Democracy 1999-2007: "PDPgate"?

There will be time for history and posterity. There will even be space for revisionist heist and hackers. Oh yes, there will be time for honour and ultimate disrobement. It will ALL come!

As eye-witnesses and active citizens of the land, we must help history with base material and fore-help posterity with healthy suppositions. We should do so with a fair and open mind. We must not hide behind one finger, as our elders warn.

After the evil of military rule/dictatorship, did democracy dawn us a new day or a near doom? Can we or do we look back on the 1999-2007 era with pride or pain?

As the dominant political force, was the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) truly "power to the people" or tragically "PDPgate"?

What lessons for da future?

It is difficult, even painful, to deny ourselves and the role we played or did not play in the ways of the past. Are we all culpable? Well...

Now, to the meat of our matter. Those who led must ask themselves the following questions, just as those who lead now:

a) What were the expectations of Nigerians in 1999?
b) What did both the PDP and its various candidates promise the voters?
c) What were the levels of national resources vs the levels of budget-implementation?
d) How much was consumed as recurrent expenditure vs capital votes?
e) What was spent as security votes at each tier of government?
f) How much did local and foreign trips cost the nation?
g) Where are the projects financed by our huge external debts recently settled?
h) Of all indicted or suspected looters, how many are of the PDP?
i) When will federal agencies and the presidency be audited, probed or cleared?
j) Did the ruling party have or uphold democratic practices within its fold?
k) Were the electoral bodies at all levels truly or ever independent?
l) Why was our petroleum sector shrouded in darkly secrecy, with loud hints of "monkey " business and screams of "cloak & dagger" gymnastics?
m) Why were legislators helpless or colluding with their (as is now so clear) reckless executives?
n) With the failure of public utilities and parlous state of infrastructure, how can the party sell its diabolical statistics of a successful tenure or healthy economy? Where were them graphs cooked or manufactured from?? Where are the spin doctors today???
o) Over its tenure, and particularly leading up to the April elections, what is the aggregate image and record of the party and its governments as regards da rule of law, obeying court orders and deploying security forces/agencies?
p) Where are the founders and other distinguished elders of the PDP today? What are their tales of separation, and parting shots of angst or love?

Final Question: Why are successors (though mindlessly and ruthlessly imposed by the PDP) so consciously, cautiously, cleverly, courageously and calculatingly dismantling the old order, gradually and gratingly gravitating away from the party line, and publicly parting ways with the ways of their benefactors/godfathers???

Ultimate Pointer: Have you been reading celebrated press interviews of erstwhile pillars and partisans of the party recently? Using big grammar to describe their regime's failure, and sledge hammer to slam their former leaders? As the race for party positions heats up after the NWC resigns from October, and the corruption trials take their tolls - compounded by some lost cases from the election tribunals - how will the public posturing pan out? Will the centre still hold?

Verdict? May the reader don the voter's hat and answer the intriguing posers above. Then, decide. May the party wear the citizens' robe and answer all the unnerving posers above. Then, decide. Was the eight-year era for gain or for pain?

Did we have PDPgain.....or.....PDPgate!!!

Election Materials' Inspection: What is INEC up to?

INEC chair, Professor Maurice Iwu should call his state commissioners and their lawyers to order! There are unsettling reports all over about the disruptive and dishonest gimmicks by these state officials at the Election Petitions Tribunals, to wit, that they are denying petitioners the right to inspect election materials - despite the Tribunals' orders! And INEC lawyers are gleefully/greedily aiding and abetting such flagrant contempt of court!! Shame...BIG Shame.

The chairman, soon after the elections, had directed ALL his staff to fully cooperate with the tribunals as stipulated by the Electoral Act. Why are these officials in default? And giving our nation a bad name and image?? Why is INEC Headquarters not acting???

Let Professor Iwu rise up to his leadership responsibility and enforce both his directives and the laws of the land, please.

And may their lordships make a few examples by committing some of these deviants to prison for defiance and contempt, we pray.

The NBA should please call all those colluding lawyers to order, reminding them of their oaths and training as "officers of the temple of justice". They must serve their clients and the courts professionally and patriotically. Justice delayed is justice denied.

INEC should not squander more national funds and resources on top of a flawed election!!!