The Ibadan national rescue squad
Unable to face their own demons, the faction of seasonal PDP migrants currently taking refuge in ADC escalated their war of attrition by holding the president and his ruling APC
Unable to face their own demons, the faction of seasonal PDP migrants currently taking refuge in ADC escalated their war of attrition by holding the president and his ruling APC responsible for their self-inflicted travails. And what other proof was needed beyond the fact that the ruling party received with open hands, other PDP factional members escaping from a sinking ship? INEC and its chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan has also come under vicious attack. And their offence according to the opposition parties was that Amupitan, (SAN) a professor of Law, is not competent to interpret court’s pronouncements. Fragmented PDP has done everything except making deliberate efforts at bringing conciliation between narcissistic, irreconcilable politicians, as alternative to their current precipitous journey towards self-destruction
But last Saturday, operating under the banner of Nigerian opposition parties, they unfolded what some of their leading light had earlier described as ‘Plan B’. Claiming to be driven by patriotic zeal to rescue Nigeria, they finally resolved to present a common presidential candidate for the 2027 election.
But let us start with a Yoruba aphorism that says it is imperative to look at what someone who promises you a new dress adorns before falling a victim. It will not be out of place to interrogate the antecedents of those who are today setting out on a national rescue mission.
Topping the list of the Ibadan accord rescue squad was former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Unfortunately, while proclaiming himself as the leading light of this rescue mission, there emerged a trending video of him, apologizing for the mismanagement of PHCN privatisation. “If we had handled the issue of electricity with $16b meant to provide 40,000 megawatts of electrify by 2007 when we were in office”, he was herd lamenting, “we would have provided enough electricity for the country... with many of the contractors paid in full, we left and nothing was achieved”.
The rescue mission also includes Liyel Imoke, who featured prominently in the $16bilion Obasanjo/Atiku electricity failed project. Among the national rescued squad was Professor Jerry Gina; a professor of Geography who has been part of every government since the second republic. He was at the head of delegation of Disco owners that sought government support and participation in unbundled PHCN sold to PDP stalwarts, according to National Assembly probe, at give-away prices.
Occupying a preeminent position in the squad was David Mark, a senator for 12 years, eight of which he was the senate president, the fourth most powerful man in the land. Unfortunately, even with all the power he wielded, he could not bring succour to his Benue people under repeated attack by criminal Fulani herdsmen. For him however, “the Ibadan accord is a “national rescue mission to restore trust and safeguard democratic structures, a mission born out of necessity, compelled by the suffering of our people”.
Neither did he spare the INEC chairman. He insisted “Nigerians have lost confidence in the electoral body called INEC... Prof Ojo Amupitan is about to preside over the most distrusted election in Nigeria’s history”.
There was also Turaki, the court dismissed factional leader. Instead of compromise, he would rather call on US President Trump to come and kidnap President Tinubu who he claims was behind PDP intraparty crises. He also saw “the Ibadan Accord as “a joint opposition framework to rescue Nigeria from the claws of this confused and confusing ruling party”.
On the list was also the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, who following his failure to secure PDP 2023 presidential ticket shortly after decamping from APGA, pulled down PDP by exploiting ethnic and religious sentiments of his aggrieved Igbo people who gave him 95% of their vote, to teach Atiku a lesson that impunity and disregard for party constitution have consequences.
There was also ‘hungry’ former Minister of Transportation, Rotini Amaechi; who could not handle his 2023 APC primary presidential electoral defeat by Bola Tinubu. He had thought the ticket was earmarked for him by late President Buhari whom he worshipped like a feudal slave, diverting most of his ministry’s projects to Katsina and went around in Fulani ceremonial apparel as sign of his obeisance.
On the rescue squad was also Rauf Aregbesola, he estranged godson of President Tinubu; Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government, sacked by President Buhari over alleged inflated grass cutting contract; Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who according to the judiciary, stole Aregbesola’s mandate in the years of Obasanjo and ‘PDP ‘mainstreaming’ experiment; Pat Utomi, a man of many words, first appointed by Shehu Shagari as Chief Executive of defunct Volkswagen. pursued a failed senate ambition under PDP in his Delta State, openly, boasted that APC, party constitution was drafted on his dining table, nursed a presidential ambition under Labour but ceded the position to Peter Obi.
Full of fury, Oyo governor, Seyi Makinde, the chief host railed against “the growing concentration of political power in one party, ‘the persistent crises within opposition parties; warning that “democracy depended not just on elections, but on the availability of viable alternatives.
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But if you ask me for my unbiased pinion, I will say without hesitation that Dino Melaiye is the star of the squad. Bold and audacious, he let the cat out of the bag during a chat with Seun Okinbaloye a few days before the Ibadan gathering. He was the first to speak of a rescue mission and so far remains the only squad member that has listed the reasons for the rescue mission.
According to him, they include Tinubu’s decision to use ‘the beast’ as against Mercedes S class, the favourite of his predecessors. People now eat from the dustbin; Nigerians are suffering from ulcer because of malnutrition; the president borrowing now nearing N100trillion; granting amnesty to drug barons and criminals by the president; and the president’s installation of N10billion Solar light in Aso rock when Nigerian have no light. etc.
Not even Obasanjo who brought Dino from obscurity to the limelight could intimidate him. For instance, when Obasanjo said in his January 13, 2016 letter to Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, accusing lawmakers of reckless spending and abuse of office, daring the lawmakers to open their financial records to external audit, Melaye speaking for the senate said “it was Obasanjo who introduced corruption into the legislature”, asking tongue in cheek, “I hope this is not an attempt to cover up and distract attention from the Haliburton and Siemens corruption allegations”.
In a November 6, 2016 Punch interview titled “Selling my cars will not end recession, I have ordered more”, Dino celebrated his collection of luxurious cars, including Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and Porsche among his other toys.
And on the source of his wealth, he had said “I am a transparent Nigerian”. “My source of wealth is heavenly, my purse is divine and it won’t dry up”.
A honest and audacious man like Dino, who would not mind disrobing his mentor on the street, is the one who in my view is sufficiently equipped to lead the opposition disaffected, conceited and self-centred political sharks in the battle for 2027.
