Animal farm: Looking from APC to PDP and there is no difference

BY DAMILOLA BANJO

“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” — ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell.

It was in 2014, 400 level in University of Ibadan, that I learnt an important truth about Nigerian political parties that has since shaped the way I see them. I cannot remember what the topic was in ‘Writing For Print Media,’ class that day, but I remember professor Ayo Ojebode telling us how it is very hard to see a member of United States Democratic party convert to a Republican and vice versa. In the professor’s words, the two parties have a defined set of political orientations which make ‘decamping’ almost impossible.

Importantly, he said the reason politicians easily cross-carpet in Nigeria is because the parties lack these defining principles. That is why Atiku Abubakar can wake up in PDP, take lunch in APC, back to PDP for a nap, then peep at SDP for an evening show. That is the rate of political promiscuity among Nigerian politicians and this attests to one fact – the two prominent parties in Nigeria are exactly the same, except for their names.

In recent times, we have seen how the two parties try to show us which of them is more corrupt. The parties never denied culpability, they merely want Nigerians to see the difference in their shades of corruption. APC released a looters’ list which should have been better dabbed ‘Opposition Shaming list’. The list assumes no member of the APC is corrupt. None of them has ever taken for themselves what belongs to the people. The likes of Babachir Lawal, Ayodele Oke, Bukola Saraki have no criminal allegations hanging on their fat necks. They are members of the ruling party, hence can do no wrong.

Interestingly, when the opposition decided to respond, it never bothered to defend any of its members whose name appeared on the list. Instead, it issued its own list of corrupt APC members. President Muhammadu Buhari must explain how N1.1 trillion crude oil revenue was stolen under him as the Petroleum Minister. He must give an account of the embezzled N18 billion and N10 billion from internally displaced persons (IDPs) intervention fund and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) fund respectively. It is simply a case of your thieves are bigger than mine.

For every inadequacy you accused PDP of, you are sure of an exact replica in APC. Looking across states, you see the same negative indices, regardless of the fact of the party in power. Schools and hospitals suffer the same dereliction regardless of the fact that the governor was elected on the platform of PDP or APC. There are as much abandoned projects initiated by APC lawmakers as there are from PDP lawmakers. There is simply nothing to distinguish the two major parties from each other in terms of performance, ideology or disposition of their members or value orientation.

APC, is a conglomeration of different parties which were in opposition and had at various times, condemned the indiscretions of PDP for the 16 years it was Nigeria’s ruling party. Thus, one would ordinarily expect that having seen ‘how not to lead a country’ as was well displayed by PDP from 1999 to 2015, it would carve a better path for itself after it succeeded in displacing PDP in 2015.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case. The APC led government has fallen short in every aspect of governance it crowed in its vociferous criticisms of PDP, especially in the two years that preceded the 2015 general election.

The management of the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos a few days ago by Governor Akinwumi Ambode led government was an example in this regard. The presidential visit turned out to be a perfect imitation of chronic disregard for residents of the state displayed by the then PDP President Goodluck Jonathan during a similar visit.

Indeed, APC had advised Jonathan to take a chopper from Muritala International Airport to the venues of events he was scheduled to attend so as not cause unnecessary traffic gridlock and discomfort to the residents of the state. But APC forgot about its own ‘advise’ during the visit of Buhari to Lagos. The party chooses to go the same old way of blocking of roads and even, took the indiscretion a notch higher by declaring a public holiday for the presidential visit. Hundreds of residents had to trek to their various places of work. Those who are lucky to get public transport had to endure heavy traffic just as they did when Ex-President Jonathan visited.

As APC and PDP continue to point fingers at each other, Nigerian masses must realize that their bickering serves no good purpose for them. Just like the creature outside the window in the book ‘Animal Farm’ could no longer differentiate between the pigs and men, the ‘lines’ have completely vanished between APC and PDP. If the country must survive this havoc, we must vigorously begin the search for a better alternative.

Banjo writes from Lagos and can be reached at @RealBanjo or [email protected]