APC,ADC:Spot The Difference!By Bola BOLAWOLE

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(Published in my TREASURES column on the back page of New Telegraph newspaper edition of Wednesday, 9 July, 2025).

“ They initially romanced SDP; then discovered that it was purportedly one of the many spare tyres of the very person they are trying to unseat! They then flirted with ADA, which means ‘machete’ in Yoruba. If you see a man wielding a machete coming towards you, will you wait to find out what is the matter? … And don’t you know that the man in power holds the yam and he also holds the knife? In 2015, Jonathan dropped the knife; so the yam was prised off his hands. You think Tinubu will box himself into a similar corner? ”

“Hurray, ADC has landed!”

“Which ADC? The one that crashed on November 7, 1996, killing all the 140 passengers and crew members on board? A Boeing 727 flying from Port-Harcourt to Lagos? Or another one that crashed 10 years after in Abuja, killing almost everyone on board? ”

“No, but I remember those very sad incidents, especially the first crash that happened in the vicinity of the swamps of Ejinrin-Epe, not far from Lagos. But that is not the ADC I am referring to. I mean…”

“Oh my! Why bring back sad memories and open new wounds? One of Nigeria’s best brains, Prof. Claude Ake, died in that crash…”

“You are not the only one that knows Ake. I also read his “Revolutionary pressures in Africa” during my university days. It was a must-read for every revolutionary student of the time”

“Those were the days when there were revolutionaries, both students and lecturers, but, sadly, no more!”

“But what happened? Where have the revolutionaries gone? “

“You should ask yourself! Why are you and me no longer the revolutionaries that we used to be? Why have we mellowed?“

“I see! Age is a factor. Another is the hustle to make ends meet. Responsibilities come with age and meeting those responsibilities divert one’s attention from revolutionary duties”

“Correct! Responsibility pressures stunt revolutionary pressures!”

”Exactly! Especially where the ruling class, good students of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, have mastered the art of weaponizing poverty”

“Ake will squirm in his grave. The labours of our revolutionary heroes’ past have all been in vain…”

”But we still have revolutionaries all the same…”

“I beg your pardon! Where are they? In APC or ADC? The Labour unions, students’ movement, ASUU or where? “

“Oh my! I remember NUPENG of Frank Kokori, NBA of Alao Aka-Bashorun, NMA of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, NLC of Hassan Sunmonu…”

”What of the National Union of Nigerian Students of Segun Okeowo’s days? When ASUU was ASUU, not now that it has splintered. In those days when ASUU sneezed, even the military juntas caught flu”

“Yes, those were the days when vice-chancellors were vice-chancellors – the likes of Ojetunji Aboyade and Ade-Ajayi who stared the military eyeballs to eyeballs…”

“I remember the lecturers of those days, too; not only were they fire-spitting, they were also fire-eating. Dr. Segun Osoba, Dr. Bala Usman, Prof. Omafume Onoge, Dr. Bala Mohammad, Patrick Wilmot, Festus Iyayi, the Ola Onis, Laoye Sandas, Bade Onimodes, among others”

“Truly, there was a country!”

“That is Chinua Achebe! From Claude Ake to Chinua Achebe, what is the nexus?

“Both belonged to a generation of Nigerians where, when men even stood on diametrically-opposed spectrums, the same nobility of ideas and purity of conscience still bond them together”

“I see!”

“Today, the country has not only lost its innocence; raped persistently and perpetually, the very fathers that should give her protection have lost every sense of shame. And as the tortoise says, where shame is absent, anything goes!”

“Then, Achebe is right! Tortoise, too! But don’t you think restoring hope is what the ADC is coming to do?”

“Coming from where? From the grave? APC, ADC: Can you spot the difference?”

“They both sound alike – APC, ADC! The acronyms also look undistinguishable, if you are not careful. Is this a coincidence?”

“Deliberative action, my brother! Unfortunately, Nigerians are not adept at reading the lips of their leaders. Nigerian politicians have learnt something from the Yoruba worldview: They deliver very important messages in parables and communicate with proverbs. If you take them at their face value, that is your problem!”

“Waoh! Don’t we need biblical Joseph, the interpreter of dreams, or Daniel, his younger brother, to help us out? But what is it that the ADC is trying to tell us?“

“They initially romanced SDP; then discovered that it was purportedly one of the many spare tyres of the very person they are trying to unseat! They then flirted with ADA, which means ‘machete’ in Yoruba. If you see a man wielding a machete coming towards you, will you wait to find out what is the matter?”

“Except leg is hurting me!”

“Oh-ooo! They seemed to have now settled for ADC! That does not appear to me a good omen either”

“I can’t see the point you are trying to make. What’s in a name?“

“Oh, plenty! There are names parents won’t give their babies…”

“But it is said that a rose called by any other name smells just as sweet…”

”That is rose! Are these ADC people rose or ruiners? Where are they coming from and how are they different from – or better than – those they are trying to supplant?“

“That is the point! It appears we are just recycling old and tired hands, leopards that can never change their skin”

“Exactly! They all belong in the same club that has taken turns to mismanage the country for decades. Point to one of the leading lights of the ADC that has not ruined Nigeria before. Mention just one!”

“You call them leading lights? You mean, leading darkness, not light! Whenever they point an accusing finger at others, the remaining four fingers point in their own direction. Why they do not understand this baffles me!”

“They do! Don’t be deceived! They only play on our intelligence. They have done it repeatedly and have succeeded; so, they believe they can still do and succeed again and again. Check our trajectory; they have always had their way with us”

“I’ll tell you something: This time around, it will not be easy. Our people are wiser, having learnt their lessons from the failures of the past…”

“Yes, it may not be as easy as in the past, but not because the people have learnt any lesson. He who learnt nothing forgets nothing!”

“Oh my! You have a very unsalutary opinion of our people!”

“Pardon my effrontery, but understand that I am also a part of the people we are talking about. If we learnt anything, collectively, we will not be where we are today, where we are confronted with a lose-lose situation”

“Head or tail, we lose is what you are trying to say?”

“Exactly! The decadent ruling class that has always lorded it over us will still cart away the trophy, but this time around it may not be as easy for the winning section of the ruling class as it was in 2015”

“Why? Because the people are wiser and more politically-sophisticated?“

“On the contrary! But because we have two groups of desperadoes contesting for power this time around; unlike in 2015 when Jonathan chickened out of the fight”

“You think Tinubu will not be a statesman like Jonathan?

“Running away from battle does not make you a statesman! Tinubu is not likely to drop the knife like Jonathan did in 2015”

“Knife?

“Don’t you know that the man in power holds the yam and he also holds the knife? In 2015, Jonathan dropped the knife; so the yam was prised off his hands. You think Tinubu will box himself into a similar corner?”

“I see! Why did Jonathan drop the knife?”

“He did not have the stomach for a fight. He is from a minority ethnic group. He had no deep political experience…”

“But are you aware of local and international pressure mounted on him? He also made the mistake of using his own hands to undo himself by appointing an INEC boss that roasted him”

“Not only that! He lacked a sense of history! Possibly, he knew next-to-nothing about this country’s political history. They led him to sack his own persons as security advisers and install enemies within, who stabbed him in the back when it mattered most”

“And you think Tinubu can repeat the same mistakes?”

“It remains to be seen! Human memory is very short, says Adolf Hitler and his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. Men learn nothing from history, posits George Santayana. Already, the signs are there that the same forces that undermined Jonathan are already at work?”

“Serious?”

“Seriously serious! America’s pressure on Jonathan to quit office was fundamental. The orchestrated influx of Fulani terrorists/fighters also. Having already handed his security apparatus to his enemies, what was left for Jonathan to fight with?”

“So, that is what you mean by his dropping the knife?”

“Sure! Once you drop the knife, the yam must follow or else…”

“Na die be dat o!”

“Tinubu must watch it! Look at the prognosis: The vultures are gathering. The ill-advised statement in support of Iran against Israel (and, ostensibly, against the US). And the hobnobbing with BRICS are sure recipe for Donald Trump’s snub and antagonism”

“The local angle of orchestrated insecurity completes the cycle. Where will all these end?”

“You should first ask where it will lead! We started with Claude Ake and the ADC that crashed repeatedly in 1996 and 2006, which may crash again in 2026/2027. If Tinubu does not drop the knife, he will not drop the yam either, come what may”.

“Armageddon!

“Exactly! When a reforming faction of a conservative ruling class is confronted by another faction of desperate rascals within the same ruling class coming together under a different platform to challenge for power, the reformer-elements holding on to power will be forced to become more radical and desperate to maintain their hold on power, leading inexorably to the revolutionary pressures that Claude Ake predicted in 1978!

“Armageddon!

Former editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Westerner news magazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.