Ambition and vision

The biggest news in the country last week wasn’t what was happening to our citizens and other blacks in South Africa. It ought to be but since life has lost its essence in our country it wasn’t, even our reaction against the ugly harassments and killings confirms it could have been a worthwhile matter.

Countries that cherish the lives of their people we can name a few, Botswana, which cut off electricity supply to parts of South Africa,Zambia and Tanzania which shut their borders; at the time of writing our government only invited the South African ambassador while the Senate could only agree to send a delegation to South Africa. To do exactly what?

It was not about our president leaving the country very much troubled on state visits to three countries, France again ( hmmmm), Kenya for a seminar and… This could not have made the headlines given that we have refused to learn that our country should have by now outgrown the level of our president hopping into a plane  to attend seminars spending days away from his seat at a time the country is going through heats of various kinds. This is very unfortunate.

What made the front page news and has remained the major story on nearly every lip across the country is the shocking realignment on the political stage of the country; the switch from African Democratic Congress ( ADC) by Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwakwanso to the newly registered Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC ). This is the news and this news still remains top of the chart even as you read this today. It will run for a long while because of its significance and place as the country moves to have another general election between December 2026 and January 2027.

We will discuss whether it was expected but before then it is crucial to reiterate that it is of immense significance to our political calculations. It is no hidden fact that anti-democratic agents have been having a field day in the last two years to the point that what they have done has caused so many citizens to wonder if what we have is democracy or something else. Many fear raw dictatorship coming through and taking hold. The fear that the President and the ruling party desire the President to be the only candidate on the ballot appeared very potent and real as most opposition political parties appear almost grounded via acts of subterfuge.

It is under this atmosphere Obi and Kwakwanso, two acknowledged political heavyweights, didn’t pull the biggest surprise of defecting from ADC, which was viewed as an emerging opposition new ground to join a new political party the NDC that was barely struggling to find an anchor. Surprisingly, the new party is making waves. It is growing at a geometric rate. We must admit that her leaders are very tough. The move is a master class act given the political scenario that preceded the development. What it does hold out is adding to the anxiety and expectations.

Was the political tsunami predictable? Did Nigerians expect what happened to come through? Good questions. Many citizens didn’t and a lot more would have said it wasn’t possible at this time. From the superficial dimension those who hold the above view are correct. Our politicians aren’t known for creative maneuvers. Causing disorder and confusion, yes, but what Obi and kwakwanso did was within this realm. It would pass for a master act in political engineering. It won’t matter what anyone  says or would still say about this development. It has reconfigured political organization and moves. In a fundamental manner, it would alter the way politics of the coming months would be played. It could also determine the outcome.

Why did the opposition parties fail, unable to withstand negative pushes from the competing groups? Why did ADC become a shell with the soul taken away? The biggest factor in all of what happened is” Ambition and Vision”. So much ambition and little or no vision. All the major political parties that were formed at the restart or return of democracy in 1999 are almost extinct. The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, which is still exhibiting a bit of life lies in the intensive care unit as we speak, gasping for breath. Unfortunately, oxygen that could keep it alive is in very short supply. If care isn’t taken it could pass over pretty soon. What was and still responsible: raw ambition, no vision.

We would explain these terms so readers can draw conclusions for themselves. Ambition is the drive to achieve something for yourself. Ambition is personal and directional; it is hunger to climb, win or build for one’s self. It is more about self-recognition, nothing more. People can be prancing about mouthing one thing in public when actually the driving force is personal interest and aggrandizement.

Vision on the surface looks like ambition but they are not the same. Vision is the picture of what could and should exist and why it matters beyond you. It is a clear, compelling image of a future state and the true meaning behind it. Visionaries don’t engage because they stand to profit; they do because of posterity. Why a man of ambition wants glory for himself (for instance, I led them to do this) a visionary would say, “This happened in our time, we improved on what we met because of our children and children’s children.”

This is why parties have continued to die in our country: ambition would cling to narrow objectives and hold tight primordial pillars of the society like ethnicity, religion and reign of mediocrity that is attached to them.

Check post-Independence political parties and why they evaporated quickly. Review post 1999 parties you see the same lining behind their inglorious fall. Since we have this culture of never learning anything from experience the same bug has continued to exist doing the same damage. It just took fire away from ADC which carried so much before the bubble burst.

  Our activities are full of bubbles, adhoc-ism, narrow interest, never vision and rigour. Those who midwifed ADC didn’t take pains to consult widely; they only saw the political atmosphere was getting cloudy because of poor governance culture which has always been so; they ran with the thought the orange on the tree is ripe for plucking which could be by a shake of the tree or the branches.

Atiku led his group. He listened to only them. So vital mistakes were done trying to build the foundation. Wide consultations would have told them to do first things first and what are these? The most crucial of them would have been to bring out a programme of action providing alternatives to what the current regime is doing wrong,  clearly stating the approach. The other perhaps most important would have been zoning. This would enable joiners to know what was clearly available.

 Spoilers like to subvert throwing in new rules and interpretation of regulations when the game had already started. This approach creates problems. The presidential seat is in the South and going by the events of the past and what appears like an unwritten agreement the office should remain with a citizen of Southern extraction. It would make for peace and good bonding.

Northerners who rise up and begin to sing merit at the point they are doing don’t mean well for the country. They never sang the song while Mohammad Buhari destroyed everything good about the country; they left him to run through eight years of two terms. What is good for the goose should be good also for the gander.

 ADC kept the evil hoping it would evaporate on its own or that the manipulators would have the last laugh, it didn’t work that way. Rather, it blew up on their faces. Ambition trumps vision and the Bible is strong on the point that where vision is absent the people will die. ADC has lost it.

The opposition too lost an opportunity to regain lost ground. Winning for them has become a very tall order, this is the plain truth. Obi and Kwakwanso have the right to go to any party of their choice. Fluidity of the Nigerian political culture doesn’t encourage a stand on principle on this score. Secondly, defection isn’t an ethnic agreement and agenda, political actors move according to what they see and encounter. This is the Plain Truth!