A Sign of Bankruptcy of the APC and PDP
Press Statement
The
Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), Osun State Chapter decries the horrible act
of voters’ inducement by two main political parties in the forthcoming
governorship election in Osun State. This ridiculous act of inducing poor and voters
with basic things like rice, milk, kerosene, etc, now referred to as Stomach
Infrastructure has again underscored the low level governance has been reduced
to in this country. According to a feature report in the August 3, 2014 edition
of the Punch newspaper, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State have been engaging in inducement of voters
through distribution of some basic consumer items like rice, milk, kerosene,
etc.
It is more worrisome that the two main parties
associated with this unwholesome act – APC and PDP – are both ruling political
parties at the state and federal levels. This status definitely confers the
opportunity on them to impart meaningfully on the lives of the majority of the
population through socio-economic programmes that will lift them out of
poverty. Unfortunately, the two parties, in spite of the enormous wealth and
resources of the country still deny people their basic socio-economic rights. This
monumental failure of governance has engendered rising poverty and squalor. It
is this poverty that the ruling political parties are now exploiting through
meager distribution of some basic consumer items in order to continue the
culture of looting and mismanagement of public wealth.
The
excuse of the two parties that they are identifying with the masses is
spurious. These same political parties have introduced anti-poor policies that
deny the same mass of people the right to better living conditions without
depending on handouts from politicians. For instance, the PDP has been in
control political power at the federal level since the beginning of civilian
rule in 1999, yet poverty, want, unemployment, collapsed education system,
collapsed infrastructure and social strife have been the lot of the country. Between
1999 and 2013, poverty has climbed from 54 percent to more than 70 percent,
while youth unemployment has risen to well over 50 percent. Yet, the country
has earned more than $700 billion from oil since 1999. While the majority of
the population is living in want, just one percent of the population is
controlling over 80 percent of our oil wealth. It is this rotten economic
arrangement, premised on capitalist neoliberal policies of privatization,
commercialization, liberalization, deregulation, etc that have made access to
comfortable living difficult for majority.
The
PDP governorship candidate in the Osun election, Iyiola Omisore is part and
parcel of this rot. He was the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Appropriation between 2007 and 2011, who supervised the budgets that deny the
people basic means of livelihood but ensure more wealth for the tiny rich
minority. For instance, the Ife-Ilesa road dualization, which was started more
than five years ago, has been abandoned with no one explaining where the monies
appropriated for it have not been accounted for. The PDP ruled Osun State for
four years under Olagunsoye Oyinlola (who has now crossed over to APC), yet
basic infrastructures in the state are in deplorable conditions.
However,
the rot is not limited to the PDP alone. The Aregbesola-led APC government in
Osun State has been in power since 2010, coming to power at the back of mass
rejection of PDP. Yet, few days to election, the party, APC, is not confident
of its victory such that it had to contend with the PDP in the maddening game
of Stomach Infrastructure. While of course, the government undertook some
minimal projects like township roads rehabilitation and rebuilding of few
handful schools, the reality is that the central planks of the government
policies have been attacks on broad layers of the populace including workers,
pensioners, traders and artisans, etc. Moreover, the few projects undertaken by
the government have been mostly inflated contracts awarded to big time
contractors while the ministry of works has been made redundant.
If
not for the election, tens of thousands of retirees, forced to retirement in
the name of implementing the fraudulent Contributory Pension Scheme, would
still have been denied their pension entitlement, almost two years after
retirement. Nevertheless, many other retirees under the Contributory Pension
Scheme have not received a dime, more than a year after retirement. Gratuity
has not been paid to any pensioner since 2011. The so-called ‘massive’ road projects
of the government are actually very limited, with majority of the intra- and
inter-township roads still in deplorable conditions. School system in the state
has almost been destroyed, no thanks to undemocratic reform in the school
system that left many schools in horrible conditions.
All
of these have actually isolated the government from the same mass of people
that supported the Aregbesola in 2007 elections. This has emboldened the
reactionary PDP to stage a comeback. The electoral victory of PDP in Ekiti
State governorship election, itself a product of elitist and anti-poor policies
of the Fayemi/APC government, has further encouraged the PDP to portray itself
as a genuine alternative. But the lack of alternative pro-working people programmes
and policies to the APC’s, has betrayed the reactionary character of the PDP. This
is why it has to resort to horrible stomach infrastructure as a cover up for
its anti-poor character.
Clearly,
the monies being spent in stomach infrastructures will be recouped in manifold
if any of the parties emerge victorious in the election. This will mean
worsening conditions of living for the working people. It is this reality that
has underscored the position of the SPN that there is the need to build an
alternative political platform of the working and poor people, which will be
committed to massive development of human capacity and infrastructures. This is
the task the SPN has set for itself, and we call on all genuine working people,
youth and the poor people to join us in the task.
Alfred Adegoke Kola
Ibrahim
State Chairman State
Secretary
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