WITH UCHE NNADOZIE
She woke up one day and hinted about a Red Card movement. At the time, this page warned that it was a very irrelevant way of trying to engage the polity. As a country seized by politics, its either you are part of the politics or you are not. Having worked in government at the federal level for almost eight years and being a two-time minister, she should know better. But she appeared not to, and it showed as her political pressure group crumbled like a pack of cards. What Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili hasn’t done however is to critically think through her political moves! So far, they are so kindergarten. She appears naïve and celebrates her own narcissism. This is troubling for me personally as this page has celebrated her in the past for her championing our shared humanity over the Bring Back Our Girls movement.
There seem to be a nagging desire in her to continually be in the news. She claims to want changes in government or policy but completely lack the appetite to engage. How on earth do you want to bloom in politics if you do not want to engage? It’s like trying to make pounded yam without the yam, it’s not possible. After the collapse of Red Card movement, she suddenly announced she was running for office. It’s her constitutional right. She said she was r,unning to become president. Interesting! This is barely three months and she has called it off. She joined a party, picked their presidential ticket, got registered with INEC, participated in a presidential debate (where a section of the populace named her as the best debater) just days after, she quits the race.
In her statement, she claims she want to help midwife a coalition of non PDP elected APC politicians that will help defeat both parties in this election that is three weeks away! A candidate that didn’t know she can’t pull out of the race at this time simply knows very little about our process. You also can’t bring parties together at this time. Candidates can only urge supporters (where they have) to vote their rival and it is a very clumsy exercise. You don’t play politics on twitter. Some of us who are there are there to keep the presence and make “noise”. The real politics are played with actual not virtual human beings. But our Oby will not allow her ego get in her way. She has issued statements celebrating her vain self-importance. Here is a person who always talked about not getting involved in politics any more. She was the umpire of an attempt by third party presidential aspirants to form a pact much earlier. She supervised the voting process for the pact only to come off from there to announce her own ambition to contest for the same office.
That is super betrayal. She betrayed those who trusted her judgment as an impartial arbiter. She has also betrayed the party she rode on to become a candidate. She will betray the electorate if she ever get in as a councilor. Her first baby steps in real politics ended in disaster and suspicion; therefore she can’t be the one to midwife a strong coalition against the major parties. She will still betray that cause. I pity her political party- ACPN. She got in there used her pedigree to hijack the process, but abandoned them without any consensus. Is that how PDP or APC became formidable? Those who want to replace the dominant parties are themselves tiny dictators and childish tyrants. They preach another thing, but do another. Going forward, folks should take their preachments with a pinch of salt. To do politics is not cheap and its not easy. I salute those who work their sucks off to stay in there.
Since Mrs. Ezekwesili shared her disavowal of her party’s position about her sudden withdrawal from the presidential race, our “intellectuals” have kicked in. They say a system that does not permit an intelligent person to participate isn’t a good one. They have no cautionary words for Mrs. Ezekwesili in spite of what I see as her indecent behaviour. We can’t blame her party. She is the one that claims superior knowledge as such must practice superior behaviour. Truth is told, her (former) party is a fringe party; a non-recognisable party that can’t win a councillorship election. This is a party that intended to send party agent’s to 119,000 polling units around Nigeria? Please can someone remind me the states and candidates fielded by this party in the whole federation? There are Senate, House, Assembly seats all over the place yet this party hardly has contestants.
Our former World Bank Vice President could not use her contacts, personality, pedigree, reach, qualifications, intellection to attract quality to that party. They had no campaign, no offices, and zero strategy beyond twitter. Some names mentioned are pseudo names. In fact, the party and their presidential candidate (especially) took the nation for granted. But somehow, we excuse her and lash the party. What exactly did Oby bring to that party since she joined them? Now she has abandoned them, left uninspiring words in tow. Listen, all Nigerian intellectuals, it’s not easy to build and sustain a party. Not even in “saner climes”. Stop throwing your over bloated egos around. Political parties need rigour, patience and ideology. Not what we’ve seen with the ACPN and their most prominent member. Jumping will not solve the problem. If she who was in government still lacks the tenacity to build up a party in her own image, it’s time to praise politicians.
