Now that the ‘battle’ is over

I believe that, for all contextual and practical purposes, we can delightfully declare that the election battle is about over. The hully-burly is over and the battle is lost and won–won mainly by Nigeria and Nigerians, whose nation’s future beyond 2015–the rumoured year of politi­cal holocaust has been a subject of much conjec­ture and disputation-locally and internationally.

There are so many vital lessons for us Nigeri­ans and our friends and undeclared foes abroad to learn from the process and outcome of this all-important election. But that is a subject for pub­lic intellectuals, historians and sundry categories of commentators, including ourselves to engage in in the near and foreseeable future. But as we bask in the glowing sun of victory euphoria or sulk in the wounds- leaking corners, depending on which side of the political divide we belong in the lost and won battle, there are urgent tasks ahead, especially for the President-elect and his would-be team, his party, the hurricane APC the outgoing party in power, the PDP and the elec­torate in general. We shall reflect, with extreme brevity, on these categories of tasks in one col­umn...expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
First, the President-elect. He knows why he sought to be President of Nigeria for four un­broken times. Except for this successful final time during which he had to reverse his earlier decision not to further seek power as President, he had done so with gritty determination and dogged resilience. No doubt, General Muham­madu Buhari must have a vision and a resolute mission for accomplishing that nudging vision for his country. He has found allies in a coalition: a formidable political formation which has re-written the history of opposition politics in our country in dislodging an incumbent political par­ty which, in a feat of unbridled self-confidence, if not unconscionable arrogance, had gloated on sustained power domination for at least six unbroken decades! The President-elect has a his­toric duty to lead the Nation, through his party, in rapidly and unequivocally giving a voice and structure to that sweeping and apt campaign slo­gan or credo they call change!
Change has been the word or wand with which millions of Nigerians have been swept off their feet. Change is the sing-song evoked and invoked to mesmerize Nigerians across status and class to throng the APC like millions of moths around a hundred lamps. Added to his personal charisma and animal magnetism, which make millions swamp and swoon in his presence, the promise of Change has been the political catchphrase and magic wand that has endeared him to the electorate. Nigerians are dying literally to know the exact content of that Change which has meant different things to dif­ferent people in persons and in bodies. Not stop­ping at knowing, Nigerians wish to begin, from yesterday, to enjoy that change whose soporiphic effect has had paradisiac effect on their lives, in advance. General Buhari, the new President, must marshal the ideology and structure of the Change that his Party is bringing to Nigeria very early in his ascendancy to power. Truth is that beyond the promise to trounce corruption, deal with security and provide jobs (very important governance items as such), we are yet to behold and perceive the how parameter of the change vision in a coherent manifesto of governance from Buhari’s party. The national tempo is high.
The anxiety peaks for meaningful change. It is a daunting task. By their votes, the people ex­hume confidence that General Buhari has what it takes to change the country positively, I Believe fundamentally. A reform, a radical transforma­tion? The electorate waits. Whichever, let me play the devil’s advocate that beyond a lucid and coherent articulation of leadership vision, there can be no magic in structural change, the kind that Nigeria needs to fulfill the yearnings of Ni­gerians and properly locate Nigeria where it has unquestionable potential to be in this twenty-first century, not to mention the Pax Nigerians vision sculpted for her by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi as far back as 1969! Change is not a fire brigade event. It is a systematic and structural process. Buhari must sue for patience from the teem­ing supporting populace thronging for instant change. But he must sustain the national appe­tite for it through earnestness of success. I do not envy the President -elect. I feel for him!expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
What about his party on whose platform he has won the election? How prepared and posi­tioned is it for deployment by Buhari to accom­plish the desired change? I have genuine worries in this direction. The composition of the party presently is amorphous. It comprises the origi­nal coalition of parties, which answered to vari­ous shades of progressiveness or progressivism. That was before it went out to woo and received defectors, mainly from the stronghold of the PDP–the ruling hegemon it sought to dislodge and replace. The nation was animated at the pos­sibilities of the true emergence of a formidable opposition politics beyond politics of pragmatic or expedient mergers. A case of politics of coali­tion, hurray!
But today, the true character, in ideological terms, defies defining. On the eve of the elec­tion and shortly after APC won the Presidency, a wave and surge of decamping and defec­tion of the most bewildering kind took over and it is becoming so difficult to give a name to the APC. Such is the emptying of the rul­ing party into the PDP trough that we may be moving to the beginning of the vicious circle that produced the one partyism that the ruling party became before our very eyes! Is this the growing characterless formation that will bring change? It is relieving that the Chairman of the Party, Chief Oyegun, is raising a belated alarm! Then of course, there is the usual rabid jostling for positions and offices in the new cabinet! Usu­ally, this becomes the uppermost preoccupation of political jobbers that dominate the inner cau­cuses of political parties that newly ascend pow­er in our country. Will Buhari be able to by-pass this job haunters and pick people with merit, pro­fessional and technical know-how that will help him in confronting the challenges ahead of him? Will those who are close to his skin in the thick of the struggle remain altruistic and vigilant at this critical moment of power transition?
As for the PDP, is this the end of the biggest party in Africa of yesterday? At the break-neck and dizzying speed at which party stalwarts rush unto the winning party, we may soon witness the crumbling of the power- party, lending credence to the pervasive view that the party’s base was mushroom-like and that the party is unprepared to play the role of an opposition party. I am anx­ious that this is proved wrong by the leadership that remains in the party after May 29.
The nation deserves a deep and an endur­ing democracy, beyond the euphoria and teeth-gnashing of the moment. Democracy must thrive on our land. Both the in-coming govern­ment and the outgoing one have crucial roles to play in the democratic survival of our country. It is time to heartily congratulate General Muham­madu Buhari for his victory at the polls and to wish him a successful tenure.