The All Progressives Congress (APC) came to power in 2015 on a mantra of change. Six years after, the party appears to be toeing the same path that led to the fall of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). EMMANUEL BADEJO examines some of the reasons why the popularity and general acceptability of the party is dwindling
Developments within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in recent months suggest that all is not well with the ruling party at the centre. The Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) has been trying to stem the tide of internal wrangling since it took over the management of the party over a year ago. Indications do not suggest that the party would get out of the woods soon.
Since the country returned to civil rule 22 years ago, no political party has gotten the issue of internal democracy right. After 16 years as the governing party at the federal level, issues pertaining to internal democracy led to the fall of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was ‘anointed’ by some powerful forces within the military, ostensibly to appease the people of the Southwest for the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, governed the country with iron fists; as a retired military general. Then, PDP prided itself as the largest political party in Africa.
At the height of its power and might, the party arrogantly projected it was going to rule for 60 years, irrespective of its performance in government. But, the projection was cut short in 2015, after 16 years in the saddle that was generally characterized by the good, bad and ugly times.
Though many Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief at the coming of the new political dispensation, their joy was soon cut short, as the family of the ruling party started to disintegrate due to internal wrangling and power play within the fold. What started like boardroom politics, eventually consumed the party. While the executive became lawless, the legislature was bent on having its way at all cost, as the judiciary’s independence was threatened.
In the height of its fame and popularity, impunity was the order of the day. The opposition was weak; within the same party, many camps emerged that filled that void. But, many of these camps did not have the interest of Nigerians at heart; most of the promoters were driven by selfish interests and ambition.
As these issues became rampant in the political landscape, many observers warned of the imminent danger. But, the early warning signals seemed not to make any noticeable impact. The voice of division became so loud and that led to strained relationships within the party. Consequently, some of those who were uncomfortable pulled out and joined forces with the opposition. In fact, it was the rebellion by some of its governors and their supporters who teamed up with the then newly-formed APC that eventually led to the party’s defeat.
The fall of PDP from power was not entirely because of its poor performance while in government alone. The political misadventure of the former ruling party was more responsible for its fall from the Olympian height to the abyss of helplessness and hopelessness that is the PDP today.
Read Also: Conduct national convention, APC Govs tell Buni
PDP’s dominance was enhanced greatly by its manipulation of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). INEC was manipulated by the PDP-controlled executive through coercion and monetary gratification. Security agencies were deployed to serve the partisan interest of the PDP and not the interest of Nigerians.
Elections became largely a symbolic exercise, for the coronation of PDP candidates whose emergence has nothing to do with the choice of the electorates. In a system heavily-rigged in favour of the then ruling party, votes of the people do not always count.
Also, the PDP was torn apart due to alleged violation of the zoning and rotation arrangement within the party by former President Goodluck Jonathan by his insistence on a second term, against the gentleman agreement he had with the North to do only one term in 2011. This, in the view of many observers, distorted the equitable distribution of loot and skewed it in favour of his Niger Delta region.
It was the division within the party created by those opposed to his re-election that helped to make the APC a formidable opposition party in the history of the Fourth Republic. With a considerably weakened party and an extreme neo-liberal economic practice, which enriched a few and impoverished the vast majority, the PDP was easily defeated by the opposition coalition.
As a result, the centre could not hold; the festering crises ate the fabric in most of the states, leading to factionalisation of the party. The party was split in the middle in most states, with two chairmen and parallel congresses most of the time. Its downfall came sooner than expected because reconciliatory moves could not pacify the gladiators. In the end, the house collapsed.
Two years before PDP’s fall, APC was formed. Specifically, the party was formed on February 6, 2013, in anticipation of the 2015 elections.
It came through a merger of the country’s three biggest 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). The three political parties organized their conventions and passed resolutions giving the go-ahead to forgo their individual identities and merge into one big party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
APC’s candidate Muhammadu Buhari eventually won the presidential election by almost 2.6 million votes. The then-incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat on March 31. President Buhari also re-contested in 2019 and won. The 2015 victory was so significant because it was the first time in Nigeria’s political history that an opposition party would unseat a governing party in a general election and one in which power transferred peacefully from one political party to another.
With its slogan ‘change’, the APC also won the majority of seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the 2015 elections, though it fell shy of winning a super-majority to override the ability of the PDP to block legislation.
Though, its coming was greeted with much ecstasy, six years down the line, observers are worried that the APC is losing its steam and that it is far from delivering on its electoral promises. It has been from one crisis to another, though the party has been denying several calls by the ‘town-criers’.
But, soon after assuming power, crisis started rearing its head. Their differences led to the exit of former National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. His successor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was also forced to vacate office under controversial circumstances. The party also lost a few states to the opposition due to the inability to quell internal differences among some gladiators.
Read Also: What APC can learn from Supreme Court judgment
Also, the recent congresses held in all the state chapters have further lent credence to deep intra-party rivalries, which some have said may lead to the party’s fall soon, except drastic and sincere efforts are deployed to arrest the situation.
While party bigwigs are divided over the recent Supreme Court verdict on the constitutionality or otherwise of the National Caretaker Committee headed by Gov. Mai Mala Buni, state chapters are grappling with noticeable divisions in the ranks of the party faithful.
Zoning is also causing some form of disquiet within the party. Discordant tunes have been trailing the ward congresses of the party in Rivers, Bayelsa, Osun and Akwa Ibom states.
In a fresh legal tussle in the Rivers State APC, the faction loyal to Senator Magnus Abe has secured a court injunction stopping the congresses in the Southsouth state.
In Bayelsa, a chieftain of the party, Mr. Sunday Frank-Oputu, explained why the state High Court stopped the conduct of the ward congress in the wake of the suit by some aggrieved members.
In Akwa Ibom, the State Caretaker Working Committee (SWC) has been compelled to wield the big stick by suspending 17 local government caretaker chairmen and two other members over alleged anti-party activities. Chieftains of the party have also passed a vote of no confidence on the National Caretaker Secretary, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe.
Meanwhile, in Osun State, a group within the APC, Progressive Minded People (PMP), has accused the “Ilerioluwa” faction of buying up the over 18, 000 forms dispatched to the state for the recent ward congresses.
All of these, political observers said, are capable of affecting the fortune of the party come 2023.
Sensing danger ahead, President Buhari had warned loyalists not to allow the party to become history after his exit in 2023. Indeed, with the unfolding drama within the ruling party, observes say the APC is exhibiting similar traits that led to the fall of the PDP.
National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu used the opportunity of the sacking of Oshiomhole to warn fellow party faithful of the threat to the corporate existence of the APC because of the political ambitions of some members.
In the widely publicised statement titled, “Becoming the Party We Were Intended to Be,” Tinubu lamented that despite the economic challenges confronting the country, some party leaders failed to reflect on its burden on the Buhari administration, but chose to focus on elective offices they want to occupy from 2023.
He said: “Our task as a party is to build upon the progress thus made, so that both nation and the party may advance to their better future. Yet, we must acknowledge that something important has gone off track.”
Although Tinubu then dismissed the claim of the party’s fall he, however, noted that the party was not where it ought to be.
Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has warned that the party may lose power in 2023, if nothing is done to reverse the ugly trend in the party. His words: “If nothing is not urgently done to re-position its leadership the party may lose its hold on power in 2023.”
On the problems bedevilling political parties, Okorocha said: “What has been our challenge in Nigeria is that we don’t really have a common vision and common ideology for our political parties.
“So, until we have such a political party that is more like a family in their belief, then we are still growing our democracy. Talking about what happened in Edo State, it was unfortunate but a true political party cannot work against itself.
“This is why I expressed my concern that if we are not very careful, the APC might go with Buhari in 2023, and that will be a very unfortunate situation for the founding fathers of APC. The party needs to show purposeful leadership and show character.”
Leave a Reply