National Security And Political Mudslinging …Politicians think of the next election, while statesmen think of the next generation – James Freeman Clark

Last week, Nigeria’s two leading political parties brought to limelight the above long held axiom by engaging each other in political mudslinging over the nation’s security. In what seems as a well orchestrated strategy to outwit each other ahead of 2015 general elections, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) resorted to a blame game over the insurgency that has held the nation captive for the past three years.
The parties’ inclination to profit from a national tragedy started sometimes last year when the PDP accused the APC of sponsoring the Boko Haram insurgency in the North. It, however, reached its tragic crescendo last week, when the ruling party launched another verbal attack on the opposition, accusing it of egging on terrorists through the utterances of its chieftains who, according to the PDP, were obsessed with wrestling power from President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 at all cost. The PDP’s accusation came a few hours after the Abuja bomb blast that left no fewer than 75 people dead and 124 others seriously injured at the popular Nyanya Motor park in the early hours of last Monday.
According to the PDP, the utterances and comments of the opposition party were aimed at undermining and discrediting the present administration and making the nation ungovernable for Jonathan.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, the PDP said; “We stand by our earlier statement that these attacks on our people are politically motivated by unpatriotic persons especially those in the APC, who have been making utterances and comments, promoting violence and bloodletting as a means of achieving political control.
“Nigerians are also aware of utterances by certain APC governors which have been aimed at undermining our security forces and emboldening insurgents against the people.
“Those who have been promoting violence through their utterances can now see the monster they have created. They can now see the end product of their comments; a country flowing daily with the blood of the innocent.”
The PDP was apparently referring to recent statements made by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and former Minister of the Federal Capital  Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. While Shettima, apparently frustrated by the frequent insurgents’ attacks in his state, noted that Boko Haram terrorists were better equipped than the nation’s security forces, El-Rufai warned that any attempt by the ruling PDP to rig the 2015 general elections would be met with bloodshed.
The ruling party has also made consistent reference to the statement credited to the former Head of State and national leader of the APC, Gen. Muhammad Buhari (rtd) during the 2011 election campaign, that “he who makes peaceful change impossible makes violent change inevitable.” Buhari was at that time warning the ruling party not to rig the 2011 general elections.
But the PDP has, at every opportunity, taken advantage of APC’s verbal slips to hang the reign of terror in the country on the opposition’s neck.
Knowing the weighty implications of the PDP’s accusation, especially a few months to the 2015 general elections, the APC did not waste time to throw back a heavier punch at its accusers. In a quick response, the opposition party described the PDP’s accusation as baseless, despicable and infantile, adding that it was an attempt by the PDP to trivialise a serious national issue and thus make the opposition the fall guy for its (PDP) egregious failure.
In a statement by its interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC accused the PDP-led federal government of lacking the capacity to tackle the orgy of insurgency in the country.
Expressing shock and sadness at the savagery of the Nyanya bomb attack and several other mindless killing in the country, the APC said, “It is now obvious that all efforts so far to tackle the insurgency have not yielded much fruits, meaning that the PDP-led federal government lacks the capacity and has clearly run out of ideas on how to tackle the violence.”
The party continued: “Trying to blame the opposition for the attack, as the harebrained PDP has irresponsibly done even when the bodies of the victims are still lying in the morgue, cannot advance a genuine push to end the insurgency.”
APC suggested a new approach to stop the insurgency, urging the Federal Government to urgently convene a national stakeholders’ security summit to help find a lasting solution to the state of insecurity in the country.
Lending voices to their party’s stand, the governors on the platform of the APC, said the tragic death of about 1,000 people in the last two weeks alone, were indications of a major failure on the part of the PDP-led federal government.
In a statement by the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) chairman and Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, the APC governors said, “In the last two weeks alone, about 1,000 Nigerians have perished. The tragic deaths indicate major failure of government.
“Without meaning to gain political capital out of these unending disasters, it is plain the government has run out of ideas in the fight against insurgency, ethnic and communal clashes as well as the spate of armed robberies and kidnappings across Nigeria.”
APC also made a case out of Jonathan’s visit to Kano 24 hours after the Abuja bomb blast. The party accused the President of exhibiting the traits of an insensitive and utterly hard-hearted leader who according to the party, prefers keeping his plum job at all cost than “the security and welfare of the same people who voted him into office. Otherwise, the President would not have rushed back to his illegal campaign trail at a time he should be leading the nation in mourning the dead.”
The party urged Jonathan to take a moment of deep introspection to reflect on his actions, saying, “perhaps he will realize that long after the glitz of office would have dimmed and the retinue of lick-spittle aides would have vanished, a leader would be remembered more for his humanity than his vanities.”
Kano State Governor,  Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who was among the five PDP governors that defected to APC last year, also threw similar brickbat at Jonathan for embarking on what he called “merry making trips,” 24 hours after the Abuja bomb blast.
“At a time when several innocent lives have been lost, when many of the victims are in hospital seeking blood donations to survive, the President is gallivanting round the country in the name of PDP Unity Rally,” Kwankwaso contended.
While Kwankwaso’s comments could pass for a payback remark to the President who had earlier, at a PDP Unity Rally in Kano last Tuesday, chided him for deliberately denying Kano State delegates their mobilisation fund and refreshment given by his campaign headquarters in 2011, that of the APC’s interim chairman in Kogi State, Kasim Mabo was more instructive.
Mabo who spoke with the newsmen in Lokoja, last week said: “A President who said his ambition is not worth the blood of anyone is now dancing gleefully on the graves of over 70 of his compatriots. What is so important about the illegal campaign stop in Kano on Tuesday that could not have waited for the smoke to clear from the scene of the deadly blast on Monday? Who will President Jonathan rule over when his countrymen and women are being badly mowed down under his watch?
“Without mincing words, President Jonathan erred badly by not showing enough sympathy for the victims of Monday’s blast. More people died in the blast than from Kenya’s mall shooting last September, yet President Uhuru Kenyatta declared three days of national mourning during which flags at public buildings flew at half mast and the people of Kenya prayed for the dead and the injured.”
He also recalled that, “In 2012, General Muhammed Buhari ordered the immediate postponement of all activities long planned to mark his 70th birthday, following the death of General Owoeye Azazi, Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and others in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa. Such is the stuff of a great leader.”
But the PDP described the APC’s accusation as another demonstration of the party’s support for terrorist agenda in the country. Buttressing claims that Jonathan was sensitive and responsive to the plight of Nigerians, the PDP in a statement by Metuh, recalled that Jonathan cancelled his planned trip to Ibadan and also visited the scene of the blast and the injured in the hospital, last Monday.
The party also accused the APC of seeking to cow the President, dictate the tempo of government and ultimately shut down governance.
“The leadership of the PDP and the government we formed shall not be cowed, intimidated, harassed or tele-guided by acts of terrorism,” the party said.
There is no gainsaying that the exchange of verbal missile between the PDP and the APC is aimed at gaining political capital ahead of the 2015 general elections. But while this continues, the political class has wittingly or unwittingly promoted political mudslinging to a level of crass opportunism, thereby undermining national interest. Where this leads the nation in the months ahead remains a question only time can tell.

Boye Salau