- He Is Like An Ebola Virus Which Suddenly Attacks And Kills
All things were going on well and smoothly in the Adamawa State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, until few days ago when the former anti-corruption czar, and former presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, announced to a bewildered nation that he had pitched his tents with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The PDP in Adamawa had hitherto been a formidable force destined to take over power in the oncoming election for the governorship position following the recent impeachment of Admiral Murtala Nyako of the ACN, which led to the enthronement of an acting governor. But with the surprising defection of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, whose action is seen by many as nothing but an inordinate ambition to succeed Nyako, the PDP is in for a serious crisis in the state and even at the national level. His entry into the party just few days ago has already polarized the party.
His defection would not have come with any surprise based on our own peculiar type of party democracy. Inter-party defection is a trend we are gradually getting used to and painfully assimilating into our political system. But a situation when a once respected Ribadu is now threading a shameful path occasioned by an inordinate political ambition is nothing but absurdity. General Mohamed Buba Marwa and many other APC bigwigs in Adamawa also defected from the then ruling APC probably when the handwriting was clear on the wall that waiting a minute longer was like moving against a strong wind that was blowing and promising to consume whoever was on its way. They defected even when the APC party was still in power in Adamawa; they defected when serious crisis was consuming the party and when the then governor was no longer in tune with the aspirations of the people and leadership of his party.
As the pioneer head of the anti-graft agency, Ribadu almost became an invincible legend of sorts in Nigeria. His words were as sharp as his deeds when dealing with issue of corruption, so to say. He was a national figure whose influence spread across the length and breadth of Nigeria. No wonder he had the highest votes in Osun State, than any other candidate, in the 2011 presidential election.
Most people who had thought that Ribadu is a man of immense wisdom have to eat our words based on this recent turncoat by him. Ribadu, in most of his words in the past had reeled out how the PDP is the cancer eating deep into the essence of the Nigerian society; how the PDP with its almost sixteen years in the saddle has nothing to show for it; how the PDP is a party of murderers etc, etc. What surprises many are what changes had occurred in the party to have suddenly attracted him, if not for the governorship ambition only. It should not surprise us if he loses the ticket and back he goes to the APC.
This would be amusing and embarrassingly towing on the footstep of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President of Nigeria, who once had the presidential ticket of the opposition party, AC, contested but lost and returned to the PDP. When the elections were fast approaching again and he knew getting the PDP ticket would be a tall order, he jumped once again to the opposition ACN and now the APC. It should not surprise us if loses the ticket or the presidential election of the APC and runs back to the PDP.
For how long shall we be on this shameless path? Nigeria’s democracy is old enough to have men of integrity who would stay by their party come rain or shine, to build it. This reminds one of a former PDP governor from the south-east who founded and nurtured a political party for the sole purpose of getting a presidential mandate only to curiously decamp from the party he founded to go back to the PDP. He even went further to help in annihilating the party he single-handedly founded.
For Ribadu to have told a bewildered nation that the two parties are one and the same, that there are good people and bad people in both parties, is nothing but an afterthought to justify his marauding journey of ignominy. This is a shameless volte-face that would one day haunt him.
My only advice is to the PDP in Adamawa and the nation at large. It is for this party to beware of this fraudster parading the corridors of the party for the sole aim of getting their ticket for the oncoming gubernatorial election. There are more credible candidates on the stand- by who have been tested with power and who have not betrayed their benefactor for one second. This is because what goes round comes round. If Ribadu betrays his former party, the APC, which was magnanimous to have entrusted him with their presidential ticket, what is the guarantee that he will not sooner than later betray the Adamawa PDP should he be entrusted with the gubernatorial ticket? Adamawa PDP, please beware.
