are creative human beings, able to degrade sense to nonsense.
Three the party would change our national currency from Naira to Pison. It rhymes with its new name. The chairman’s reason for this is that outsiders are printing our currency. The party must stop them.
Are you laughing? This is not a party of cranks. Politics has the capacity to bring out the serious and the jokers who want to have a fiveminute fame on the political stage. We need such comic reliefs to prevent us from going crazy in these parlous times.
As you think of the big masquerades, think also about those who want to electrify the political space with comedy. So far, the big masquerades are President Muhammadu Buhari; former VicePresident Atiku Abubakar, Dr Kingsley Moghalu and Ahmed Makarfi. Buhari is already in the market square waiting to take on all comers in his bid to remain in Aso Rock for another four years. His promise of a better country rests on the record of his performance in his first three years in office.
Abubakar was, perhaps, the first man to start early in the race. It is good that he has not given up his ambition to win the much-coveted political crown - and make former President Obasanjo squirm and curse the day he swore that his former number two man would become president over his dead body.
Abubakar has dropped some hints on what he intends to put right and thus what the country stands to gain by doing the right thing by the law and the people under his watch. I am yet to get a fair picture of his plans for a better country under his watch. Well, not to worry. Politicians, despite being generally garrulous, know when to keep some things close to their chests.
Moghalu is a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He is in the market square on the platform of the Young Progressive Party. It is one of the 68 political parties, most of which have yet to participate in elections. If you ignore the platform he has chosen to realise his presidential ambition and listen to what he has been saying so far, you could see he is serious and talks seriously about what he could do to transform the country. He is offering something better than the usual bread-and-butter promises.
The very cerebral young man is introducing some measure of intellectualism into the humdrum of party politicking in our country. For example, he plans a one trillion Naira venture capital for entrepreneurs in the country. He told his former boss, the Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness, Muhammadu Sanusi II: “It is time for a new generation of leaders that are interested in creating a better future for Nigerians. Every young Nigerian can contribute to the development of our great country, but there needs to be opportunity and access to education, skills and better security to improve their lives.”
Not to worry. The country’s political space is expanding for our youths. We can easily cite the nottoo-young-to-run law as evidence that the Berlin wall that has kept the young on the other side of power is crumbling.
Makarfi is a former governor of Kaduna State. He led PDP through the halls of the judiciary and emerged victorious last year. It is reward time.
We would like to see more men - and women - in the market square. I would imagine that if each of the 68 political parties presents its presidential candidate, it would inject life into the quest for power at the federal and state levels. They can come armed with black power or white power. It is all part of the game and the comedy of politics.