the pdp’s coup allegation

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently levelled a serious allegation against the nation’s opposition political paries. According to the National Publicity of the PDP, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, the opposition parties, operating under the auspices of the Nigeria United for Democracy (NUD), were planning to overthrow the government of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. This, he alleged, was being done in concert with some foreign agents.

THE PDP cited the recent call by the NUD for an interim national government as one of the reasons for its allegation. The party spokesman said his party was constrained to raise the alarm “because the loud voices emanating from a section of the political class were sending wrong signals and were, therefore, capable of overheating the political environment in the country which would not only undermine the gains made so far, but would unfortunately retard our progress as an emerging democracy”.

THE opposition parties in their reactions described the allegation as hogwash, accusing the PDP of trumping up charges as a ploy to descend on members of the opposition parties. The Action Congress described the PDP allegation as “an idle talk that can only emanate from a warped mind and amount to calling a dog a bad name just to hang it”.

THE All Nigeria Peoples Party distanced itself from any plot to overthrow the government and described the PDP government as falling which needed a rescue operation.

THE allegation made by the PDP is very grave and cannot just be overlooked. But curiously, the ruling party since making the allegation has not come up with proofs to support its claim. Therefore, for the party to be taken seriously, it has to go beyond levelling allegations. It must come out with facts and figures to convince all that it was not just playing politics and crying wolf in a bid to still the voices of the opposition parties.

PROFESSOR Alkali had, for instance, sensationally claimed that the NUD was planning to overthrow his party’s government with the support of some foreign elements but failed to disclose the identities of these foreign agents. He also did not disclose the venue(s) of the supposed meetings at which the plot was hatched. Nigerians need to be supplied with these pieces of information for them to take the PDP scribe seriously.

ALL security forces in the country are under the direct control of the PDP-led Federal Government. It is expected that before coming out to make such a very grave claim, the government would have carried out thorough investigations on the alleged covert and subversive activities of the opposition parties and their foreign collaborators.

THEREFORE, the names of the those involved in the treasonous act would be made known to the public and, in the case of the alleged foreign collaborators, to the government of their countries.

UNLESS the PDP comes out with hard pieces of evidence to support its allegation we cannot but align with the opposition that the alarm was raised purposely to clamp down on the opposition. This will be outright frivolity which could even injure the PDP government in the end.

THE PDP should realise that opposition and its criticism are a cardinal feature of democracy. Where such criticism of the opposition parties is rendered in a constructive manner, it strengthens democracy because it keeps the ruling party on its toes. This is the standard practice the world over.

WE do agree with the PDP that the call for an interim government is certainly uncalled for. It is even arrant nonsense. The only constitutional way of changing a democratic government is through elections. Even where the results of an election are disputed, the legal path is there for the aggrieved parties to take. And that is the path any sensible democrat should follow and nothing else to challenge a sitting government.

THEREFORE, those who are calling for an interim government, for whatever reasons, are anarchists and confusionists.

THE opposition groups in the country are not well coordinated. A coordinated opposition group will never resort to taking the short cut to power which is what the call for an ING repesents.What a responsible opposition group would do is to provide well articulated alternatives to the shortcomings of the Federal Government and place such before Nigeria as a prelude to the 2011 elections.

The Federal Government, as well as the PDP, do not have to lose sleep over the call for an ING. Nigeria has certainly outgrown such a pranksh call and it cannot receive the blessing of well-meaning Nigerians because it is unconstitutional. But the PDP should see the call for an ING as a wake-up call from administrative slumber. The administration is generally seen as being too sleepy, slow and sluggish. Nigerians are saying it is very difficult to discern its direction and focus. The government needs to give meaning to governance; it needs to rouse the slumbering economy and push it towards realising the objective of making it one of the 20 greatest economies in the world by 2020.

THE government and the PDP should not expect the opposition parties to keep quiet in the face of all this.

nigeria and olympics gold medals

THE President of Brazil, Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is not happy with his country’s performance in the Beijing Olympics. Brazil won a total of 15 medals— three gold, four silver and eight bronze — and placed 23rd out of the 204 countries that participated in the world’s biggest and most glamorous sporting events.

BUT, according to reports, President Lula was unhappy that his country could not put up a better performance than it did in 2004 in Athens, where it placed 16th position. Consequently, the Brazilian president called for immediate preparations so that his country could bid for the hosting rights of the 2016 Olympics.

NIGERIA did not win any gold medal in the same Olympics in which Brazil won 15 medals and for which Lula is unhappy with his country’s athletes. Nigeria won four medals and the biggest was one silver, which its heroic soccer team won after the unsuccessful attempt to wrest the gold medal from Argentina.

THERE were deafening cheers when Nigeria won its first bronze medal. The three remaining medals were described in flamboyant superlatives. Officials of the Nigerian government and sports administrators also described winning three bronze medals as a feat! As far as these officials are concerned, their country’s performance was brilliant.

WE agree fully with those officials that have been hurling praises at the Nigerian contingent to the Beijing Olympics for not winning gold medals. It has even been suggested that Nigeria should not have sent a contingent to Beijing at all, given its structural peculiarity and capacity, as a physically challenged and traumatised nation.

THE athletes fully deserve our appreciation for their gallantry in Beijing. Nigeria is nursing a paralysed economy and, truly, should not have competed in the just concluded Olympics. The Paralympics is its natural turf and is sure to win as many gold medals as will compensate for its gallant and/or brilliant failure in the Beijing Olympics.

SO Lula can continue his lamentation over Brazil’s poor showing. Nigeria is already singing a lullaby and thinking of performing greater feats in the competition it has greater or comparative advantage— the Paralympics— and is working out ways to improve the fortunes of its Paralympics’ officials through increased estacodes.