Even the diehard sympathisers of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) would be shifting uncomfortably in their seats about its tactics now. They would be wondering what is happening to the goodwill the party enjoyed when it came into being some months ago. Today, a cross section of Nigerians are beginning to doubt whether they did not rejoice too soon when the party crossed the registration hurdle. Many thought albeit wrongly that it would counter the impunity that has become the second name of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Now, if the APC supporters are wondering what has gone wrong, they surely have their reasons. If there is any way to feel this waning goodwill, then the best benchmark was the reaction of a cross section of the people to the directive the party gave its members in the National Assembly that they should frustrate any Executive Bill before the legislature.
Specifically, APC wants its members in the National Assembly to stop the passage of the 2014 Appropriation Bill, the screening of ministerial nominees and also that of service chiefs who have just been appointed by the president. This directive was handed down after the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the party in Abuja about two weeks ago.
The party had hinged its position on what it described as the federal government-instigated siege to Rivers State and the culture of impunity and violation of rights of supporters of the embattled governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi. But many Nigerians felt APC by its directive would only be working towards impoverishing them further by frustrating the passage of the budget.
In the same vein, many felt the party would be indirectly undermining efforts to stem the insecurity in the country if it did not allow the screening of nominees for the offices of service chiefs.
But in an apparent defiance to their party’s directives, senators on the platform of the party participated fully in the screening of the service chiefs and also the debate of the 2014 Appropriation Bill. However, the party said its members in the National Assembly did not disobey it by participating in the sessions. As usual, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party’s spokesman, was at his best to defend the party’s directive.
“We never directed our members in the National Assembly to boycott the Chambers’ Sessions; whether it is screening of appointees or plenary. What we said is that they should block executive bills. In any case, a senator or an honourable member can only filibuster when he is in attendance. Filibuster does not equate to boycott or non-attendance.”
The road to infamy on the path of the APC started long before this ill-advised, combative and power drunk directive to its members in the National Assembly. It actually started from the contrasting character make-ups of the transmuting parties and its pseudo claim to progressivism.
If that could be excused on the grounds of doctrine of necessity, how about APC’s aggressive strategy of wooing elected PDP members with all sorts of carrot to secure a mandate by defection? How about its combative directive that shaves a significant margin off its public esteem? The directive was a desperate response to APC’s failed attempt at hostile takeover of the leadership of the House of Representatives and not about Rivers State as it wants Nigerians to believe. A clear sign of frustration and desperation put together.
Suddenly, any aggrieved member of the PDP is a potential member to be lured into its fold. And suddenly too, almost all PDP House members and Senators now have one grudge or the other against their party that could only be resolved by defecting to the APC.
Membership drive has been focused on winning over same people the legacy parties that merged to form the APC had criticised as lacking principle, blaming them for all of Nigeria’s problems. Those who celebrated its registration are suddenly worried that they may have celebrated too fast. From its public utterances and activities so far, APC and it angry members are already threatening violence if it did not win the presidential election.
In its calculation, if it doesn’t win the election, it means it was rigged. Now, is it the mindset of a party that is preparing to go into an election with a plan to win? It appears the party is not even preparing to contest any of the coming elections. As was the case with the now defunct ACN, APC is already uncovering plots to rig Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, and even the presidential elections that is still one full year away.
Going by its history and tactics, APC may have already prepared a press release condemning the rigging of an election that is still some 12 months away. All APC appears to be interested in is mandate by defection.
Listening to the defence of its otherwise reckless directive and apparently still drunk with the numbers it seems to control in the House of Representatives, APC attacked those who are criticising it for issuing the directive as “either ignorant of the workings of democracy or those who have chosen to play to the gallery for pecuniary gains. Either way these critics have rushed to judgment without even taking time to study the directive, without understanding that governance is about people and without caring about the principles of fairness, justice and equity and they should cover their faces in shame.”
That is APC insulting Nigerians. A party that wants to wrestle power from PDP is already showing itself as no different or even worse than those it wants to oust from power.
Events in the last few months have shown that if there is any difference between the APC and the PDP, it is probably in their names. If you take the likes of Bola Tinubu, Prince Tony Momoh and former Governor Bisi Akande out of the list, what you have in the leadership of the party are political players who, about a year ago were leading members of the ruling PDP who became “aggrieved” genuinely or made up with their party and left in anger and found their way to the APC.
Almost everybody in the APC is walking wounded. Men and women with hate ideology, and experts at propaganda and deceptive politics. Check out their new name on the social media, Angry Peoples Congress, All Pretenders Congress etc. What does that tell the leadership of the party?
Smarting from the public rebuke of its directive, the party allocated zero vote to the police in the 2014 budget. How can that be? As important and fundamental as the police are to the security of societies to human civilization, APC wants to block any budgetary allocation to it because of Rivers State crisis? Nigerians must be weary of this party that appears to act more on impulse than any deep introspection. Its language is pompous, combative and war-like. Its behaviour appears driven by intoxicating liquor as well as its conduct and tactics.
One of the very wrong steps the party took was the visit to former military leaders- Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdusalami Abubakar. The party had gone to woo them over and to serve as pillar of support for it. But nothing compared to the (in)famous voyage to Ota, the country home of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
One of the front row leaders of the APC, Bola Tinubu, had stated that the party was trying to rescue Nigeria from the misrule of the PDP and hence, they wanted Obasanjo as the navigator of that rescue ship.
His words: “We are here because of your courage and salient point. Nobody can dispute the fact that he has information more than you. You have surmounted a number of crises. Nigeria is divided more than before; to realise a stable Nigeria, we want to encourage you to continue to speak the truth. We have resolved and determined to rescue Nigeria, we want you as navigator.”
It was a frightening turn around for Tinubu whose claim to progressive credentials, though deeply flawed, hypocritical, and opportunistic, nothing prepared Nigerians for encomiums he showered on Obasanjo.
As each word came out from his mouth, a mortal injury was dealt the psyche of Nigerians. Is this what politics and desperation turn people to?
Observers like Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, had flayed the APC leaders for choosing Obasanjo as their “navigator”. He said with that type of captain directing the ship, then, they should prepare for a “shipwreck.”
To underscore the desperation of the APC and lack of a clear-cut direction to mobilise the populace to win power from the PDP, most of those they were busy wooing were those same people APC had taken to political cleaners in the past. Same Tinubu had, in December 2011, described Obasanjo as not having any political value and being responsible for most of the ills plaguing the country.
“What integrity has Obasanjo in terms of his legacies for Nigeria to speak on elections? Apart from his aborted third term ambition, he brought about and left a legacy of electoral corruption in the country. What is Obasanjo talking about? He should go away and retire in shame politically. He should leave the political landscape of this country alone. He brought a whole salad of corruption, manipulation and failures.”
Three hundred and sixty degrees turn like this in terms of assessment on the part of APC leaders just to win over ‘new members’ has made many to conclude that the party is only interested in power acquisition rather driving any change.
As one analyst put it recently, there is no way you want to change a situation and your number one change agent would be that same person who was responsible for the alleged rot you are trying to correct. To him, if the only navigator APC leaders could find to drive the ship of change is Obasanjo, then perhaps, Nigerian state does not need a new captain. Otherwise, everyone “should prepare for a shipwreck” to borrow Soyinka’s words.
For its shameless hypocrisy, APC reigns without a rival.
Source: Thisday
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