PREAMBLE:
Nigeria may be the most populous Nation within the territorial boundary of Africa, but Nigeria is not among the 10 largest Nations in the Continent in terms of landmass, such large Nations includes but not limited to, Algeria, DRC, Sudan, Libya, Chad, Niger, Mali, Angola, South Africa and Ethiopia etc. The giant of Africa also falls within the global index of “20 Most Endowed Nation of the World” that does not contend with extreme weather conditions like tsunami, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions etc. However, the militating and mesmerizing factor that has stood against our progress, prosperity and posterity is that Nigeria is cyclically infected, infested with, and under the affliction of swarm of intellectual miscreants, economic sorcerers, political scavengers and democratic mystics who furiously foment and torment the masses with fistic and rustic adversity while acting as the Ruling Class in and out of power. The multifarious and multifaceted challenges confronting Nigeria was compounded and amplified by the 16 locust years of PDP Government (1999-2015), where human elements with questionable character, of gross ineptitude and barren ideology held sway, whose political careers was factored by monetary inducements.
At this judgmental juncture, permit me the time to clinically x-ray the abnormalities that punctured, fractured, ruptured and rippled all that PDP stands for in Nigeria.
*1: ENTRENCHMENT OF CORRUPTION, LOOTING AND MONEY LAUNDERING:*
As we all know, PDP took over the reins of power on 29th May 1999 when the Country was still recovering from post military trauma, but before then very little was heard of looting, ghost workers, insecurity, election rigging, money laundering, budget padding, duplication of projects and unemployment etc. The party came on board with parasitic blueprint and defective economic agenda that totally displaced the middle class, promoted mediocrity and bastion of crass materialism, that created dependent masses while at the same time transformed few politicians into super rich elites with unhindered access to State and National treasury. This in turn produced executive rogues, legisla-thieves and Judi-sharing officers that were soaked
in incurable act and corruptible art of stealing public funds with temerity, audacity, impurity and without qualms.
The umbrella symbolled party to a very large extent is solely responsible for nurturing and spreading corruption across board; they glorified and glamorized corrupt political entities; they found great comfort in stealing from the people and utilized the slogan of *“share the money’’* to domesticate corruption in Nigeria. During the voodoo era of PDP, two serving Governors were arrested and detained in London for money laundering, the executive thieves jumped bail in most mysterious manner and found themselves in Nigeria where they were welcomed with much fanfare, another Governor who stole over N10billion from his oil rich state was not fortunate enough to escape imprisonment in UK. From 1999-2015, the political and economic landscape of Nigeria was besieged and beleaguered by excessive looting that transcended the crescendo of absurdity and bypassed the highest decibel inanity.
This was the era when buying of private jets (costing over N5billion each) was
competitive among the elites; when acquisition of luxury Yatch ( costing over $50million each) was a kind of hobby for the political class; when Ghana-must-go sacks of cash exchanged hands openly in the so called Hallow Chambers of National Assembly; when shopping in Dubai and having lunch in Paris was a past-time indulgent and when unskilled jobless elites transformed to Billionaires overnight.
The suffocated PDP era magnified the importance of criminality and militancy by dishing out security contracts and pipeline surveillance jobs to warlords, militant leaders and civilian commanders who pocketed Billions of Naira monthly, most of these State owned and bred criminals were also assigned with platoon of mobile police officers to protect them from the public I guess. This was the period contractors bolted away after collecting Millions of Dollars mobilization fee, when Ecological and Pension funds running into Hundreds of Billion Naira were criminally diverted to private pockets and when Dollar currency dominated major transactions in Nigeria. This was the same time deposed PDP Government expended huge $16 Billion Dollars in the Power Sector which ended up in adding 12hrs of darkness to the National grid; when a former Chairman of NDDC was caught red-handed burning N700million Naira cash in a graveyard; when fake Boko Haram leaders defrauded $15million Dollars from Federal Government in most hilarious manner and when the private jet of a flamboyant Clergyman was confiscated in South Africa with $15million Dollars hidden inside.
The disbanded PDP was blinded by pecuniary avarice and unmitigated greed that could bypass as whimpering caricature of engrossing historical irony, they deployed and displayed amatorial leadership misadventure and condoned financial rascality and economic irresponsibility. The obsessive godfathers and cabals under the shadow of the umbrella party spared no effort and missed no opportunity to steal public funds through dubious and articulated profundities of unparalleled method.
They stole over N100billion Naira earmarked for Turn Around Maintenance of the four refineries in 2013, they extracted $508million Dollars from faulty Oil Swap and Offshore Processing deals within three months and equally use middlemen to steal 50% of all contract sums through engineering drawing, feasibility studies, consultancy and legal fees etc. One of the several instances of corruption during PDP era is the case of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) that generated about N162billion in 2014 according to Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), but remitted only N2billion to the National treasury; the remaining N160billion grew wings and flew into the bank account of cabals controlling the marine sector. The malaise of corruption under PDP was integrated and without borders, imagine how N400million Dollars donated to Nigeria by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in 2013 was diverted by corrupt Government officials in the Health Hector.
The most suitable way to show how corruption incapacitated the Education sector is from a report by National Universities Commission (NUC) which disclosed that as at May 2015, out of the 236 Universities in Nigeria, FG owns 42, the 36 States own 44 cumulatively, while 150 are private Universities established by the corrupted elites. The figure for private Secondary and Primary Schools are more excruciating. The bunch of PDP fugitives angling for a comeback in 2019 are the same gang that voraciously stole research grants, youth development funds, funds for the almajiri schools, funds for the health sector, funds for cassava bread project, funds for the sports sector, $735million Dollars repatriated Abacha loot, funds to fight maternal and infant mortality, in short PDP men and women stole over 65% of our National Foreign Earnings between 1999-2015.
To this effect, PDP committed unforgivable and unforgettable inhumanness, they don’t merit our sympathy or deserve our empathy in any way.
*2: INSEMINATION OF POLITICAL ASSASINATION, THUGGERY AND ELECTION RIGGING:*
With atrocious condensation and unseemly cocksureness, the dispatched PDP Government introduced monetary inducement of the political system that deeply polarized the electoral process across the 36 States of the Federation, they obviously rigged the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 general elections with the aid of armed political thugs who were dangerously activated to maim or kill any visible opposition. The dismantled PDP men fashioned out the *do or die politics in Nigeria,* they snatched ballot boxes at gun point, manipulated electoral process, preempted the outcome of party primaries and congresses, intimidated election monitors and doctored result sheets, this was the reason why the party dominated all the electable positions across the Country with little left for the opposition to scramble for.
It is an unadulterated fact that charade of politicians in PDP were responsible for domestication of political assassination in the Country, starting with the gruesome murder of Chief Marshal Harry and the killing of Chief Bola Ige, a serving Minister in the PDP Cabinet. I will not bore you with the list of notable politicians that were assassinated within the space of 16yrs; the list has already gone viral on social media. In all these, one thing is unassailable, the defects and misdeeds of the capitulated PDP era outweighed its element of strength, relevance and usefulness.
*3: PROLIFERATION OF INSECURITY AND YOUTH RESTIVENESS:*
The hideous excrescent that contributed to the dethronement of PDP has been prised open by uncontrollable forces of history, at this juncture it has become imperative to cast retrospective glance at the genesis and nemesis of insecurity in Nigeria which consolidated and took a front bench under the debased PDP Government. The umbrella party masterminded and supervised serial dehumanizing ritual of violence and moral aberration that conjugated youth restiveness across the East, West, North and South of Nigeria. This in turn prompted the emergence of religious, political and tribal faultlines that exacerbated tensions and conflicts. The congenitally corrupted leaders of PDP were exponentially handicapped by compounded incompetence and cruelty that snowballed the dimension of insecurity and youth restiveness, which in turn overstretched and weakened the tenacity of the Nation’s security formations and its ability to protect common citizenry.
As you all know, before 1999, nothing was heard of Boko Haram, Armed Fulani herdsmen, Niger Delta militants, Middlebelt Militia, Street cultism, kidnapping, oil bunkery, beheading, banditry, suicide bombing, mass adoption of students and travellers etc, these were traditional anomalies that were nurtured and expanded by the misdemeanor of PDP power quest. As the saying goes, carefree money is the root of all evil, the PDP men in power played the politics of “sharing-money”, as such huge sums of funds fell into wrong hands, the subsequent pandemic pestilence and epochal social disorders became inevitable. PDP members were complicit and accomplices in every security infraction and breach around the Country, most of the Government Houses in Abuja hitherto served as hideout for wanted criminals and notorious terrorists, the key security Agencies and critical Intelligence gathering Institutions suffered the blanket crises of reputational attrition and Nigerians were worst for. It was the era that the culture of diverting Billions of dollars budgeted for procurement of Military and Police hardwares was the order of the day; when the welfare of Soldiers and Mobile Police officers posted to the warfront was abysmally undermined and politicized, when Boko Haram controlled over 17LGAs in the North East and also brought terrorism to the FCT.
As at then, the more money the PDP led Federal Government budgeted for Defense and National Security, the more funds the State governments conscripted as Security Votes, the higher the intensity and pertinaciousness of the flakes of insecurity and youths crises across the Country, this is to say that the model of economy administered by the party promoted and escalated social uneasiness in Nigeria.
According to data from CBN, FG spent over N1trillion in 2012 to fight Boko Haram, it was the same year that insurgents became more daring, dreadful and increased its capacity to attack Military formations and annexation of Territories in the North East, the same year the Islamic Sects killed over 2000 innocent Citizens and inflicted huge damages to material resources. It was equally the same period that insecurity in the country reached its highest decibel of absurdity, to say the least.
The survey carried by UK based NGO, Maple Croft in 2012 rated Nigeria as the “9th Most At Risk Country In The World” from terrorist attack, while Foreign Magazine, US bi-monthly publication in its index of Failed States placed Nigeria as the 14th in the list of ‘‘20 Most Failed States’’ of the World along with Somalia, Libya, Chad, Guinea etc.
In June 2011, the Global Peace Index ranked Nigeria as the ‘‘6th Most Dangerous African Country’ To Live ln"; the Economic Intelligent Unit of Economics Magazine base in UK declared that Nigeria was among Countries Not To Be Born in 2012; African Insurance Organization in 2014 described Nigeria as the ‘‘Kidnap & Ransom Capital In The World", while in July 2013, the International Christian–Muslim Delegation to Nigeria warned that the Country was in danger of imminent religious war, their fear was based on the level of violence in 2012 and 2013.
The moronic bunch of PDP leaders fabricated and fuelled various forms of youth insurgency as a means of stealing public funds, they drove bullet proof SUVs, lived in bulletproof houses and drafted platoon of DSS and Police Officers as their defense guard, while the vulnerable youths they turned to warlords and killing-machines were left to die unfounded death or live in hiding, a situation that is mordant with underestimated sense of irony.
*4: FEDERALIZATION OF POVERTY & UNEMPLOYMENT:*
With all sense of humility and responsibility, I wish to categorically affirm, confirm as well as reaffirm that the 16 leprous years of PDP misrule and misadventure systematically ushered in massive and viral unemployment in Nigeria through the politics of economic sorcery, they infested poverty upon the masses as a psychological warfare to coerce undue loyalty, unmerited support and to subdue the voices of opposition. In the deleted days of PDP, only 7% of the over 250 Million Nigerians cornered about 75% of our common patrimony which stigmatically widened and deepened the gap between wealthy and those in poverty; that plunged the masses to plumb the depths of social deprivation and moral depravity. PDP operated a government that impoverished the people while assuring the security and comfort of the minority ruling class within and around the corridor of power, who in turn looted humongous funds with impunity to placate their larcenous appetites. The PDP men in power were without the culture of shame, they luxuriated in agreed, undermined the tenets of democracy and decimated the norms of good governance and aggravated, which systematically aggravated socioeconomic challenges across the Country within 16years of financial rascality and economic irresponsiblity.
It is imperative to recount that money was not a problem during the relegated PDP era due to Oil boom, but they failed to construct new Federal feeder roads while the existing ones were allowed to severely dilapidate; they did not established any new Refiner, rather the existing refineries were abandoned to operate below installed capacity at irregular intervals; they did not build any new Seaport, but they allowed the Port Harcourt , Calabar and Warri (Eastern) Ports to close shop; they did not upgrade any Hospital at the same time they allowed existing ones to decay. They used ‘‘Youth Empowerment’’ as a slogan to further disempower and economically enslave the youths, they allowed Churches and private Schools to take over factory premises and encouraged shameless promiscuity and indecency. They failed to put in place workable and feasible economic policy, developmental road map and recovery framework that will alleviate poverty and create jobs with the Trillions of Dollars that accrued to the Government under their watch. This became the springboard of the gripping economic recession, social hardship and avian poverty that transformed economically active youths to misdirected breed of killers and gangsters with dented psyche and demented mentality.
The intellectually barren PDP Government inherited NEPA, Nigerian Shipping Line, Nigeria Airways, Textile Mills, Oil Mills, NAFCON, ASCON, FSFC, Michelin, Peugeot, Nigeria Railway, NITEL, MTEL, Abeokuta Steel, Ceramic Companies, Delta Steel, NICON, Boat Manufacturing Companies, Rice Mills, massive Federal Secretariat Complex in Lagos etc from the Military in 1999, but within the interval of 10years, they grounded and dismantled our cumulative National investment ventures worth over N200 Trillion Naira, even as they did not build any new Company to replace the ones they sold out. The socioeconomic implication of PDP Privatization and Commercialization Policy was doomed on arrival; it was responsible for throwing out over Five Million workers back to the already saturated labour market, thereby triggering the prevalence of poverty and unemployment across Nigeria.
As a test case, records have it that as at 1970, Nigeria was rated among the “20 Most Developing Country Of The World", but by 2013 the Nation nosedived to be rated among “15 Poorest Countries In The Globe; suffocated by heaps of foreign and all manners of domestic debts. In 2012, UN in its Economic Index for Developing Countries disclosed that Nigeria has one of the fastest growing Unemployment rate in Africa, while the 2011 International Survey of Lagaturn Prosperity Index listed Nigeria among the “15 Poorest Nations Of The World".
To add more credence to my assertion, I wish to recall that CBN report revealed that FG spent about N9.513trillion Naira as capital expenditure from 2005 - 2015, at the same time the financially irresponsible Government expended another N7.19trillion Naira on just one subheading "Fuel- Subsidy" within the same 10years, this is a clear exemplification of the act of economic sorcery that disparaged the income gap among the
working class.
It was still under the financially illiterate PDP Government that members of National Assembly unilaterally jacked up their salaries and allowances from N1million each to as much as N27million monthly, which entitles and places Nigerian Senators and Rep Members as the highest, paid Legislators in the World. It was under the cursed PDP Government that Councilors, the smallest electable office holders in Nigeria earned more than University Lecturers, Aides of Ministers and Chief Executives earned more than Directors and Medical Doctors, and where allowances were higher than salary. This was also the era when huge publicly owned funds were handed over to the political class and ruling elites under the following nomenclatures, "Tax holidays, Security votes, import waivers, export grants, fertilizer subsidy, surveillance contracts, intervention funds, SME loans etc".
But in all these, the reckless and feckless elites of PDP rather than seek restitution and forgiveness turned around to concoct edifice of blatant lies and bleak propaganda through melodramatic infantile protestations to upbeat their nuisance value, their stunted management skills, their political inadequacies and intellectual limitations with the aim to discomfiture, confound and comfort the incomprehensively confused Nigerians.
*SAY NO TO PDP! NEVER AGAIN WILL NIGERIA GO BACK TO SUCH HEINOUS ERA: AM NOT SAYING THAT APC HAS DONE WELL IN 8YRS, FAR FROM IT, BUT THAT ASIWAJU / SHETTIMA TICKET WILL SO BETTER.:.........OBI IS EQUALLY A MOVEMENT OF NECESSITY TO PUT NIGERIANS ON THEIR TOES:
Article Written by Com (Engr) Japhet Ogbueri, Maestro Of The Most High God.
National Coordinator, National Progressives Movement (NPM);
Executive Director, Special Intelligentsia Outfit LTD.
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