WHAT DIFFERENTIATES OUR POLITICAL PARTIES IS THE NAMES

Fr Mike Melladu

In 2014, under the presidency of Good Luck Jonathan, the then speaker of the House of Rep, Amino Tabowal, now the governor of Sokoto State planed to defect along with many legislators from the then ruling party PDP to the APC.

In a bide to thwart his plan, the Chambers of the National House of Assembly, the symbol of democracy was invaded by armed security agents who barricaded the entrance to the chambers and prevented members of the National Assembly from accessing the facility. This was termed the darkest day for democracy in Nigeria if not the whole of Africa.

The then opposition party, APC condemned the invasion in its totality and called on both Nigerians and the international community to rise and defend democracy that was about to be truncated by that very illegal and undemocratic act.

This, certainly, became part of what Nigerians factored in while casting their votes in 2015. They wanted a change from impunity to the rule of law, from detectorship and tyranny to authentic democratic governance. On this basis, elections were won and lost in 2015.

However, three and half years down the line, on 7th August, 2018, in the early hours of the day, Nigeria gave the world another shock in the history of democracy. Once again, under APC, just as under PDP, the National Assembly was once more invaded by men of the DSS who claimed to have received instructions from above (but certainly not from God)

As disturbing as this act may be, security experts are more worrisome about the attire of the DSS members who carried out the operation than they are about their actions. Security wise, it is a known fact that masked security personnel are only sent after the following categories of criminals

1. High-jackers , 2 high profile terrorists, 3 arm dealers, a gang of drug cartel and other forms of sophisticated bandits. With the masked DSS unleashed on those we refer to as honourables, ordinary citizens should not be embarrassed when they are humiliated on arrival in foreign countries.

By the virtue of this act, Nigerians mourned the demise of democracy and were just waiting for the funeral. Nonetheless, thanks to goodness when the Acting President did the needful by making someone pay for the monumental abuse of power and administrative rascality.

While Nigerians are celebrating this grime of light flash at the end of the tunnel by the Acting president, critical minded persons may see the sack of the DSS boss from two perspectives :

That it was carried out to save the face of the ruling party given the reactions that the invasion received both locally and internationally or that the sack goes a long way to confirm that similar illegal operations carried out by the security agencies like the barricading of Benue state House of Assembly, Midnight invasion and arrest of High Court judges among others were approved by the presidency since no one was punished for it.

Be that as it may, the unpardonable hypocrisy here is the way and manner the PDP is lamenting over the illegality which APC learnt from them. But for us Nigerians, this is an indication that we still have a long way to go in the woods. These guys are simply the same and the change we are longing for is far from being a reality since the difference in our political parties is just the names.

Finally, many have argued and vehemently too, that the sack of the DSS boss wouldn't have happened if the President were to be around by himself. I leave that for Nigerians to judge. Meanwhile, I call on the electorates to forget political parties and vote for good candidates if there are

From the Desert Voice