Opinion: Why the APC should be wary of G-7 governors

by Ado Umar Muhammed

new pdp

As for the dialogue with the president, I wonder why the governors are still unable to see the writing on the wall. The PDP leadership and the president’s advisers have evidently decided to dispense with them.

The commissioning ceremony of Sokoto State University last Tuesday provided the opportunity for notable leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC), including Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to meet with five of the so-called G-7 governors who rebelled against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and are now considering joining forces with the APC.

The fact that this has happened shortly after Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano state had announced in a radio programme that joining APC was one of the four alternatives the rebel governors were considering, is a clear indication that the move may have reached advanced stage, if not for all at least for some of the G-7 governors.

In view of this development, therefore, I found it necessary to once again caution APC leaders on the dire consequences of allowing the G-7 governors to carry their ‘wahala’ into the party. Actually, at this critical period of the party’s evolution to disregard this counsel is akin to a man willingly submitting himself to contract cancer, the dreadful disease that devastates the human body.

Yet that is what leaders of the APC are about to do. The Interim National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, informed the press last Wednesday that they will indeed welcome the PDP governors if they decide to join the party. To me, this is like saying they are ready to do anything and accept any one in the party as long as it would guarantee them power in 2015. In other words, the end justifies the means.

I wish to assure them that if they do that the anarchy that is currently destroying the PDP will sooner than later rear its ugly head in APC. As a fragile amalgam of four or five parties comprising of strange bed-fellows, the party crucially needs a tactful and astute leadership that can avoid minefields and nurture it to maturity in order to fulfill the destiny of salvaging the tottering Nigerian nation.

We are all aware of the great damage done to this country by the PDP since it came to power 14 years ago. Most Nigerians are disenchanted with the party, and therefore having some of the leading actors associated with the obnoxious era in APC would smear the image of the party and negate its leaders’ claim to being different and focused on public good.

According to Kwankwaso, the other three options that are open to the G-7 are resuming the suspended dialogue with President Goodluck Jonathan, joining a small party (PDM? VOP?), and floating a new party. It is obvious however that the most attractive alternative to them is joining the APC, and this, in my opinion, is the most dreadful and harmful to public interest.

I think the best thing for them is to join PDM or VOP, but it seems they are either uncomfortable with the main mover of one of the new parties or they can’t face the daunting task of selling them to the public. But since the governor said they are thinking of floating another new party it is obvious that they are afraid of something in PDM and VOP. They may be avoiding where their individual interests would be threatened, as their main concern is not public interest but personal aggrandizement.

I don’t doubt their ability to register a brand new party. It may not be too late now, and if they could register PDM and VOP without the existence of these parties’ offices across the country as required by the electoral law, they can do almost anything else! But threat to personal interests apart, what is wrong with PDM and VOP? And how different and better would a new party be?

As for the dialogue with the president, I wonder why the governors are still unable to see the writing on the wall. The PDP leadership and the president’s advisers have evidently decided to dispense with them. This is as plain as day and they themselves were able to realize that some people were discouraging the president from continuing the reconciliation meeting with them.

In the final analysis, however, if some of them abandon the rebellion and remain in PDP, then they will have to face the humiliation of facing Umaru Dikko’s disciplinary committee or begging President Jonathan and the party’s national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to be reaccepted without sanctions.

Conversely, if any of the rebel governors finally joins the APC and takes over control of the party in his state it will not only be reprehensible but grossly unjustifiable. The governors would be too glad to use the abundant resources available to them to dislodge leaders and alienate supporters of the fused opposition parties in their respective states, as former political opponents that were earlier at each other’s throats.

Leaders and members of the ANPP, as the strongest of the fused opposition parties in most of the affected states, will obviously be the victims of the takeover by the rebel governors. One can therefore only imagine the crises that this would engender, especially in states where the party has some semblance of support.

APC leaders will therefore do well to heed the wise counsel now available to them. As I said in a previous piece, the leaders seriously need to preserve the party’s identity which must be distinct and untainted by corruption-prone PDP elements and their undemocratic tendencies, allow the peaceful reconciliation of the divergent interests in the merged parties, and go for alliance if they reckon that they can’t succeed alone.

It will certainly be a mistake of monumental proportion if the APC leaders allow any of the G-7 governors to wade into it and make matters worse as current members try to understand and harmonize themselves. If this happens, the hope Nigerians have in APC as a viable alternative to PDP and savior of the people from the myriad of challenges we are facing today will regrettably be dashed. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

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Read this article in the Leadership Newspapers

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Comments (2)

  1. This writer clearly lives in Lalaland. APC’s only objective is to snatch power from the PDP and would go to any length to achieve this. Tinubu, Buhari & Akande are shamelessly touring States trying to woo PDP Governors. Even if Jonathan, who has been the object of their attacks, wants to join APC today, they will welcome him with open arms. Is that a party that has anything to offer Nigeria. Let APC play out their charade, but I bet majority of Nigerians are wise enough not to fall for their gimmicks. Sadly, a few like the writer of this article, who have a misplaced belief in a non-existing APC ideology, will be the ones to be disappointed.

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