It is no longer news that APC came into governance on the altar of  deceit. The deceit thrived because the Jonathan administration failed to  bring to public attention its numerous achievements. And APC, being a  party of subterfuge and propaganda seized the moment created by the  lacuna to suffuse the political space with falsehood. Having a dubious  understanding of public mood, they latched on the common human frailty  called corruption of which Nigeria has attained notoriety under the  watch of successive governments. And so with anti-corruption as the  mantra and sufficient demonization of the Jonathan administration, APC  sadly ascended the political throne ill prepared with no knowledge of  what to do with the power acquired.
From May 29, 2015, the Nation has been groping. Unfortunately Nigerians  still pretend as if all is well. Under the superintendence of APC led  administration, the Nation came face to face with recession from the  2014 rating of being the largest economy in Africa and the sixth fastest  growing economy in the world. With the recession gathering dark clouds  daily, many believe that the Nation is likely to proceed to depression;  a malignant economic malaise that may put the Nation in comatose. At no  point in Nigeria has the ineptitude of government been so pronounced  that people considered to be apolitical and often on the easy street  like entertainers could contemplate to plan to stage a protest against  bad governance. What the celebrities led by 2Face seem to be saying is  that enough is enough and that it is time to speak up in the interest of  the majority. And many have indicated interest to join the protest.  Currently, it is on the lips of all Nigerians even though there are  confirmed reports that security agencies have overawed the leader of the  protest and forced him to capitulate.
With such planned gigantic protest in the offing and the economic  indicators which are in the negatives, it is within the bounds of  veracity and reason to state that the Buhari administration is a  monumental failure. The protest if it is allowed to hold is therefore a  genuine ventilation of the frustrations of Nigerians who have endured  the hardship for almost two years in the belief that things would  change. But the real change that would improve the living conditions of  Nigerians has refused to come because APC by its origin and orientation  is not designed to provide people centred governance.
Curiously, in what seems to be a strange twist, some Nigerians that are  supposedly assumed to know better are decamping from a party Nigerians  trusted as the people’s party to a commercial contraption that was  created by business moguls for business transaction which today is a  failed venture. A handful of opportunist politicians from Ondo, Plateau,  Akwa Ibom and recently Anambra States have failed to see the collapse of  the contractual deal between APC and Nigerians. In their quest for  relevance and self protection, they have jumped ship, exiting from the  party that gave them the platform to arise and shine and become senators  even though with indistinguishable records in their almost two years of  occupation of the red chamber.
It is an indubitable truth that APC led government has failed the  people. Every segment of the society is a victim of the hostile economic  climate the policies of government have unleashed on the people. This is  paradoxical as the essence of government is to provide condition that  would mitigate suffering. But not the Buhari administration, which on  the contrary engages in the enunciation of anti people’s policies that  have increased the woes of the people. The government seems to define  itself as one that came to persecute the people and not to govern them.
Sometimes one is tempted to think that Mr. President is on a vengeful  mission against Nigerians for failing to elect him at three consecutive  elections until Boko Haram was introduced into the matrix to breath down  the neck of Nigerians.     The anti corruption mantra which served as convenient distraction when  the APC led administration first debuted has lost its steam and is now a  worn out cliché. Apart from public perception which adjudges it  selective and a convenient witch hunting tool, Nigerians now want  governance and not rhetoric. They want the fulfillment of the campaign  promises. They want food on their tables. They want functional public  infrastructure. They want this perennial darkness resulting from almost  zero level of power supply to pass them by. They want the recession that  has provoked spiraling cost of living to be arrested. They want  government to institute a viable mechanism that can pull this Nation  from the brink of collapse.
Nigerians are tired of the rhetoric of corruption and blame game. Today  those things sound like broken records and boring buzz words. Yes  fighting corruption is good and acceptable but it cannot substitute for  governance. Governance is the aggregation of all the indices that would  culminate in the improved conditions of the citizenry. This is what  Nigerians are yet to see in almost two years of this administration. Let  this administration tell us the number of kilometer of roads it has  constructed or even rehabilitated; its record of achievement in the  health sector; the number of megawatts it has added to improve  electricity supply; what it is doing in the area of education, transport  etc. What we are treated to daily are bogus claims that if APC had not  taken over, Nigeria under PDP would have been on its knees now. But  until PDP lost election, the country was in the favorable rating of  reputable international agencies. The truth is that APC lacks the  humility to sit down in self audit, review what they did wrong when they  came into governance, have the courage to accept same and make amends.
By the contemplated protest, it is clear that the people have rejected  APC and its government. Nigerians have come to terms with the fact that  in APC, there is no trust. So, who are those decamping to APC in the  face of the “harsh intolerable economic condition that has bedeviled  our Nation for the past almost two years (apologies to late General  Sanni Abacha) serving. They are the anti-people politicians. They are  the selfish politicians who are seeking self not service. Those  politicians do not understand the virtue of service. Yours truly is not  against decamping but let the party that one is decamping to be seen to  be doing well. It is not enough to delude oneself with the dubious claim  that the party is better organized and is not mired in crises when it is  involved recurrently in intractable infighting. The Senators that have  decamped are economical with the truth as to the reasons for their  action. Let the truth be told, none of the decampees is doing so in the  interest of the people. It is self, self and self alone.
As electorates, it is time for us to be vigilant. It is said that the  price for democracy is eternal vigilance. We must align ourselves with  the critical postulation which notes that a people deserve a government  they get. The question therefore is, do we deserve the APC government in  its current form and make-up? Do we deserve the decampee Senators? Yes,  because we allowed them to hoodwink us. We made ourselves susceptible to  their antics. We surrendered to emotion rather than reason. We refused  to be vigilant. We kept our flanks opened and APC surreptitiously inched  in to kill, main, plunder and put our democracy on trial.
Written by Joe Iniodu.
