by Eric Osagie
However, for many Nigerians, who do not belong to any political party, the nagging questions have been: Can they? Can this APC kill our pains, cure our headaches? Do they have what it takes to take us to Eldorado as they have promised?
Like in the case of a new baby, joy and a sense of triumphalism heralded the birth of the newly registered All Progressives Congress, APC, last week. In many parts of the country, party faithful, friends and well-wishers clinked glasses, pumped hands and engaged in bear hugs. You couldn’t blame them. It had been a long, tortuous journey for the merging parties, filled with all sorts of thorns strewn on their path by those who certainly did not wish them well.
There had been fight with some other groups, which suddenly emerged from the shadows, laying claim to the APC acronym. There had also been allegation that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, deploying its federal might, had also sought to ensure the new party’s still birth, by allegedly piling pressures on Attahiru Jega, the professor, who heads the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to frustrate APC’s emergence.
After heated moments of shadow-boxing, acerbic verbal exchanges and all-what-not, the APC finally got its registration through. In essence, the party had made history as the first- ever merger executed by the opposition in Nigeria. What the nation had witnessed in the past had been alliances and coalitions. In the present scenario, the parties had willingly died for the birth of a new baby. The Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the Muhammadu Buhari-led Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, as well as the All-Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP and some individuals in the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, had surrendered their parties’ existence for a more formidable mega party to challenge the octopus PDP, which has ruled the nation in the 14 years of our current democratic experiment. 2015 is the date the old war horse (PDP) and the new bull (APC) go to war. Who wins, who loses? Who blinks first in the forthcoming eye ball-to-eye ball contest? The answer, as usual, lies solidly buried in the womb of time. And fortunately, that time is not too far away.
APC says it is the change Nigeria needs. APC, its promoters also claim, will restore Nigeria to Nigerians; provide the conducive atmosphere for the realisation of individual and collective aspirations, by providing the basic essentials of life for the teeming majority: Electricity, security, employment, rural-urban renewal, housing, food and all the good things that make life worth living. Those things commonly referred to, in this part of the world, as dividends of democracy. Those things, the new party claims, the PDP has precisely denied the people in the 14 years or thereabout it has been in power at the centre and many parts of the country.
The primary reason for the birth and berth of APC in our shores, if we go by the pronouncements of the chief promoters and key officials of the party, even before its registration, is to send the PDP packing from the centre and the states. It promises to be killer of all the pains Nigerians have been experiencing in the hands of the PDP. Vote APC and your worries are over, the party sings. With APC, your life will be better, they also chant.
However, for many Nigerians, who do not belong to any political party, the nagging questions have been: Can they? Can this APC kill our pains, cure our headaches? Do they have what it takes to take us to Eldorado as they have promised? What do I think of the chances of the new party, wresting power, especially at the federal level, from the much-touted ‘largest party in Africa?’
Before offering my thoughts on the above posers, we must agree that our nation is not where it should be, 53 years after the Union Jack was lowered for our green-white flag. Yes, it is true, we spent a major part of our nationhood under the military, which set us back tremendously. For over 30 of our 53 years, we were under the khaki guys, who looted the treasury while pretending to be after looters. But has the last 14 years under civilians been much better? Is looting not still going on? With over three trillion naira believed to be gone in the subsidy fraud and billions of dollars allegedly spirited under a so-called electricity project, and billions also unaccounted for in our shady oil transactions over the years, you will agree that we have been floating on the bowels of stench since the present democratic dispensation.
Then, add to these, how frustrating life has been for the majority; the army of unemployed graduates, strutting our streets in search of non-existent jobs; the perennially plummeting standard of living (less than a dollar a day); the abject poverty ravaging many homes; the poor state of infrastructure, including roads and health, among others, you do not need anyone to tell you that Nigerians are going through pain, amidst the loud and ostentatious lifestyles of key democratic players and officials of state at all tiers of government.
A recent report by the influential Economist says our lawmakers and ministers are the highest paid government functionaries in the world, with remuneration, averaging N50 million monthly when all other perks are added. And this is a democracy where many states are finding it difficult, paying the national minimum wage of a paltry N18,000. And this is a country that is the sixth largest oil-producing nation on earth? Where’s our oil money gone?
The good, old Professor Tam David-West, an academic of repute and a social critic, says we should henceforth stop deceiving ourselves by describing Nigeria as a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Rather, he suggests, we should be bidding for the presidency of OPIC (Organisation of Petroleum Importing Countries) since we are leading importers of petroleum products despite our huge crude deposits, one of the largest in the world. Prof. is absolutely right. Corruption killed our ability to refine our products. Corruption is the demon afflicting our oil industry. Corruption is killing our nation. But who cares?
What I have been driving at is simple: Under the ruling PDP at the centre, things have really got messed up. If the nation is not working, we have PDP to hold accountable for the rot, being the party in power. I am not saying there are no PDP states putting smiles on the faces of Nigerians, places where democracy is yielding dividends for the people. Akwa Ibom is one, Jigawa, Gombe are also there, and a few other states. But overall, the performance of PDP since 1999 has not yielded much positive impact on the people in spite of the chest-thumping exercise of party stalwarts, friends, cronies and beneficiaries of those who have been close to the corridors of power. And this is the truth, if truth still counts here.
So, naturally, a new party should excite the people, who yearn for a change, with the hope that change will bring with it development, progress and a better life. Now, can the APC kill the pains in our heart and our land? Can they wrest power from the entrenched forces in the land? My answer: Yes, APC can, only if it will do the right things. If only it will avoid the pitfalls of the PDP; if only it will start to tell itself the truth and accept the truth, no matter how bitter.
First, the party must begin from the well-founded assumption that many Nigerians really do not see much difference between the operators of the two major parties in the country (PDP and APC). So, they have to work hard to sell their programmes to us, the electorate. How, for example, they hope to tackle corruption, unemployment and electricity problems. For now, not many are convinced that there are no corrupt elements in APC, like in PDP. Not many believe that APC governors are the saints, while PDP governors are the devil’s incarnate. If they truly want to capture the minds of Nigerians, let APC elected officials, especially governors on its platform, begin to live like the people they desire to serve. Frugality, modesty and compassion are the key words. The change must start from within. Example, as the saying goes, is better than precept.
Next is the culture of imposition. That is what has reduced PDP to the level it is today. In its days of glory, godfathers handpicked whoever they liked for positions. That bred resentment and then, rebellion. Rebellion led to people, migrating to other parties. Today, the party is still battling to entrench internal democracy. If the APC continues in the tradition of the defunct ACN, of sometimes imposing candidates or swallowing everything that comes out of the mouth of the ‘Lion of Bourdillon,’ Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as we hear happens or take every word from the lips of Mai Gaskiya, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, that will prove disastrous for the party and interest of Nigerians, who yearn for change promised by the APC.
Fortunately for APC, the news that Asiwaju Tinubu and Gen. Buhari have pledged to set aside their individual egos and ambitions in the interest of the party and Nigerians, is one that gives hope that the battle to rout PDP may yet come to fruition.
Of course, 2015 is do-able if the APC will organise, mobilise and present its ideology of change and progress in a humble, methodical and strategic manner, shun of arrogance. Let them talk to, not at Nigerians. Only APC can stop APC from clinching power in 2015 by what it says and does before 2015; by what its elected governors and officials do and say before 2015. Luckily for them, they control the South-west and Edo; have massive following in North-west and sizeable number of sympathisers in North-east. With a lot more work, they could get some states in the North-central and one more state in the South-south, and that should set them on the victory path. But PDP will not be sleeping. With a fair and firm umpire, guarding against rigging and failing to put its house, ridden with all sorts of crises in order, PDP would be shocked at the outcome of 2015 polls. Again, mother time has the last word!
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
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