2025, the Threat of APC and Other Matters

0
13

By Jude Atupulazi

White people are known to have soft spots for all kinds of animals and keep most of them as pets, including some animals many here will baulk at having them near their homes, least of all keeping as pets. And so, it turned out that this particular white woman kept a long python as a pet. I’m not talking about the usual python that swallows rats in the villages but about the one that kills and swallows human beings.

This woman lived with the python, the big one or what we call ekeogba. She fed it and cuddled it and they even slept in same bed as it continued to grow. At one time, the woman noticed that the snake had stopped eating but would always try wrapping itself on her body. She became worried and soon took the snake to a veterinary doctor who after checking on it passed a grim verdict which shook the woman.

The doctor told her that the snake was not sick but that it was starving itself to create enough space in its belly to swallow the woman. The doctor said that each time the snake wrapped itself around her, it was trying to determine if it had grown enough to swallow her. That was the end of the romance between the woman and her pet snake.

The above, which is a true story which I gleaned from one of my favorite sites on animals, shows that some animals cannot make good pets as they will always revert to their true nature. In Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress, APC, is like this python. They are what they are and will always behave true to type even though there may be periods one may believe that it is safe to trust them or deal with them.

It is the same with any party in Nigeria which finds itself in power at the centre; at least, so we have seen from the National Party of Nigeria, NPN; the People’s Democratic Party, PDP; and currently the APC. The traits that run through all of them are the traits of self-preservation, selfishness and the desire to conquer more territories.

As Anambra State moves ever nearer to the governorship election that will take place next year, it goes without telling that the ruling party in the state, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, is well aware of the python in Abuja; or should I say, it SHOULD be well aware of it. I expect that APGA should know that no matter what friendship it enjoys with the APC-led Federal Government, such friendship will count for nothing when elections come.

Today, Anambra Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has been appointed as an Economic Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) of the APC. I was amused when some APGA faithful celebrated the appointment and saw it as a sign of love the President has for their Governor, which in effect, means that the APC will never attempt to rig the governorship election in the state. Igbaaaaa!

But any close observer will not fail to know that the occupiers of Aso Rock have no conscience, no soul. They are people who will stop at nothing to get what they want or crave.

To this end, it wouldn’t surprise me if Tinubu used the Anambra Election to avenge the humiliation of losing Lagos to Peter Obi of Labour Party in the last Presidential Election. It was a development that shocked and galled APC, especially Tinubu, who neither forgets nor forgives. The loss in Lagos was utterly embarrassing to Tinubu and he felt like a man whose clothes had been torn off his body in the market.

It was even more humiliating going by the gap of Obi’s victory which even the PDP openly admitted was up to 900, 000. The gap was eventually whittled down to 10, 000. But the fact that Obi won at all was one huge embarrassment and today we could all see the repercussions in the way the Lagos State Government has been demolishing shops in areas dominated by the Igbo.

Again, taking Anambra by the APC next year will also ensure that Obi’s home base is weakened long before 2027. All it needs is for some people to mount pressure on Tinubu, who once rigged election in an African country, and Anambra will fall. There will be a few shouts but they will soon evaporate and things will return to normal.

If anyone had told me that Nigeria would not be shut down if the last presidential election was rigged I would not have believed the person. We all saw how Nigerians everywhere, particularly the youths, threatened fire and brimstone if the results were tampered with. But we all saw what happened. Everybody gave up with barely a whimper. Thus, you ask yourself, if the APC could do such in the larger Nigeria, what will it not do in just Anambra?

It is thus, not for nothing that Soludo is mortally scared of Ubah and has been overreacting on any matter concerning him. You cannot therefore blame him. You could wonder why Ubah should leave the relative safety of his Young Progressives Party, YPP, and venture into APC that has remained unpopular in the East. He was also joined by Senator Uche Ekwunife who will most likely be his running mate. On his own, Ubah is formidable enough and has proved to be a street general. Ekwunife is no push over either. When therefore, the two combine to contest on the platform of a ruling party that takes no prisoners, fear can only be the word.

Some people who are realistic are even now saying that the best thing Soludo can do is to defect to APC. That is a sure way of avoiding the bullet of APC but I don’t see this happening though. The stark reality which anyone would deny to their peril is that once APC under Tinubu decides to take Anambra, only God can save the situation.

Besides, Anambra people are not known for violence. No one will take to the streets, except maybe a few who will go about it like people fulfilling all righteousness. After a week it will be all over and everything returns to normal. The politicians will also start decamping to APC in droves.

It will not matter to them that Soludo is their Economic Adviser. They will just press the trigger and the gun roars. There is nothing much anyone can do about this except to pray that Tinubu is not cajoled into thinking the way I’m thinking because Tinubu is a cold-blooded schemer and manipulator. Indeed, the idea of taking his revenge on Ndigbo for disgracing him in Lagos may be too sweet for him to pass up. But then, isn’t it said that man will propose but God will dispose?

Father, unto your hands we commend our state, should be the prayer of APGA faithful henceforth.

Punishing students in the name of extra lessons

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, His Lordship, Most Rev Paulinus Ezeokafor, last Sunday expressed misgivings about how students are made to spend long hours in school taking extra lessons. He said it is detrimental to the students and even parenting. I agree.

You see, the Whiteman who brought Western Education to us carefully planned it so that schoolchildren would have enough time for studying, playing and resting. In our days we had the short and long breaks and we had short holidays and long holidays. There were no extra lesson periods and yet many brilliant people were produced from that system.

We went to school at a particular time and left at a particular time. My school in Enugu even had morning and afternoon schools. Those in the morning would be dismissed around 1pm and the afternoon students would take over and be dismissed in the evening.

Today, students will go to school in the morning and come back late in the evening even when there are no day school or afternoon students. They say it is lessons that are being taught. But, pray, what lessons will be taught students that were not taught during regular time? Even during the holidays, students are still forced to attend lessons.

When will they even have the chance to help their parents? When will they have the chance to visit relations on holidays? Are they not aware of what we call diminishing returns as my Bishop pointed out? The human body can take only so much and will revolt against extra pressure. There is need to rest body and soul and come out stronger. That is even why abroad, going on leave is mandatory because the Whiteman believes that having enough rest helps one to produce better results.

What even annoys one is the fact that schools force these extra lessons in order to make money. Remove the extra money parents pay and you will see that these lessons will be stopped. So who is fooling who?

I’m calling on the state government to therefore stop this anomaly and revert to the old days. I know that if such lessons are made optional the teachers will purposely teach more subjects during lessons to spite those who don’t participate. So, the best thing is to scrap these extra lessons in toto.

Invariably, the Church should lead by example and ban extra lessons in its schools. We should stop over burdening our children because some people want to make money. They need to rest and do other things in their families.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.