APC: A Fine Sail, and to Nowhere

Nothing ostensible is wrong with the idea of a formation of a new political party in a democratic state, but in Nigeria’s case the manner by which, and the condition under which political parties are formed left so much to be desired. This leaves some of our nation’s political parties as a fine sail without a clearly identified destination. In the manner some of the parties are formed, one cannot help but wonder what exactly the master minders had in mind for the country. Did it want it to be one nation, one people, a country in perpetual conflict with itself, a democracy, or a demo-theocracy, or what?

A closer look at Nigeria political parties’ development and experiments at governance since amalgamation reveals clear lack of vision and direction for the country. Over the years we have experiments with regionalism which National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) saw as crystallising disintegration. We have tried Unitarianism, federalism, civilian rule, military rule, parliamentary democracy, and presidential democracy, but none seems to 

have worked, just as we have tried many systems of education without getting much out of any. We have also tasted a party politics that has created Frankenstein monsters in the forms of money politics, deadly thurgery, political thievery and assassinations, godfatherism, sectarianism, and electoral frauds on massive scale, in many cases leading to violent clashes and loss of lives and property.

Reading Tolu Ogunlesi’s “APC, History and the Burden of Expectation” I agree with him that politics in Nigeria has always been dominated by desperation, playing out in the same guises – intimidation, manipulation, dodgy mathematics, from the bitter dispute that saw the AG and the NCNC both claiming they owned a majority of the 75 non-Lagos candidates elected to the Western House of Assembly in 1951, to the puzzling twelve-two-third saga of 1979, to the 16 vs. 19 Nigeria Governors’ Forum controversy in 2013, and a shameless appeal to ethnic and tribal instincts.

Just as the Nigeria state has operated a total of nine constitutions in less than a hundred years of its history without sailing to nowhere with them, simply because they are all products of the amalgamation constitution of 1914. The political parties are no different. I make bold to say, non of Nigeria political parties was form with a clear intention, a political ideology or with an authentic blueprint of transforming the country for better. This is because from the onset the goals: how society should be organized and the methods: the most appropriate way to achieve this goal is not usually defined. This is because the driving forces are often the desire to become a founder or to become a leader of a party and to have power for the sake of power.

Little wonder, Tolu Ogunlesi emphatically opined that “All political parties in Nigeria share the same DNA.” Quoting Salihu Mohammed Lukman in his book “2015: Manifesto of Nigerian Opposition Politics” Ogunlesi argued that “the AD, the precursor of the CAN, was founded by a group of South-Western PDM members; the PDM is the same platform that produced the PDP, and the APP which became the ANPP, from which the CPC broke off in 2010” sequel to this it could easily be argued that what we have in the APC is simply a reconstruction of old alliances (NPC and AG of November 1954); really old wine in old but re-labelled bottles. Even the scripture made it clear: a house divided against itself cannot stand.

With the formation of APC in February 2013 through an alliance by Nigeria’s four opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) – merged to take on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Many thought the Messiah has finally arrived. But with the way things are unfolding, we are left to desire nothing again. Reading from Okey Ndibe “What Do APC, Nigeria Leaders Stand For?” he raised two fundamental question: “what exactly does APC stand for? or in what significant way does the APC represent an alternative vision for Nigerian” to the above questions he answered “I don’t know and its hard, if not impossible to say respectively”

Succinctly, the mark of a true leader is not one who surrounds himself/herself with empty praise singers but one who respond to a major adversity. According to Ndibe “Great leaders separate themselves from the pack of pretenders when they are tested by crises. The APC advertises itself as the antidote to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s lethargy, inertia, and incompetence. We’re told that, come 2015, all we do is replace the PDP with the APC-and, pronto, our headaches would vanish; we’d usher in an era of superb statecraft and surpassing leadership.” If this were so, what’s stopped the APC in tracks at this moment of grave danger and opportunity? He asked, and continuing he asked, “Why has the party failed to rise to the challenge of defining itself as serious opposition body-and doing so by proposing tough, credible solutions to Nigeria’s festering malaise?”

In what seem to be a response to the above questions, John Odigie Oyegun, the National Chairman of APC in his welcome address at the party’s extraordinary convention in Abuja, on Wednesday October 29^th, reminded Nigerians that “the only reason the PDP has resorted to dangerous, divisive politics is because they have nothing to showcase to Nigerians to convince them to return the PDP to power at the centre come next year. In all spheres of life, Nigeria is worse off today that it was in 1999, when the PDP first assumed office.” Furthermore, Oyegun concluded, “Now, our party, the APC, truly cares, we care about our citizens. We care about our youth. We care about our elderly. We are ready to restore hope to our traumatized people. We are programmed to return Nigeria to the path of growth and development, create jobs, modernize infrastructure and make life more abundant for ourselves. For those who say there is no difference between us [the] and the other party (people like me I suppose) simply tell them that wherever APC is in government, services run efficiently and lives are saved. Take for instance the success stories of the governments of Lagos and Rivers states that successfully halted the outbreak of Ebola that could have devastated the entire country.

If wishes were horses surely beggars will ride they say. If indeed APC has given us a clear method of achieving all these goals, Nigeria will be great again. Granted the APC controlled state did so nicely in the fight against Ebola, but not without of the support of the PDP at the centre. More Nigerians may have died between 1999 and now than at any other time, no thanks to book haram, Oyegun opined that the government has no clue as to how to end the killings” and I asked what has the APC been able to do in the APC controlled Borno state to convince Nigerians that they have answer to our nations insecurity. May be Audu Ogbeh’s argument that APC remained the only party that have clearly demonstrated their dissatisfaction over the kidnapped school girls through the campaign of some of its members tagged “Bring Back Our Girls” just to analyze a few.

I am an ardent supporter of an opposition party with a clearly defined political ideology; how society should be organized and the most appropriate way to achieving it. A similar democracy like USA has since 1778 had only a single constitution and had prominently managed two political parties, which in most cases are oppose to each other in policies for the good of the country. So what is going on in Nigeria’s case? Is it that all along the political parties have not been able to articulate what we really want the country to be, or that we have simply been experimenting with party gerrymandering? Whether deliberate or not, with evidence on ground APC obviously is sailing to nowhere. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in, unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.”