WHAT’S THE DEAL?

First, I must confess I don’t know much about the game of poker, but the current situation in Wadata House prompted me to look into the rules and gimmicks of the game. I really didn’t know that a book for “dummies” on learning how to play the game exists, until now. Although, I am sorry to disappoint those who think I will expatiate further, I will not, as I am only just a few pages off the front page, and it will take quite some time before I sit as a novice on one of the tables in Las Vegas. However, what I have learnt so far is that when you sit to play, you need a fake move, which you use to throw your opponents off guard, same as in other conventional sports. But it’s called dribble in others, while in poker it’s referred to as a fake hand.

I don’t want to bore you with poker, but I think we learn things from every facet of life, be it academic, extra-curricular or aesthetics. An old cliché says, Knowledge is diverse, experience is vast. However, the on goings in Wadata has shown that some people are either bad learners or bad onlookers. Beginning with the sack of Oyinlola, the past PDP National Secretary, to the splitting of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), this was preceded by the formation of the PDP GF, then the subsequent and potential dismemberment of the Northern Governor’s Forum. These maneuvers do have a ploy of which the public is not privilege to know, but we would all see it unfolding. Now, who says politics is not a cult.  The drama did not stop there. Adding more spice to it, Amaechi, governor of River state was suspended, and Wamako joined the fray for a little above 4 days, before he was “pardoned.” Feelers have it that Tambuwal, the Speaker House of Representatives was lined up to, as well as Babangida and Lamido, governors of Niger and Jigawa states respectively. Tukur, PDP national chairman, has been trying but has failed to squish the stubborn former military tactician, Nyako in his home state, but he has not rested on his oars, as the landmines and bullets from his (Tukur’s) offensive is still unsettling the governor with his rotational first ladies.

I see all these play out, and I am wondering, what’s the deal behind it?! There’s no doubt 2015 is the motivating factor here, but hasn’t Jonathan learnt anything. Everyone now knows he is running in 2015, so why are heads rolling. Even a neophyte in politics knows, especially in Nigerian politics, that you mend fences, not break them in an electioneering period. Is Jonathan destroying his political structures when he is supposed to build bridges? The good book in Mark 3: 23-27 states in part, that if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If our shrewd and surly Obasanjo had done his theology programme earlier before 2003 he would have known better, and would have saved him from cowering before Atiku, to get his governors cronies to re-elect them in 2003. And typical of Obasanjo he dealt with them afterwards. Didn’t he learn from that? Does he think he knows all the cards Tukur seem to be playing now? Even though Tukur appears to be dealing with recalcitrant party men, doesn’t he think that’s just a fake hand? Isn’t he afraid that Tukur might be playing an anti-party card here? He might turn around at the last minute after destroying the winning structure of the PDP to hand victory to the APC. Not that I wouldn’t want to savor that sweet defeat, which would entrench democracy in Nigeria, but I am just concerned for him. This might just be a wild conjecture of my superfluous imagination, but I expected Jonathan as an academician to conjure his hypothesis, test them, before jumping into conclusions, or have the perks of Aso rock made him forget that part also.