Mariam Mariam
“Democracy the world over is endangered by its practioners. In the third world, the tendency to autocracy and the sheer personalization of power is a threat to true democracy…”-AMADU ALI,PDP CHAIRMAN
‘These are the best of times; these are the worst of times’. Permit my Dickensian flight, but these are not the best of times for Colonel, Doctor, Senator, Chief, Alhaji Amadu Ali, the National Chairman of the PDP. It appears that Colonel Ali has fallen victim of Obasanjo’s well-known propensity to use and dump people. Ali seems to be the latest person to fall victim of Obasanjo’s opprobrium and is discovering that Obasanjo has no sense of loyalty or gratitude to any person, believing that he is the only one entitled to people’s loyalty.
It seems that things have truly come a cropper in the relationship between the despot and his beloved garrison commander. First, Ali’s wife was disgraced in the race for the senate seat in Delta state and that could only have been achieved by the PDP machinery in Delta, working at the behest of the Aso Villa. Obasanjo has been opposed to Ali’s insistence on his wife’s candidacy and told Ali so, according to all accounts. Ali would not have that and reminded Obasanjo that he had imposed presidential daughter, Iyabo as a senatorial candidate in Ogun state. But in his case it cannot be sauce for goose befitting also of the gander, since Obasanjo is the only grandmaster in town. Ali’s temerity to remind Obasanjo of his own nepotism, of showing the plank in Obasanjo’s eye for Ali’s mere doctor in soup: his house has been demolished, even though ei-Rufai said it was done in the ‘public interest’; his huge picture which adorned the WADATA PLAZA HQ of the PDP is said to have been demolished /removed and there are whispers of a possible EFCC visitation!
Amadu Ali has become the latest humpty-dumpty in town with a broken crown and blooded and bruised all over. Ali now realizes the danger which “autocracy and sheer personalization of power” represent in a third world setting; obviously a dig at Obasanjo, for the problems he is facing today. But Amadu Ali does not deserve pity: he was like a ‘Bolekaja enforcer’ for the iniquities of Obasanjo: was installed as party leader, undemo; championed the authoritarianism he is now denouncing, and was a vicious chorus leader of the third term agenda. He is getting his comeuppance for his dis-service to Nigeria’s democracy, from the same person, to whom he stood against the best interests of democracy and of the Nigerian people. Oh, on a final note, have you noticed that Dr Ahmadu Ali has also re-discovered his NORTHERN root in recent outings? Powershift or crsss opportunism?
