Ten preps for one-party rule
VIEW FROM THE GALLERY BY MAHMUD JEGA
MAHMUD JEGA: VIEW FROM THE GALLERY
With the Biblical-scale Exodus in recent weeks of governors, senators and other high-profile politicians from opposition parties to the ruling All Peoples Congress [APC], this country is set to have a one party system of government by the next general and presidential elections in 2027, or even earlier.
APC’s capture of Edo Government House from PDP last year, hotly followed by the fleeing from PDP to APC of Delta State governor Sheriff Oborevworie, Akwa Ibom State governor Umo Eno, Enugu State governor Peter Mba and Bayelsa State governor Duoye Diri, along with all their commissioners, special advisers, special assistants, Federal and state MPs, all their Local Government chairmen and councilors, every PDP officer at state, local government and ward levels, every women and youth wing leader, every contractor and every praise singer, resembles the Exodus mentioned in the Holy Books. It is the political equivalent of parting of the Red Sea to make way for fleeing Israelites to cross. Pursuing them as they make the crossing, the equivalent of the Pharaoh’s army with its thousands of chariots, horses and warriors, are anti-graft agencies, political threats, the lure of extra Federal allocations and guaranteed return tickets.
APC national chairman Nentawe Yilwatda said at a rally in Kaduna at the weekend that more opposition party governors and other leaders will soon join his party. With so many opposition chieftains flocking to APC, the ruling party is in a joyous mood, believing that the 2027 election is already in the bag. Winning the next election is however the easy part. APC should instead be actively preparing for the official onset of the One-Party State. The most successful One Party state in the modern world is China. Its sole ruler since 1948 has been the Communist Party of China, CPC. APC’s acronym is remarkably close to CPC’s; just remove the C and insert an A. CPC has made a smashing success of its 77-year sole ruler ship of China. For APC to reenact the Chinese miracle in Nigeria in the next 67 years of its rule, it needs twelve historical parallels.
First of all, it needs a sharply-focused, unifying ideology. Right now, no one knows what APC’s ideology is. It does not have a unifying program; its Federal and state governments each have different policy priorities. Nor is there evidence that Nigerians rally round some of its key programs, such as fuel subsidy removal and floatation of the naira.
APC needs a CPC-style Long March in order to mystify its history. In 1934, Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong left their base in southeast China and marched 6,000 miles to the north, through farmlands, mountains and rivers, pursued all the way by armies of the Kuomintang. The journey took two years. In contrast, APC governors flew in private jets and rode in posh SUVs to Birnin Kebbi last week, which hardly qualified as an equivalent of the Long March. APC leaders should instead trek through the Illela to Badagry highway, then divert unto the Lagos to Calabar coastal road, and from there head north through Oguta Lake marshes, along Benue river floodplains and all the way to Mandara Mountains and Sambisa Forest. That will create a legend for the ages.
Great party history requires a great enemy. Right now, APC has no equivalent of the Kuomintang to give it a chase. ADC, right now loosely led by Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Rotimi Amaechi can hardly provide a powerful chase, of the kind that the Imperial Japanese Army led by General Matsui Iwane provided to CPC in 1937-45, complete with the Rape of Nanking.
APC must also banish its enemies and then stage a great moment of triumph, such as CPC did on October 1, 1949 when, having chased Kuomintang out of mainland China to Formosa [Taiwan], it staged a victory rally in Beijing and renamed the country Peoples Republic of China, PRC. APC must chase Labour Party to Fernando Po Island, chase PDP out to Sao Tome and chase ADC out to Lake Chad timbus, then rename the country Progressive Republic of Nigeria, PRN.
APC must re-enact the Great Leap Forward. In 1958, CPC declared a Great Leap Forward, a year within which China aimed to double its agricultural and industrial production. APC must therefore declare 2026 as the year of The Great Leap Forward during which the naira should rise to N50 to the dollar; PENGASSAN or no PENGASSAN, Dangote or no Dangote, fuel prices should drop to 90 kobo per litre; and lecturers’ Earned Academic Allowances should be tripled.
Somewhere down the road, APC leaders are bound to face accusations of aging, physical frailty and foreign medical trips. The best way to answer such questions is to do what Chairman Mao did in 1966. He suddenly appeared in his trunks by the mighty Yangtze-Kiang river, dived in and swam against its mighty currents for nine miles in 65 minutes. Ok, since our Niger and Benue rivers combined have nowhere near the might of Yangtze-kiang, APC leaders should at least try the swimming pool at Transcorp Hilton.
Five years from now, by 2030 at the latest, APC must launch a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to flush out renegades and suspected moles from the party, as CPC did in 1966. They should be marched along the streets by angry mobs and made to clean gutters. Further down the road, APC will need a Gang of Four scapegoats. In 1976 CPC purged Mao’s widow Jiang Jing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen. They were arrested and branded as “conspirators, counter revolutionaries and bourgeois class elements.” I do not want to pre-empt APC but I think Abdullahi Ganduje, Solomon Dalung, Adams Oshiomhole and [closet party member] Nyesom Wike will serve very well as Gang of Four scapegoats, in order to divert public attention from possible policy failures.
In order for Nigeria to be transformed into a modern, cutting-edge digital state within a generation and lift 200 million people out of poverty, APC must enact The Four Modernisations program, such as CPC did from 1977. The plan aimed to modernize China’s agriculture, industry, defence and science and technology, which it did with smashing success within a generation. APC must launch a Six Modernisations program to modernise Nigeria’s electricity grid, modernise its railways, revive Ajaokuta Steel Mill, revive Ikot Abasi Aluminum Smelter, complete Mambilla Power Project and recharge Lake Chad with water from Ubangi-Chari rivers.
To be able to conceive and carry through the Six Modernisations Program, APC will need a Deng Xiao-ping. He should be dwarfish, should dress in drab jackets, should hold a non-descript party post of Vice Chairman, but should be resolute and extremely visionary. Who are APC’s candidates to fill this role? Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun is the obvious front runner, with Minister of Budget and National Planning Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Central Bank Governor Yemi Cardoso and FIRS Chairman Zaccheus Adedeji as hot runners-up.
In order to carry every Nigerian along with its programs, APC must not rely on a rubber stamp National Assembly or even few and far between party conventions. Just as CPC convenes a Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference every five years to discuss every issue under the Chinese sun, APC must convene a Nigerian Peoples Political Consultative Conference every five years to discuss every issue under the tropical Nigerian sun. All interested elements including ASUU, PENGASSAN, IPOB, MASSOB, Yoruba Nation and Boko Haram must be invited to the conference. Tompolo and Asari Dokubo should lead Niger Delta militants’ delegation while Dogo Gide and Bello Turji should lead the delegation of North Western bandits.
One more issue. With Nigeria’s population projected to reach 400 million by 2050, APC must institute and vigorously enforce a One Child Per Couple policy, such as CPC enforced in China from 1979 to 2015. African culture notwithstanding, APC must ban polygamy, raise the female marriage age to 35, and any man who divorces his wife must not be allowed to marry again. Any woman who murders her husband, according to this APC program, should not get a pardon but should get three consecutive life sentences, such as apartheid South African courts used to hand down at the Rivonia Trial in 1964.
