Iguess it is right to congratulate the All Progressive Congress (APC) on a successful registration of her members. While any willing defunct member of the legacy parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for Democratic Change, the All Nigeria Political Party and a stump of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, not to talk of the so called New PDP, were entitled to lay claim to membership of the new party, the APC; the recent registration exercise offered an opportunity for the party to separate the wheat from the chaff. APC deserves commendation for that peaceful and well organized exercise, particularly the wisdom in having clusters of members registered around the election polling centers.
As Newspapers and Television stations showed the pictures of the politically sagacious Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the itinerant politician and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the ultra-conservative ramrod, retired General Muhammadu Buhari, former anti-corruption czar, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Governor Rochas Okorocha among several others, with their new party cards, smiling into the cameras; it was evident that President Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are up against a rainbow coalition of political interests. What is now expected is for APC to organize its party conventions from the wards to national level, before dealing with the politically hazardous excise of electing the party’s presidential candidate.
Regardless of the huge challenges ahead, the maturing of APC as an alternative party to the PDP is fundamental to the stability of our democracy. Of course, this column does not agree to the argument, that, based on the concept of power shift, it is the turn of the northern Nigeria to produce a presidential candidate, considering their near monopoly of that position for decades, since our independence. But with APC seemingly settled to produce a northern presidential candidate, it is hoped that such a candidate will be one that will have electoral appeal beyound the core-north and the south-west regions where the party is strongest. It will be a political quandary for the party’s supporters if a member of the ancien regime or a religious fanatic emerges as the APC’s presidential candidate in 2015.
While congratulating APC, the party leadership must realize that it has a lot more work to do, to successfully attract majority of non-partisan Nigerians, who are desirous of change, as the party’s political slogan postulates. The reason for the present lack of enthusiasm on the part of such Nigerians to join APC can be attributed to the crisscrossing and cross-carpeting going on across party lines, which has blurred the lines between what the PDP and the APC stands for. Ordinarily, with the PDP’s baggage of under-performance in the past years, despite our nation’s potentials, the APC’s registration exercise should have witnessed a more momentous registration of more members that would have made the 2015 elections a mere canonization exercise. Presently, it is likely that it was substantially members of the legacy parties and few enthusiasts that may have registered. More potential members will be waiting to see the political priorities of the new party.
So the future of a virile APC as a political movement lies in the party being able to hammer out clear core principles, which must show their uncompromising desire to march the citizens to a new Nigeria. As some friends who consider this column to be an APC sympathizer, mocked me recently; if former President Obasanjo will be the party’s navigator, towards the 2015 elections, then what is the difference between the PDP and the APC? My answer is as I have previously argued regarding the emergence of APC; that, while I wished the new party had gone a different route, the fact that we have two strong political parties in the country, squaring against each other, is a huge leap from where we were. Over time, the pressure arising from the stiff competition between the two political parties will compel the elected officials to give Nigerians a better deal.
Another lesson from APC’s membership registration exercise is that with astute planning, the twin challenges of census and voter registration exercise, needed for a free and fair election can be surmounted. While no doubt, census and voter registration is a more demanding exercise at a larger scale, than the membership registration exercise of a political party, yet, it shows that with adequate planning and provision of materials, the shame associated with our census and voter registration exercise can be surmounted. Should the requisite authorities deal adequately with our census and voter registration, the issue of rigging of elections will substantially diminish and real democracy will flourish.
And if we have free and fair elections, the polity will witness more accountability in governance and also issue related election contests. Also, more qualified candidates will emerge. No doubt, many potential candidates for elective positions are scared away from the system, because of the current opacity. Strangely, none of the parties have shown an unmistakable determination to pursue a free and fair election. The common believe out there is that all the parties try to rig elections, believing that if you sit idly bye, the other party, especially the dominate party will continuously rig itself into power. Now that there seems a near parity in muscles between the APC and PDP, it is time to move over to contest of ideas.
As the APC spring up new innovations, like the recent transparent membership registration exercise, the challenge facing the PDP is to attempt to match them on ideas. The claim by the PDP that APC’s registration exercise is phony, and is in preparation for disputation when the party looses the 2015 elections, is unfounded. What Nigerians earnestly desire is a contest of ideas, not blackmail.
