Gbenga Olorunpomi: APC – When a few good men choose to be selfless (Y! Politico)

by Gbenga Olorunpomi

Gbenga Olorunpomi

The proverbial wind has blown and PDP’s bum-bum is on public viewing. So, I won’t waste my time on that lot anymore. Their calamitous end crawls ever nearer.

This piece could easily have been a serious bashing for the shenanigans of some unscrupulous, demonic and undoubtedly cowardly characters within the Nigerian Presidency, the People’s Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission. These misguided and undemocratic elements allegedly hatched plot to ensure that the effort of the newly formed All Progressives Congress comes to nought, by short-circuiting the laid down processes for the registration of political parties in Nigeria. Their game was to unbalance and throw spanners into the engine of the opposition and get them to be distracted in their work of regaining Nigeria back for the people.

Using up a hundred paragraphs to insult those goons would ultimately be a waste, even if a satisfactory one for this writer.  But I won’t rise to that bait. Their plan has been expertly and roundly exposed by a dogged online media, amply aided by the silly individual, who couldn’t use the delete button before sending out a emails obviously ladened with falsehood . The proverbial wind has blown and PDP’s bum-bum is on public viewing. So, I won’t waste my time on that lot anymore. Their calamitous end crawls ever nearer.

Let me talk about one subject many people have been asking me since the merger talks went from a mere handshake to a full bear hug. Everyone wanted to know, “Won’t the ambition of perennial presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, scuttle the talks? Will Bola Tinubu shelve  his desire for the top job for someone else? Can those two even sit in the same room to discuss issues?”

Like every onlooker, I also had my doubts. The opposition parties that were involved in the talks had more than six men who had at one point or the other expressed their wish to be the president of Nigeria. And, you know men and their egos. I thought it was going to be a big sticking point but choose to watch the drama and support them with my prayers.

Now, imagine my joy when my role model and former boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, said these words in an interview last week: “We came into this merger with nobody having any personal ambition. All of us were told to put our own interests or personal ambitions aside. This merger has come because nobody went in with any condition or with any request for anything.”

Now, I have adored many men in my life and Ribadu is one of them. The man’s honesty and quest for the truth is legendary, so when he said these words, I believed them and jumped for joy.

This showed that this merger is truly a clean slate, one being pursued by people of genuine intentions. Now, before you go calling me naive, of course, not everyone would be totally devoid of ambition but that the big players have demonstrated restraint and commitment to this marriage is something worthy of commentary and emulation.

I know there lies ahead a rough road for the APC in their quest to remove Nigeria from the bondage of the PDP. I also understand that the new association still has a lot to do to convince most of us that they are the real deal, with measurable plans to turn around the economy of Nigeria. I also concur that they need to show they have the national spread and political strength to defeat the ruling PDP. However, I choose to see the fact that personal ambitions were set aside to make the merger happen as good omen for what is to come.

This is what gives me hope. And for a man at his wits end for the embarrassing performance of the PDP, this is good enough for me to begin dreaming about a good future for my little girl. I wish the APC, and all Nigerians, the best.

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Gbenga Olorunpomi is a senior digital marketing strategist. He has over 5 years in the marketing communications business and has designed social media strategies for major brands like Coca-Cola and The Economist.  He is experienced in the media, having worked for two years at one of the country’s biggest public relations firms as Media Relations and Content Manager. Gbenga is a Principal Consultant with Cyborg Nigeria. He is affiliated to the ACN. He tweets from @gbengagold

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. You have diagnosed the patients, but only spelling out the solutions without a thought for implementation. The truth like you have said, APC (if there will ever be any) has a long way to go. It is starting pretending that its internal selfish paroles doesn’t exist. Problems that should have been solved are now mainly being guided with little protective strength. I can wait to see APC achieving nothing 2015, if only it continue to way its driving on. if however it choose to play that ‘musicians’ that Nigerians will wanna listen to doing it, then I will congratulate an opposition President soon.

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