Just as everyone predicted, APC has finally become PDP

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has become the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – the same party that the former emerged to defeat. It appeared the goal was met, seeing as APC is now the ruling party and PDP has been too busy desperately trying to put its house in order that it hasn’t made any remarkable promise of a comeback. A lot has happened to bring this on and put them in the intensive care unit they clearly are now in (to borrow from former President Obasanjo’s book of comments). But nothing else could have sealed the deal the way that APC Chieftain, Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s scathing statement against party chairman, John Oyegun now has.

Chief Bola Tinubu has managed to be involved in most the battles. It only makes sense; that is, if we are going by PDP precedent. Or wasn’t it the party leaders that brought that one down? It always starts with an ill-concealed friction between or among certain individuals within the party which then makes a messy big reveal under circumstances where no trouble would have dared to rear its head otherwise. That big reveal happened in the most recent war of words between the National leader and Party chairman of APC. Tinubu’s press release about what he calls Oyegun’s Ondo fraud drips of his seething at Oyegun’s position and use of power. How else can one explain the following excerpt from Tinubu’s statement.

“There exists a regressive element in the party that cares nothing for the progressive ideas upon which this party was founded. They joined the APC because it was the best ride available at the time. Now they want to guide the party into the ditch. They want to turn the party into a soulless entity incapable of doing good, just like they are.  When such a person tastes power, they shed all good restraint. They come to abuse the trust given them as if they are the owners of that trust and not its mere custodians. These people did little to build the party but now will do much to wreck it.”

But is John Oyegun the only “regressive element” that has turned Tinubu’s party inside out? Certainly not.

Saraki

The story here is that the internal feud between third citizen, Senator Bukola Saraki and Tinubu started when the former trumped the latter’s Vice Presidential ambitions. As credible as that story might be, it seems like such a long time ago, so we’ll focus on the more recent battles. Meaning the race to Senate Presidency. While that battle (another one lost by Chief Bola Tinubu by the way) might have appeared to be between Senator Saraki and his backers on one hand and Tinubu and his candidate(s) on the other; there were underlying currents of ethnic and religious tensions reminiscent of the ‘zoning’ issues that characterise PDP’s slow decline.

The Presidency was already Northern-Muslim/South-western-Christian. When the time came select a Senate Presidential favourite from within the APC and Tinubu presented Akume, there was no surprise that Saraki, a North-central-Muslim, was a more popular choice. The APC national leader could not have exerted any pressure to get what he wanted in the face of popular opposition. The party wanted a ‘balanced’ National leadership in terms of religion, tribal and geographical distribution. They got that by zoning but they seemed to have forgotten how the same zoning of official roles caused the tension and rift with former ruling part, PDP.

Zoning might well be a constant in Nigerian politics but playing it just as the PDP does appears to have cost more than the APC can afford.

And if the in party rifts were not enough, Senator Saraki made sure to reinforce the cracks by taking it up a notch to within the actual administration.

After the APC acknowledged the beginnings of internal crisis by saying the party was ready to move on from the legislative leadership troubles, Saraki decided to stir up more trouble by publicly affronting Buhari’s leadership. He decided that the Presidency was behind  the allegations of forgery (of the Senate Standing Rules) levelled against him by the Attorney General of the Federation back in June. Saying that there was a cabal within the Buhari-led administration was not only an affront to the President, it also sent another signal that all was not well within the party. And even if we were to assume – going by photos of the two Presidents praying together and looking at peace- that all is now well, it would appear that the opposite is true. Senate President Saraki has again publicly shaded the the PMB-led executive by saying that they are yet to come up with any concrete plans to bring Nigeria out of its economic recession and that he would join anyone to predict that things will soon be fine – a view commonly held by President Buhari and his cabinet.

APC losing public confidence

Beyond internal crisis, there’s nothing that marks the decline of a ruling party more than rumours of factional breakaways. In this, PDP and APC are already tied. Although, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has doused the rumours that he plans to form a new party on which platform he’d contest for the Presidency in 2019, we know better. This is a man whose ambition for the Presidency has seen him break off strong relationships he’s had – with former President Obasanjo and his old party PDP. Starting a new party is about the only thing left for to do.

But this is not just about former Vice President Atiku. If he does go on (anyone else for that matter) to form a new party off of APC’s strong membership, thenthe end will certainly come sooner for APC than it did for PDP which had 16 years to stay strong before APC managed to secure a national win. What a factional break off will do is to weaken APC’s base at the very least. Worst still, they lose (even further) the public confidence they whipped up for themselves during last election’s campaigns.

It also doesn’t help that the APC-led leadership hasn’t been citizen’s favourite lately. From the recession to the constant blame game and then the ‘Change begins with you the citizens’ campaign that ruined itself from the start with a plagiarised speech.

At a time like this when an administration is fast losing the confidence of its people, what it needs is consolidated efforts at re-positioning from its party leadership. But everything that has transpired within APC since they won the elections points to the fact that President Buhari’s leadership is on it’s own. His approval ratings have nose dived from 70% to 68% and finally 48% in July. Not good. At all.

And all of these just point to one thing- a ruling party that can scarcely hold itself together.

Comments (2)

  1. its because mr T was nt around when PMB delivered his presidential speech, which states i quote I BELONG TO EVERYBODY AND BELONG TO NOBODY, lol

  2. It did not completely become like PDP, but it takes the path; YES, it’s on the way.

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