The last day of last month, 31.07.13, will remain historic in
Nigeria. It was the first time that a real merger of opposition parties
was achieved in the country without the government decreeing it. In fact, the
government appeared to have worked against it. INEC announced the birth of the
long-awaited All Progressives Congress (APC) to a nationwide excitement and
media blitz. With the way the news was accepted all across Nigeria, you’d be
forgiven to think that an election had just been won. INEC’s rating went up
immediately. Ordinary people who are not politicians started sending text
messages around congratulating themselves. And I noticed something also
curious: some known card-carrying PDP members also joined in the celebration.
I have been an exponent of a political system that has two dominant
parties. I am repeating an article I wrote on this page on May 24, 2010, on the
matter. There are also several others. I have always advocated that only that
kind of system can guarantee the survival of democracy so properly defined in
Nigeria. I was beginning to despair that Nigeria would inexorably end up like
Egypt or Syria or Libya if the trend continued. These countries had a single
leader or family at the helm for decades and it was the frustration of the people,
in spite of the fact that the leaders provided good leadership, that inevitably
led to the implosion. In the case of Nigeria, it was not a single leader but a
single bungling political party that has threatened to enslave the country for
60 years. The PDP held Nigeria on the jugular using its overwhelming spread to
rig elections and steal the nation’s resources, using the EFCC to kidnap
opponents, and sometimes impeach duly elected governors with impunity. It was
clear that the Nigerian nation was inching steadily towards an implosion worse
than the Arab Spring by the time the merger eventually happened.
On the obverse side, people were frustrated with the nation’s opposition
which did not even appear to know that their best interest and that of the nation
lay in their fusing to form a platform that would be strong enough to win
national elections. National elections are won by strong political parties and
not by alliances of puny groups. Individually, it was possible for them to win
local elections and even a few governorship seats. But there was no way they
could win the presidential election the way they were. People despised the
opposition and many Nigerians saw no reason in coming out to vote in
presidential elections because it was clear to the discerning that the
opposition did not have the critical mass to win at the national stage. The PDP
didn’t need to rig to win presidential elections but they rigged anyway.
Winning in politics is about simple arithmetic and perception. People would
come out to vote and most importantly defend those votes if they thought the
political party they voted for had a chance to win.
But the Nigerian situation was even more straightforward. All the
opposition needed (and still needs) is to find an anti-rigging formula that
works countrywide. And this should not be difficult to find with a little
more thinking and strategising. The PDP is already dangerously unpopular and
the 2015 presidential election is APC’s to lose. The APC quickly needs to
present itself to the Nigerian people as totally and completely different from
the PDP, and, fortunately, that should not be difficult to achieve at all. In
the next election, it must not be a choice between PDP and a new PDP. APC must
be decidedly different. The APC must make itself the party the people can fight
for.
But it will also be important for the godfathers of the APC to know that
the party can lose very easily in 2015. I have a friend who despises the PDP
people for all they have done to Nigeria since coming to power in 1999. But he
has not shown any excitement since APC was registered last week. When I asked
him why, his candid response was that he would reserve his excitement until he
sees the APC’s presidential ticket at the due time. The majority of the
nation’s critical elite still have this mindset. But, again, if APC leaders who
have done so well so far by agreeing on a name, party symbol, slogan, and
interim executives are still the same leaders, then it will be reasonable to
extrapolate that they will also subsume their personal interests when it comes
to the ultimate prize. APC leaders are proudly aware that the Nigerian people
have adopted their party as stakeholders and they are enjoying it.
Meanwhile, this is also time for the PDP to up its game and clean itself
up. Some of their leaders should stop this nonsense that the APC will not last.
Is that a manifesto? They have been saying this since the idea of merger was
mooted anyway and the APC has lasted. In spite of the challenges of disparity
and essential differences between the merging partners, they have come up with
a name – a good one for that matter – agreed on party symbols and slogans, and
a good interim executive team to boot. The PDP should stop praying that the APC
does not last because that is not the kind of prayer that God answers. They
should instead redesign their party to become more people-friendly. Democracy
is about competition and that just started. Ladies and gentlemen, the
game is on!
EARSHOT
A Rascal Should Not Be Chairman Of NPC
In more serious countries, people like Festus Odimegwu do not get near
public office. But Odimegwu, who should have been left in his beer parlour at
the Nigerian Breweries Plc, has been appointed to one of the most critical
national institutions: chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC). He
had hardly taken his seat at the chairman’s office when he started saying that
the north of Nigeria was over-counted in the last population census. How did he
know? Was he among the people that did the enumeration during that census?
Odimegwu spoke with the confidence of one who has been assigned to do a
hatchet man’s job at his present station by President Jonathan. If the
president did not “send him”, then, the right thing he should do is fire the
man immediately. No public officeholder makes that kind of divisive statement
in a country that is already delicately divided. And Nigeria should, most
definitely, not have a place for such irresponsible people at these uncertain
and insecure times. Only people who are fair, just and sensitive should aspire
to higher office in this country. And Festus or whatever he calls himself is
certainly not a candidate for high office, considering the fact that even the
brewery house where he worked had to ask him to resign because of his
disgraceful role in Obasanjo’s third term scam. If President Jonathan is not
going to fire the rascal because they are in cahoots, then, the National
Assembly should quickly wade in to save this country a crisis that it may never
get out of.
Leadership
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