APC, the Wide Gate, the ‘Devils’ Flood"

New Telegraph Newspaper Thursday back page of May 1, 2025 

By Ike Abonyi 
  


“They that give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”-Benjamin Franklin 

A Zimbabwean philosopher and author, Matshona Dhliwayo, perhaps had Nigeria’s political space and its unscrupulous players in mind when he remarked that we should walk alone when the crowd is headed in the wrong direction. That means that In a powerful herd instinct; when everyone is going one way, it takes great courage to go the other way. And wisdom and deeper reasoning still counsel us that when everyone is running in one direction, we should look for the person running in the opposite direction. This was how Saint Paul identified the real God, which the Jews labelled the unknown god.
In future, a book might be written about the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC and the title of the book will be "All the Devils Were There" taken after the book authored by two American Business Journalists, Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera titled "All the Devils Are Here" inspired by Shakespeare's 'The Tempest- ‘Hell is Empty, All the Devils Are Here’ The book was to capture the global financial crisis in 2008 as a result of various factors and individuals that contributed to it's complexity.
"All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis" is a book that provides an in-depth analysis of the 2008 financial crisis, exploring the roles of key players, including CEOs, politicians, regulators, and Wall Street traders. McLean and Nocera argue that the crisis wasn't caused by a single entity or individual but rather a collective failure of various parties.
Hopefully, by the time we arrive at the door that takes us into the new Nigeria of our dreams, we will look back to remember a political party called APC and how it came and bastardized Nigeria’s political space. We will then recall that all the Devils were there and hell was empty. We will also find out, like the two authors, that Nigeria's situation was never caused by one single entity or individual but by a collective failure of various stakeholders with no exception. Current Nigeria's political woes are not a consequence of any exclusive variables but of a stratagem united by ethnic and religious bigotry, gluttony and corruption.
 The two American authors also wrote a follow-up book, ‘The Big Fall’ Maybe if providence allows, there will be a follow-up book or a chapter that will capture the expected fall of APC. But that will happen only if Nigerians are ready to convert their frustration and desires into action for a better Nigeria.
Today in this country, every household is lamenting, screaming that it has never been this bad and wishing that this cup called APC administration could pass by quickly. But notwithstanding that and against any political reasoning, more and more politicians are heading there, underscoring the bizarreness of our political system that highlights the deep-rooted nature of our problems and why a reset is inevitable.
But scripture provides a soothing balm to us as to why the political oddity is happening In Nigeria, as reflected in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter Seven that the wide gate leads to some disastrous ends because it harbours debauchery and it’s home to corruption, unlike the narrow gate which  God directs the people of moral standing to follow.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and few find it”
But why should we be too surprised if politicians are lairs and stupidity is not a handicap in the profession as adduced by Napoleon Bonaparte? Why should anybody be shocked or amazed that all roads are leading to the ruling APC despite their calamitous reign? But we know as a fact that anywhere you see a concentration of flies at a location something rotten and villainous must be the attraction. That is not to say that inside the APC, there are no good heads, but their impact is just like spraying a sweet fragrance in a smelly dustbin.
The fact that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC is tacitly positioned as APC’s recruiting agency says a lot about the content in that class. If APC apparatchiks assemble today before a television camera, virtually all at the front row have issues with EFCC, and their files may have been transferred from the Commission to the Attorney General’s office for the dubious cleansing and decontamination. What this goes to show us is the kind of people determining the destiny of the Nigerian people, and yet some are expecting corruption to leave us; how?
The shock that greeted the literary political earthquake in the country last week, the dumping of PDP for APC by the immediate past Governor of Delta state and the running mate to ATIKU Abubakar of the main opposition’s PDP, in the 2023 election, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and his successor Sheriff  Oborewori, his deputy and the entire cabinet underpins the level we are in political ethics. The action of Okowa and the company, plus all first-time Governors in opposition who are already in APC by their body language, vividly mirrors the depth of corruption in the system. Anybody entering APC from any party is heavily under the influence of corruption; it’s either the person is trying to cover his dirty cupboards or hoping to benefit from election rigging and be able to fill their empty cupboards. Anybody who claims to be joining APC at this time for patriotic reasons is a big liar and prevaricator. 
I can swear with my iPad that if Okowa had any option retiring from politics would have been his first choice than going into APC. But like the 26th US President, Theodore Roosevelt once remarked, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is do nothing” Dr Okowa didn’t have the option or luxury of doing the right thing or doing nothing so he settled for only the available which happens to be the wrong thing. This will hurt him for the rest of his political life, and still, instead of hiding his face, he is compounding his woes by talking.
When Senator Adams Oshiohmole, as the National Chairman of APC in January 2019, gave an open invitation to corrupt and dirty politicians to come over to the party and be cleansed of their dirt, he knew that was the only means the party could enlarge its members, knowing that birds of the same feathers always and usually flock together. The then APC boss also knew that the political environment was filled up with unclean heads looking for a hiding place for their ill-gotten wealth, and APC was willing to provide them sanctuary. According to Oshiohmole, "We have quite several other leaders who have come; once you have joined APC, all your sins are forgiven.”
The APC is one political party that is shameless about its ugly status; it’s never abashed to say that it prioritizes sinners in its membership drive. These classes of people in the sullied club are the ones who have the ill-gotten resources to deploy to lure their likes in the electoral commission, in the Judiciary and the security sector for an undeserving electoral victory for their benefactors or inducers. 
It’s against this backdrop that not many politicians are identifying with a political party like the Labour Party, who prioritize personal integrity over and above wealth in their membership recruitment drive.
The Labour Party standard bearer, Peter Obi, has no looted funds to share and, with his banking background, spends thriftily, a characteristic that is alien and adverse to Nigerian politics. The six million plus votes allocated to Obi in 2023 were ostensibly to appease ordinary voters, especially youths and women who desired him. He was able to get such votes without a single governor, Senator or Local Government Chairman. What that shows to us, is that the paradigm is shifting and elite conspiracy in our electoral system is diminishing. Therefore, nobody should lose sleep over defecting Governors because when the electorates rise, they will all be ex. As a seating Governor and Vice Presidential candidate in 2023, Okowa lost to the Labour Party in Delta state. In a sensible political environment, if Okowa must defect, it should be to the Labour Party, which his people prefer. But the  LP is the narrow gate; the political elites will not find it a home, ditto contractors and corrupt corporate captains. Even clergies, Pastors and Imams for fear of their congregation, will identify with Labour in the day and dine with APC in the night. Only the poor and the hungry are finding LP a dependable option, but the question is, to what extent do they prevail in a situation where votes hardly count and the people are not ready to consign their docility?
The tragedy of all these lies in the fact that the janitor put at the gate of a warehouse, is helping to recruit workers who steal the wares. It’s an anomaly and clear misuse of an institution for  EFCC set up to combat corruption is instead being perceived rightly as an instrument of political intimidation.
But in all, the ball is right in the people’s court; if the hunger is really biting hard, as it’s evident, this might be the time to act; democracy rests all political power in the people, not in the leaders. The time to rise and be counted is now, not tomorrow; Nigerians should stop waiting to meet the people's nemesis in court, where their cohorts are landlords; the battle should be at the polling booths. When that happens, the drivers conveying people to APC will do a volte-face and seek a new license and a new vehicle to ply the new road. God help us.