Friday, 2 August 2013

APC: A new dawn sets in

Now that the All Progressives Congress has been registered, the battle for positions and the party’s tickets have begun in earnest, writes JOHN ALECHENU
After several months of speculation, mischief and subtle blackmail, the Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday registered the All Progressives Congress.
The decision by INEC to register the APC puts to rest speculation that the electoral umpire was under Executive pressure not to accept a request by the Action Congress of Nigeria, the All Nigeria Peoples Party and the Congress for Progressive Change, to fuse into one.
A statement by INEC’s outgoing Secretary, Abdullahi Kaugama, on Wednesday reads, “The Independent National Electoral Commission has approved the application by three political parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, and the Congress for Progressive Change – to merge into one, to be known as the All Progressives Congress.
“On considering the application, the commission found that the applicant-parties have met all statutory requirements for the merger, and has accordingly granted their request.
“Consequently, the commission has approved the withdrawal of the individual certificates of the applicant-parties, and the issuance of a single certificate to the All Progressives Congress.”
Observers are beginning to ask whether Nigeria is slowly, but surely moving back to the golden era of the two party system, which the Third Republic was known for.
That era produced the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention as the dominant political parties.
Hopes built around the success of this system came crashing when the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida-led administration annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
The late Chief MKO Abiola emerged as the acclaimed winner of the poll described as Nigeria’s most transparent election till date.
Even though there were other platforms, Nigerians were given two clear and almost equally matched political parties to choose from.
Many say Nigerians now have an alternative party to choose from.
Perhaps gone are the days when a PDP ticket could guarantee one a seat at the state or federal level.
However, a beneficiary of the politics of that era and former governor of old Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, does not share this optimism.
According to him, the APC is not an alternative that Nigerians should invest their aspirations on. This, he said, is because just like the PDP, the APC is not based on ideology.
“We are not looking at the return of the SDP/ NRC era at all because then it was a little to the right and a little to the left. The two parties then were based on ideology. Neither the PDP nor the APC is based on any ideology,” Ezeife said.
Hopefully, elections would now be based on performance rather than individual, ethnic or religious sentiments.
The threat posed by the new party to the dominance of the ruling PDP is not lost on some leading figures within the party. The Chairman of the PDP BoT, Chief Tony Anenih, first acknowledged this threat publicly at a party function in Asaba, Delta State, early this year.
He said opposition parties, which were at that time seeking to register the APC, had hijacked the Nigerian Governors’ Forum. This alarm prompted the PDP to float the PDP Governors’ Forum. Anenih also urged the party faithful not to live under the illusion that the PDP was invincible.
He had said, “We must not labour under the illusion that we can be spectators in the bold and necessary drama of national reconstruction, or, worse still, align with those who seek power for its own sake rather than for the good of our people.
“We, therefore, have a strategic obligation to put our house in order so as to sustain the peace which we have enjoyed in the last 14 years.
“We must always be conscious that if the PDP becomes fragmented as a result of the inordinate ambitions of a few members, our country, our democracy and our people will suffer.
“We must, subsume our ambitions under the greater good of our party and our country.
“The proposed merger of some political parties under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress, appears to be a house built on sand, which is likely to collapse with the first rain.
“Speaking seriously, however, we cannot afford to be complacent. We must expect any eventualities and prepare to overcome them.”
Promoters of the new political party are undaunted as their expectations and optimism remain high.
The erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the now defunct CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, captured the mood among the promoters of the APC
He said, “They said we would not agree on a logo, we did. They said we wouldn’t agree on a constitution, manifesto and interim leaders and every step of the way, we proved them wrong.
“I can assure you that in a free and fair contest which we hope we will have in 2015, the PDP will have a taste of politics as an opposition party.”
The question now is, can the political parties that fused shed the weight of the overbearing influence of their leading figures, who some say, have become synonymous with the parties they once promoted?
Many believe that the influence of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu on who becomes a candidate for an election is legendary.
His image looms so large that he was reported to have personally nominated the governors of five out of the six states in the South-West.
The states are Lagos, Osun, Ogun,Ekiti, and Oyo. The same is said to be the case of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Former Head-of-State, Maj.-Gen Mohammadu Buhari, the founder of the CPC, was accused of trying to do the same in the party but he failed.
Political observers argue that Buhari’s gamble cost the party dearly during the 2011 general elections.
The party, which before the election lost states like Kano and Katsina when the party’s intervention rejected acclaimed winners of their primaries.
His supporters in the new party say it is either Buhari or no one else in 2015.
Now that he has joined others to form a new political party, will he sacrifice this ambition and ignore calls by his supporters for the survival of the party?
It is also a fact that the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in the 2011 election, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, still harbours an ambition.
Can these known aspirants and many others in the background seek the greater good and queue behind a more charismatic leader to give the ruling PDP a run for its money?
It is not known how these varying political interests will be able to moderate the ambitions of their leaders to give Nigerians the alternative they have waited for.
A source in one of the political parties, which fused into the APC, confided in our correspondent that promoters of the APC were aware of the challenges ahead.
He said, “We know where we are coming from. The antecedents of the people we are associating with today are well known.
“You think we didn’t know what we were doing when we agreed to sit together with people like Buhari who gave some of our leaders lengthy jail sentences as a military ruler? And Nuhu Ribadu, who as the EFCC chairman, hounded some of us under the guise of fighting corruption?
“When the time comes, everyone will be put in his proper place. Thank God we have passed the first major test which is registration.”
It promises to be the height of political sagacity to see how, the three merging parties will get their acts together to give the PDP which some argue has lost a lot of goodwill a run for its money.
Will Buhari be allowed to contest for the Presidency for the 4th time under the APC or would he jettison his personal ambition in the interest of the party.
Will the Jagaban Borgu as Tinubu is fondly called by some of his supporters, allow for free, fair and credible primaries to decide who will fly the party flags in the 2015 elections?
These are questions that only the party leadership can answer.
Political observers argue that no matter the situation, the PDP can bid the days of a near one party state goodbye because a reinvigorated opposition party appears to be the beautiful bride.
Whether INEC’s registration of the APC will usher in an era of genuine political contest remains to be seen