By Godwin Etakibuebu
The geographical compass to navigate a journey of cohesion into an assured destination put in place by the All Progressives Congress when the Political Party and its Presidential candidate were inaugurated into office on May 29, 2015, was faulty.
Everyone belonging to the elite club of the “politically initiated” doubted if the compass, though looking glamorous and golden, was not a genuine one. This was the very critical observation of those with the politically-developed sixth and seventh senses of survival.
In the other hand, those who had successfully secured their seats in the newly built ship of the All Progressives Congress and set for the voyage saw a different type of compass entirely. And what they saw assured them of a very smooth voyage to the Island of safety at the other side of the sea.
They [those seated in the ship cabins] were so optimistic of both the smoothness and security of the voyage that they actually sympathized with those that were not to sail with them. Some of them [seated for the cruise] did all they could, with genuine intention maybe, in convincing the lukewarm crowd that were neither here nor there, to do their utmost best in joining the ship mid-seas.
Let us put something straight here before continuing this narration. And that is to say that it is the same compass that convinced the “politically initiated” that the voyage would end up in a terrible disaster just like the Titanic; that British passenger Liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of April 15, 1912, was the same thing [compass] that convinced [but actually confused them] others into believing the safety of the voyage to their destiny of anchorage.
The question that compellingly would need to be answered is this: What is there in this compass that could have created such great dichotomy of conviction in one hand and confusion in the other hand – all within an aggregated time?
It is all about the glittering stone that was enamored into the compass. Though the enamored stone glittered; which was why many accepted it as gold, it was not actually gold nor was it any of the many precious stones that nature had endowed humanity with, but instead, it was one glittering counterfeit. This must have been the reason why it was only the “politically initiated” that saw it for what it was and wisely avoided coming into the ship.
In the other hand, those who boarded the said APC ship with joy; and some even did it with fanfare and celebrations, did so for different reasons. While some jumped on board, genuinely believing to have found the most needed instrument that would take them to their dreamed land of Eldorado, others looked only at the enamored glittering stone which represented, to them, sign of voyage safety.
Yet, there were others amongst the passengers representing a class of professional DECEIVERS, in the words of that seasoned British Author, Jeffery Archer. This group or class; which actually consisted of the conveners, pioneers, foundation members of the “labourers” or national leaders, knew from the onset that the built ship [the APC] lacked the capability of arriving anchorage at the Island of safety, neither were they ever convinced that the enamored glittering stone was anything nearer to being a gold.
Yet, the group needed retaining these deceitful features in the ship because it is only by so doing that the ship can be seen as the “Peoples’ House” – a House with enough brooms to sweep away the torn and worn-out umbrellas of the time.
Another important point of note is that people in this group; being nest of deceivers and exploiters, could not even be bold to each other the truth. Truthfulness is not any of their trade in stock. These are dealers parading themselves as leaders. Decency and honesty are two precious materials that are most scarce at the point of their unholy communing. These people operate the jungle rules, where there is no longevity of brotherhood and it is the survival of the fittest. It is Hobbes “State of Nature where life is nasty, brutish and short”.
Their place of operation has no respect for the Mafia book of Omerta but for the maximization of the rules of permutation and manipulation. To them, let the end justifies the means. The end; to these people, being uncontrolled aggrandization, while the means being route of callous and wicked deceit.
However, for the fact that this group is a conglomeration of professional liars and deceivers, they put in place, at the time of constructing the ship, enough sophisticated mechanism of deceitful maneuvering. It was one of such mechanism that made the fake stone glittered enough for the gullible ones to have accepted it as purely purified gold.
There are many other mechanism of deceits the group put in place at that point of constructing the ship that some sailors recruited to take this vessel into the high seas could not even detect the deliberately warped misdemeanors, code-named “navigational systems apparatus”, in the ship.
One must admit at this point that this group did a “good” work of imitation and pretense at the beginning when the ship was being constructed, and inclusive of the time that the sea voyage commenced. So, to them, it was a perfect ship that took off on that fateful day of May 29, 2015. But like every other venture in life, there is appointed time for everything and this appointed time is taken from the control of human being by the Creator of heaven and earth. The chickens must always come home to roost and for the APC, its chickens are coming home too early for roosting than the manipulators had ever envisaged.
It has been made clear from the beginning of this exercise in identifying the ship, which is the All Progressives Congress. The builders we should have known by now, going by whatever name or acronym they are called. We should also know the master planners of the project without this author delving into reeling out of names. Those animals that are even more than equal in this APC ship of George Orwell’s animal farm are also known to us.
We also must make effort in identifying the “enamored glittering stone” set at the Centre of the Compass because that was the selling point of the APC as it prepared to embark on the voyage. By every indication, that object represented the person of Muhammadu Buhari adequately, because without this man’s alleged integrity being flouted at the time, not too many people would jump into the ship of APC.
The fanfare with which this APC ship sailed out of the harbor is now lost mid-way into the voyage. And these are numerous problems. Immediately after heaving anchor and pulling into the sea, the originality of the compass was lost to the chief navigator of the vessel. It became most difficult for the man on the “Captain’s bridge” to give affective orders to the Chief Engineer who must remain “down-below” close enough to the “mercury” that actually controls the ruder”. A blurred Compass cannot help proper voyage sailing and as such there came a total disconnect between the radio officer, the master sailor and the chief engineer down below. This allowed for a terrible drift of the ship and heading aground is becoming more of a forced option now than ever.
The captain of the ship still found it difficult to steer a clear course navigational balance, forcing him to do the needful of evacuating most cargoes into the sea to save the “instrument and personnel” as maritime sailing rules stipulates. Some others have jumped the ship with the help of few boats onboard without waiting to take as many as the boats could accommodate to safety.
The ship captain, who must take total and final responsibility for the ship at all material particular, seems to be lacking in knowledge of what to do under this emergency. And there is not much help coming his way in terms of making a cohesive distress call to the nearest port harbor, using the appropriate channel call-sign designated for such times but instead, he is fiddling with the general call channel of number 16.
The most unfortunate thing about this ship and its operators is that none of the sailor knows that the ship has drifted into the most turbulent and dangerously fierce waters in maritime sailing – the Bay of Biscay; that most violet waters off the coast of Portugal. And this bay has seen, over the years, the demise of too many vessels
Has the APC ship found itself in this scenario? Only 2019 shall tell but the call-signs of distress are now overwhelmingly obvious.
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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- You can listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday, 9:30-11am, on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM, in weekly review of topical issues presented by The News Guru [TNG]