Most of the time, elephants do not die of old age. They can die of broken hearts, for instance but for the most part, they die of starvation. They spend most of their lives eating vegetation which requires a lot of chewing. Over time their teeth grind down and then another takes its place. Similar to the way humans lose their baby teeth as we grow older and then a new set comes in. With elephants however, this will happen four times in their lives after which they no longer can eat and therefore starve to death. Elephants travel many miles to end up at the place called ‘elephant graveyard’. They in most cases know when it is their time and will travel to elephant graveyards if they are able.
Isn’t the Peoples Democratic Party just like the elephant? Let’s look back and consider how many times this largest party has gone close to destruction. Are the members counting the number of times they have danced at the edge of destruction but somehow survived? Is this not a party that is taking it for granted that it will survive every earthquake and self-inflicted pestilence? Unlike elephants who know that there is a limited number of times they can replace their teeth, it does not look like the largest party in Africa realises that even the cat with nine lives eventually dies. Because the PDP has survived many near catastrophic moments and seasons, it seems to have forgotten that there is always that day when monkey go go market, he no go return.
PDP is like the Yoruba child named Folorunsho (it is God who keeps this one) who climbs the palm tree with a climbing rope made from plantain tree. Folorunsho would eventually realise that his nice name would not protect him from the sure consequences of attempting suicide.
PDP has made a career of climbing all kinds of trees with ropes made from even rubber. It thinks it is invincible. It is in trouble and doesn’t seem to know it. Or maybe it knows. Maybe it is just an elephant nearing its end and heading for the elephants graveyard.
Maybe this great party has finally lost its teeth, for the last time, and is about to die. Maybe it knows and people like me are just worried for nothing and wasting our emotions. Just maybe.
As far as I can see, PDP is in trouble. It has been in trouble for a while actually. And when I had a dream and saw the party leaving the Garden of Eden on its own, without God pursuing it, I knew there must be a community of snakes on the party’s roof. We can all see the snakes but this party is partying away anyway. Even when the snakes started descending into the dance arena, PDP continued swigging its whiskey and dancing like a man possessed by a thousand demons.
What exactly is wrong with this PDP? Why is it bent on self destruction? Okay, you don’t understand why I’m worried on behalf of the party that has, for years, threatened to rule us forever? I do not understand why the members are forever fighting and determined to change the meaning of the word ‘reconciliation’. It is a simple enough concept but in PDP, it is difficult to comprehend, least of all realise. Members of this party are like a husband and wife who are perpetually giving each other a bloody nose and a black eye while insisting that their marriage is intact.
How come the PDP can’t see that it is in trouble when a small fry like me can see it dangling on a thread from an Iroko tree? Why can’t the elders tell this Folorunsho that it is about to fall into the abyss?
Why is Folorunsho smiling?
You see, as I savoured my cow tail pepper soup on Wednesday after I heard that INEC had finally registered APC, I said to myself, PDP is in soup, hot cow tail pepper soup. But does PDP know it? No, it is too far gone in its reprobate ways to notice that this elephant may well be close to its graveyard. Like the elephant, PDP seems to need no push. It is doing it all on its own, this destructive no reconciliation business. That is why they can still talk about why Governor Seriake Dickson is too small and inexperienced to head a reconciliation committee for this party. I can’t stop shaking my head.
Is this party, at this moment, in a position to reject Dickson? It was okay when a few witches were on PDP’s case but not now when the ruling party is being hemmed in on all sides by witches from within and without. PDP is up against what the Yoruba call apapo eleye. All the political witches in the land have landed at the front door of PDP, set to not just pluck out the party’s eyes but to devour it for dinner. Is this then the time to start checking out irrelevances? For all they care, Dickson Committee may be their last hope, their final chance at closing ranks. Come to think of it, when the old men headed the past reconciliation committees, why didn’t the party mend its fence? The problem with PDP is that members have a knack for ignoring their leprosy and scratching the itch. It is in their DNA. Why worry about Dickson’s age and experience when there are tons of thorns to extract from the party’s bleeding side? Here’s a man who has stepped into the Ekiti troubled waters and convinced the axe and broken bottle-wielding politicians to drop their weapons. He has convinced the Anambra contenders to the throne to concentrate on the elephant they are carrying on their head and quit looking for ants with their toes. And then the PDP convention may just hold. Countryman Dickson has also got the angry men in court to withdraw their case against the party. If he had experience and more grey hair than Prof Soyinka, can anyone deny that Dickson has not done badly in less than a month? Whether your son reads all day and plays all night or reads all night and plays all day, if he passes his O’level exams with seven distinctions, will you worry about the fact that he’s barely 14 or celebrate his success?
But in PDP, whatever does not tear the umbrella is not impressive. You’d think PDP would be worried about the implication of their enemies forming a union instead of asking for Dickson’s birth certificate. You’d think they’d be worried about the fact that they now have governors whose votes they cannot count on anywhere. You’d think PDP elders would rally round any reconciliation committee and close ranks. But they would not. Nobody seems to be concerned about the now swollen ranks of opposition in the National Assembly and what that could mean if someone decides to move for any kind of impeachment in either of our chambers. No, that is so not important. What is important is the side of town Countryman Dickson was born and how many years he had spent in PDP. Is he an elder or not, blah blah blah?
My heart goes to this party that came with so much promise and grew so confident it promised to rule us until the return of Jesus Christ because now, from where I stand, the APC is lacing up its boots to kick PDP’s teeth in forever.
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