We are in the season of political anomie in Nigeria and the vultures are already searching for carrion. The alarm bells are ringing where normality is undisturbed and the names and reputations of innocent people are the subject of sadistic imaginations of the character assassins. But it is all too familiar because it didn’t start today and will not end now that the lies are exposed. With 2015 fast approaching the do-or-die politicians are hitting and running without rhyme or reason.
The latest media sleaze prominently bandied by The Nation newspaper targets the unperturbed Vice President Namadi Sambo with a trumped up story of on-going moves to drop him from the presidential ticket ahead of 2015 elections and even identifies his supposed replacement as “a fair complexioned governor from the North-West zone”. The VP, according to the warped imagination of the paper’s hack-writer, is out of favour because a phantom committee working on the PDP’s 2015 strategy has suddenly found him to be politically unsuitable.
Were it not for the exclusive prominence the paper devoted to this fairy tale it was worthy to be ignored by any discerning mind. But using it as a lead story indicated much more than meets the eye, particularly as The Nation has since surrendered its initial journalistic prowess to the desperate dictates of its owner and is now commonly disregarded in any other context. It is therefore certain that the formidable political power charging confidently ahead under the Jonathan-Sambo PDP flag is sending shock-waves into the ACN ranks sufficient to necessitate malicious propaganda and wishful imagination. This rabid reaction is to be expected from a party that is so unsure of its chances at the next polls that it hysterically hounds other parties into a merger of desperate bid oblivious to its disabling incompatibilities.
Even the reporter loses his bearing as he cooks up improbabilities to support his untenable analysis. So in one sentence he refers to VP Namadi Sambo as being more technocrat than politician, a positive attribute which actually vindicates the assignment of enormous onerous responsibilities in strategic sectors to him by his impressed boss, Mr President and debunks any notion of election liability. In another reference he ridiculously states that the PDP’s 2015 strategy is to get a VP “like Atiku” was to Obasanjo ! Anyone else with even rudimentary political wisdom would recall the Atiku-Obasanjo partnership in presidency as the perfect recipe for treacherous political disaster. With these monumental assaults on logic and commonsense, The Nation’s incompetence and mischief is glaring.
Such a cock-and-bull story however may also be feeding on the subterranean sentiments of certain elements whose loyalty to the PDP is shallow and highly dependent on their selfish interests. The mention of a fair- complexioned north-west governor is indicative of such fifth columnist antics because the unnamed governor has a track record of autocratic egotism that recognizes no other interest than personal. In his state he is despised in political circles for temporary loyalty and brazen betrayal which he crassly displayed to his deceased benefactor in politics as well as high intolerance of superior performance and personality among his compatriots in the state. This fair-complexioned governor has a dark mind of intrigues and insatiable lust for power which perfectly fits his being touted as a “favourite” of the phantom committee.
Even at the national level and the very base of PDP incumbency there are characters whose frequent indiscretions and political philandering have earned them so much disrepute that their survival is solely a factor of the statesmanship of their bosses and yet they are incurable in their machinations of seeking undeserved favour by foul means. Any well-heeled political prospector can hire their services and they will not hesitate to betray their benefactors. It is quite reasonable to posit that these are the spurious sources on which The Nation relied for concocting its tall story of dissent in the presidency which however still remains a mere figment of warped political assessment of its editors desperate to be seen to be aiding and abetting the desperate political agenda of its ambitious owner.
As far as the core leadership constituents of the PDP are concerned the Jonathan-Sambo presidential team is unassailable both on account of the tight interpersonal comradeship of the two personalities as well as the undisputed track record of focus and performance in the execution of their acclaimed transformation agenda. Unlike the Atiku-Obasanjo odd mix, we have never heard of any crisis or dissatisfaction since President Goodluck Jonathan wisely chose Architect Namadi Sambo as his vice. It will take more than editorial dreams and ambitious fifth columnists to create smoke without fire.
Abdullahi Garba can be reached at abdullahi_garba@yahoo.com
