Mayday!

By Ademola Adegbamigbe

It was supposed to be the biggest and safest ship ever built. RMS Titanic, on 10 April 1912, was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York with over 2,200 people on board when something terrible happened.

There was a popular quote, though apocryphal in origin, about this floating leviathan. It goes thus: “Not even God himself could sink this ship.” Many researchers attributed this to Captain Edward Smith, boasting to one of the high heeled passengers who wanted to make the voyage across the dizzying expanse of the Atlantic. On the other hand, not a few claimed the expression was by an employee of the White Star Line, operators of the giant vessel when it was launched.

Notwithstanding who uttered the words, there was no doubt that the owners were sure of the safety of their aquatic beast. It was built by Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast and operated by White Star Line. Thomas Andrews, the Titanic’s naval architect, made it a floating Shangri-la. He and his men fitted it with a gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, exotic restaurants and well appointed cabins, for the comfort of those who had made it big this side of eternity.

Beyond luxury and comfort, Andrews and his wise men, according to a historian, made sure that the ship had such high safety measures as watertight compartments, remotely activated watertight doors, double bottoms and others.  When the Titanic left the British Isles, it had only spent four days at sea when it hit an iceberg that created on its hull a wide gash. As water rushed into its compartments, it floundered and sank, showing the limitations of technology against the wildness of natural phenomena. Over 1,500 people died.

Naval historians, after that, came up with different reasons that the Titanic went down. One, it was so big that it could not be easily manoeuvred away from the body of floating ice at the speed of 23 knots. Two, it had double bottoms but a single hull. Three, the ship did not carry enough life boats for the safety of passengers. Also, it was not possible for it to call for help through its wireless system because a vessel that could be of assistance, the Californian, had only a single operator and he had already shut down the system for the evening before the coming of Titanic’s Mayday!. This tragedy forced the hand of maritime authorities to make many far reaching changes.

Like the Titanic, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was regarded by its owners as the largest party in Africa that would rule for 60 years. This was the boast issued in December 2008 by one time National Chairman of the party, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor. That was when he visited the then Kaduna State Governor, (now Vice-President), Namadi Sambo at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, when an elder statesman, Yahaya Gusau, died. As Ogbulafor put it: “We assure you we will do our best, and like I always say, the challenge is ours. The time is now and the place is here. PDP will rule Nigeria, whether they like it or not, for not less than 60 years.”

His reason was that this Titanic party would make itself unsinkable by continuously fashioning out “modalities that would make it the most acceptable and best performing party on the continent”. The PDP was considered so big that it could not be challenged or defeated by any force. For good measure, its war chest was (and still is) so massive that it could buy its way into the minds of the electorate–or make use of the brawns of some vagabonds to cause extensive mayhem.

However, events in the last few days have shown the party as a big snake, eating itself tail-first. It is crumbling as a result of centrifugal and centripetal forces. At its Saturday 31 August Mini Convention in Abuja, a splinter group emerged which called itself the new PDP, led by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. It also has the seven musketeer governors as its promoters. These are Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa State; Rabiu Kwankwaso, Kano; Murtala Nyako, Adamawa; Muazu Babangida Aliyu, Niger; Aliyu Wamako, Sokoto; Abdulfatah Ahmed, Kwara and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers. Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje is the chairman, while former Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, is the secretary.

Since then, efforts have been in top gear by the mainstream PDP to reconcile with the young Turks! One of the most dramatic aspects of the development is the new role of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. On Democracy Day, he fired his buck shots against the Goodluck Jonathan administration from Dutse, Jigawa State, while celebrations were on in Abuja. Now after the Titanic PDP hit an iceberg, the old man surfaced in Aso Rock, donning the toga of peace maker.

On the other side of the spectrum is the All Progressives Congress, APC, which, over time, has been receiving Mayday from impoverished Nigerians on board the PDP-run federal government.

Just as the disaster that struck the Titanic led to the enactment of International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea in 1914, what is happening in Nigeria’s political scene should bring up certain revolutionary changes.

The first is that, it is not enough to be giddy about the break-up of PDP or the advent of APC as a countervailing force. Rather, the development should engender healthy competition in trying to woo the electorate with workable manifestoes. In other words, my party is bigger than yours should be of less importance than how the parties can compete for the soul of voters with their welfarist programmes. This, to me, should be the new focus of our enthusiasm as 2015 approaches.  Another issue all the political parties need to address is funding. Rather than a few scoundrels hijacking political offices because they have money, parties can identify individuals who can deliver and fund their campaigns adequately.

Also, the electorate themselves must go beyond the current stone-age level of political culture where a miss-road upstart will offer a bowl of raw rice or N1,000 for their votes. Among the competing political parties, available programmes, not money or size, should be the criterion for swinging loyalty.

These and more are the lifeboats that Nigerians require to avert sinking or perishing from underdevelopment. Otherwise, we will all be shouting Mayday!, Mayday! without help.