By Kola Animasaun
Primaries of the parties will have peaked by the end of this week. It was a rehashed of the parties. From Port Harcourt to Kaura Namoda; from Lagos to Maiduguri there were uprisings: in Lagos and, in Abeokuta; in Ibadan and Enugu.

There were pockets of violence and death.  In Edati Local Government Area, there were violence which resulted in the death of a PDP aspirant. Some of the aspirants accused the party leadership of irregularities including the imposition of candidates.

The Leader of the Senate, Teslim Folarin, despite the fact that “he does not practise politics of violence” has been arrested and canned.  He was at Agodi Prisons before his unconditional release last Thursday  for the murder of Alhaji Lateef Salako a.k.a. Eleweomo.  Salako was a factional leader of the Oyo State Chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

Salako was killed during the PDP Local Government congress in Ibadan, Oyo State, a fortnight ago.

In Ogun State PDP, there were two factions – Gbenga Daniel and Martins-Kuye’s.  They resulted into two primaries and two candidates.  The daugher of the late MKO was caught between two giants. Lola Abiola-Edewor was proposing to go to the Seante. And, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, sitting Senator, wanted to go for a second term.  Iyabo belongs to the Martins-Kuye faction.  Lola won her primary at Daniel’s faction while Iyabo won the Martins-Kuye contest.

Abiola-Edewor  has shouted blue murder.  Iyabo is smiling to herself.  If you think a man could not compete for two at one and the same time: see what Gbenga Daniel can do.  He won at the Martins-Kuye’s and at his very own faction! Titi Oseni, ex-Speaker of Ogun State cried bitterly  because she was let down badly.

In Benue State, Governor George Akume announced his withdrawal from the party’s primaries for Benue North-West. Akume declared: “I have decided to withdraw my participation from the National Assembly primaries on the platform of PDP scheduled for January 6, 2011.”

He alleged that soldiers were used to disenfranchise PDP members in the State Assembly’s primaries, making it difficult for any credible primaries to be held in Benue.

In Enugu State, Gov. Sullivan Chime and his men were finding it impossible to have their primaries.  They were meant to deny them the tickets.

Rufus Abadi, formerly chairman of PDP in Bayelsa said PDP could not demonstrate the simple internal democracy that was critical to the survival of the nation’s democracy.

He said: “Anyone that says there will be a one-man-vote in Nigeria is a liar. I don’t believe anybody that says that free and fair election will happen in the next election.  When a small state like Bayelsa cannot have one man one vote, how can there be democracy in Nigeria?”

Imoro Kubor, an aspirant and former Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Matters, Mr. Timi Alaibe, left PDP for alleged marginalisation and subversion of due process.  A former Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Peremobowei Ebebi, has also defected to the Labour Party.

In Rivers State, the immediate past governor, Celestine Omehia, kicked against the party’s primaries in the state. He said there was an absence of a properly arranged democratic process in the state.

And, so on and so forth. ACN has its Achille’s heels.  In Lagos, where people are alleging favouritism and, of course, in Ogun State.  There are complaints galore in Oyo State.

The losses of PDP and ACN could be the gain of CPC and Labour Party.  The shout is for transparency and internal democracy.

No condition is permanent
The Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, political scientist, journalist, editor, publisher, politician and scholar, was a remarkable human being.  And, he was a pragmatic man. He was very quick on the uptake. Remember his tiff with the late administrator of the East- Central State, Dr. Ukpabi Asika?

The youthful, exuberant economics don from Ibadan had suddenly found himself in power.  An elder statesman (Zik) did not like the way the young man was going about ruling and the old man cautioned restraint.

The young man (Asika) did not like it and he resorted to pouring invectives on the old man. This was an old man who had never been known to turn the other cheek.  And, because the young man called him ex-this and ex-that, he told him off roundly. He reminded the young man of his not too prominent antecedent and went on to make more popular the already popular slogan that now seems commonplace on our mammy wagons by reminding him that ‘NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT.’

We would not want to remember the heavy bomb that Zik rained on Dr. Chuba Okadigbo.  It did not take time for it to hit home.
So, Zik would want to have his benefit in kings while he was alive.  And, that was where he fancied the Press Centre in Dodan Barracks.  He dedicated it to himself.

The Mausoleum at Inosi Onira, Onitsha, Anambra State, has been standing uncompleted for the last 14 years. Uduese Essien, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, said: “It is a shame that such a structure that was to be built in honour of the country’s leading nationalist was abandoned for several years.”

Great Zik would not have foreseen that the mausoleum could have taken 14 years and still counting time.