At exactly 6.00 Am in the morning, two buses
leave Maza-maza in Mile 2, Lagos, for Onitsha in
Anambra state. One bus is called Malaysia and
the other bus is called Nigeria. Six hours later,
Malaysia is in Ore while Nigeria is in Sagamu. Bus
Malaysia is moving at an average speed of 60
kilometers an hour, while bus Nigeria is moving at
an average of 10 kilometers an hour. If bus
Nigeria is to meet bus Malaysia, at what speed
should bus Nigeria be moving? Where on the road
to Onitsha will the two buses meet? And when?
This is one of the mathematical problems that
end the science career of most Nigerian students.
The other one is this simple one: a man wakes up
in the morning and decides to go to the market
by foot. He takes one step forward and two steps
backward. At the end of the day, where will he be
along the road to the market?
Most Nigerians do not understand these
mathematical problems. Our politicians know that
and they are capitalizing on that ignorance to fool
us all.
Since coming into power in1999, the ruling
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has shown
Nigerians who they really are. They do not
pretend anymore about their vision for the
country. They say that they want to transform
Nigeria into Brazil. They think as if they want
Nigeria to be Mexico. They act as if they want
Nigeria to be, at best, Pakistan; or at worse,
Afghanistan. Most Nigerians have come to accept
the PDP for who they are.
The same cannot be said about the opposition,
the All Progressive Congress (APC). They still
behave as if they have something magical to
offer. They are solely counting on Nigerians
inability to figure out the answers to those two
mathematical problems above.
Mr. Bola Tinubu is the paramount leader of the
opposition, APC. The primary charge of the APC
is to present a different vision for the country- a
vision that will separate it from the ruling PDP.
As everyone who cares about the progress of
Nigeria can attest, one of the areas of change
needed in Nigeria is the enthronement of
meritocracy and the disengagement of mediocrity
from our public life. You don’t need to be a
progressive to know this. It is very fundamental.
And that is the very first place that Bola Tinubu’s
APC has failed.
Tinubu and his friends in APC would rather force
their families and friends on the electorate. It is
no longer democracy when the consent of the
electorates at whatever level is not sought and,
when sought, is not respected. In a democracy,
there is no sacrament as sacred as the consent
of the people and there is no oath as potent as
we, the people. Those who defy them bring upon
their heads truckloads of eternal curses.
The second area where the Tinubu gang has
failed to make a clean cut from the PDP is in not
raising the standard of what public service should
be. States run by APC governors are not
distinguishable from those run by the PDP
governors. Local governments run by APC
chairmen are not different from those run by PDP
chairmen. APC members of the National
Assembly(the Senate and the House of
Representative) have not performed any better
than their PDP counterparts. The APC members
collect the same obscene salaries and allowances
the PDP members collect without protest. Just
like their PDP counterparts, the APC lawmakers
have failed to rewrite the laws of Nigeria to make
the country a more just society. Yet, they claim
progressive credentials.
The expectations of the people of Nigeria are so
low it is obscene. Knowing that, the Tinubu gang
at APC has set the bar of good governance even
lower. They totally ignore the fact that, for Nigeria
to move out of its current pedestrian orbit and
jump into an edifying one, the country needs a
drastic jolt. A people beaten up for decades can
be forgiven for wallowing in low expectations but
not a leadership that parades itself as a
progressive alternative.
This hypocrisy manifests in opposition characters
like Rochas Okorocha, the governor of Imo state.
This showman came into office with a promise to
rescue Imo state from the scourge of PDP’s let
downs. After twelve years of ineptness and
corruption under Achike Udenwa and Ikedi
Ohakim, the people of Imo state thought they
were getting a messiah in Okorocha.
Okorocha came in with an eye on a national office
and an exaggerated sense of importance. With a
war chest that included a redeployed N2.5 billion
naira a year security vote, he embarked on an
unsophisticated show of abracadabra. He moved
from one half-baked project into another. His
policies are not any different. They lack focus and
vigorous examination. He undermined his
constituents and finished off his party (APGA)
where Peter Obi had left it to die.
When Boko Haram threat got to Imo state, the
man who had been an enthusiastic supporter of
mosque constructions in the state decided that
the best reaction was to issue all northerners in
his state an ID card. That was the best solution
that his brain could figure out. It was simplistic
and without an iota of regard to the wider
implication of such a policy. But it was
quintessential Okorocha.
The pedigree of Tinubu, Okorocha and their likes
are troubling enough that a descent society would
not hang its hopes on their types. From their
upbringing, educational accomplishment, to their
source of wealth, these men would be too
ashamed to be in public life if Nigeria were a
sane society. Nigeria is a country in search of
heroes. Every Batman, Spiderman, Ratman and
Roachman is pounding his heart and claiming to
be a hero- the Nigerian hero.
Tinubu, Okorocha and others, know that Rome
was not build by men who took one step forward
and two steps backward. They know that a man
who takes a step forward and two steps
backwards is retrogressing. But they have
specialized in amplifying that step forward to
create an impression of a forward movement.
Tinubu, Okorocha and others, know that for bus
Nigeria to catch up with a stationary bus
Malaysia, it needs to travel at a speed of 60
kilometers an hour for 6 hours. To get to a static
bus Malaysia in 3 hours, bus Nigeria needs to
travel at 120 kilometers an hour.
Tinubu, Okorocha and others, know that bus
Malaysia is not static but on the move at an
average speed of 60 kilometers an hour. They are
happy to claim that they are heroes because they
are promising to get bus Nigeria moving at 25
kilometers an hour.
The trouble with Tinubu, et al, is not that they are
pretending to be the brightest crayons in the box.
We can see from afar that they are not. The
trouble is that they are invariably creating the
impression that all the crayons in the box are as
dull as they are. That’s the trouble and our
tragedy........

u need help

Nigerians are getting to know what they want and what's good for them. We will get there one day.

sorry how did u mean that he needs help? Someone just highlighted some vital issues and instead of u to tackle the issue he raised in the article u are attacking him

Love this post, but there is somthing I want to figure out, can we compare lagos state govern by the APC candidate with any other states? What of osun state aregbesola?.... Is not that the pdpd states are not doing well... Some why while some are not... We just need to change this party and try another even though it will not up to the standard. PDP since 1999, its getting some one bored and tired of one party system.