Desperate for bread

By Gabriel Amalu

 

Could it be that the desperation for bread has blinded the APC’s leadership from the warning signal from the judgment of the Supreme Court, in the election petition between Eyitayo Jegede vs Rotimi Akeredolu? But first, let me note that the inspiration for this title came from Rev. Fr. Melvis Mayaki, a Catholic priest. In his Sunday homily, he had referenced Jesus’s teaching that he is the bread of life, in comparison to the regular bread which the world is desperate for, to satisfy hunger.

Of note, the priest reminded his congregation that from time immemorial the desperation for bread or food has been the casus belli or cause of wahala for man. He reminded his listeners of the biblical Garden of Eden, where despite the warning from her Maker, Eve, fell to the temptation of Satan, because of the desperation to eat an apple. He also talked about how Esau sold his birth-right because of bread and stew.

Furthermore, he told the story of the Israelites, who rebelled against God in the wilderness when they were desperate for bread. And also, how the Israelites where determined to make Jesus their King, after he miraculously fed five thousands with mere five loaves and two fishes. While the priest drew his examples from Bible contexts, as I sat to write this column, my mind remonstrated on the hunger ravaging Nigerians, with the prices of staple food literally hitting the roof.

I wondered whether the leaders of the All Progressive Congress (APC), who like their predecessors, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are already boasting about coasting to victory in 2023, and even beyond, are conscious of the spate of hunger in the land, and how desperate for food, the people have become. I wondered whether those who are merely desperate for power, are not worried that out of the desperation for food, Nigerians may rebel against the party at the next elections.

As the Bible told us, while Moses was away on the mountain engaged with God for what he considered of greater importance, the 12 commandments, the people who were desperate for food, made a deal to quench their hunger. For the people, the higher things of the spirit can wait, as they demonstrated willingness to worship a foreign god, as long as such endeavour could quell their hunger. So, could the inflationary pressure on food items become the waterloo for APC in 2023?

On another level, I also linked the desperation for bread to the desperation of Governor Mai Mala Buni to hold onto two very divergent positions simultaneously, even when the Supreme Court has interpreted that under section 183 of the constitution and Article 17(4) of the APC Constitution, he cannot. With other band of desperate APC leaders in tow, Buni and his team seems to care less if they actions eventually plunge the country into avoidable crisis.

As the deputy senate president, Omo-Agege, has postulated, the courts would not dare to bar the APC from the presidential election. His desperation for bread, emanating from the plum position he occupies, may have blinded him to the clear provision of section 183 that: “the governor shall not during the period when he holds office hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever.” What he thinks the courts should do, if asked to interpret that provision with respect to their acting chairman who is the governor of Yobe, can only be imagined.

Perhaps, like his other colleagues desperate for bread, he believes the courts would fear that the consequences could be worse that what is happening in South Africa where the former President Jacob Zuma, a quintessential ‘African big man’, was imprisoned for contempt of court. What is likely playing in the deputy senate president’s mind is that since his party is in power, any such decision could herald the end of democracy, and for all he cares, if his party cannot retain power, then no other party should.

Otherwise, why would the APC having the fortune of a pre-taste of the sour grape the courts would serve them, for their ill-informed decision to handpick a serving governor constitutionally barred from heading the party, waste the enormous resources expended last Saturday, for a ward congress across the country that is likely to be declared null and void by the courts? Like the deputy senate president, there are other bands of desperate APC leaders, who are willing to sacrifice the party for the bread they seek to eat.

Poor President Muhammadu Buhari leading a band of hungry desperadoes who will lie through their teeth just because they are desperate for bread. Those who argue that a minority judgment of the Supreme Court is of no consequence, should also inform the president that the majority judgment in favour of Rotimi Akeredolu, avoided making a pronouncement on that issue, because according to the learned justices, a relevant party, was not added to the suit.

So, while the minority judgment cannot remove the governor from office, it showed the mind of the apex court on the vexed issue of allowing a governor to hold another executive position or a paid employment, which the constitution clearly forbade. Without gainsaying, the position of the chairman of the party is both an executive position and a paid employment, by any stretch of imagination; and if the party is lucky to get away on a technical ground in the Ondo petition, it may have no chance, should the legitimacy of the congress, be properly challenged before the court.

With the way things stand, the people of Anambra State may have no APC candidate in the next gubernatorial election, as the very litigious politicians of the state, will milk the chance to disqualify the party’s candidate in the polls, for being tainted by the Governor Bunu’s stigma. With the hunger ravaging the land, there are many, particularly members of the opposition, who would joyously celebrate the disqualification of APC, at the centre in the 2023 election.

The way out for the APC, is to cure both the hunger for bread in the land, and the desperation of their hungry party members, if they want to save their party and the country from avoidable crisis. Since it was in deference to President Buhari that the elected executive led by Adams Oshiomhole, was sacked, and an illegal executive led by Governor Bunu appointed; the president owes every member of his party, whatever legitimate steps that needs to be taken, to ensure the APC’s boat do not capsize.

If the APC ignores the warning signal, and continues to hope on manna from the courts, they may wake up late, when there will be no freebie.