Who will save us from APC?

By Emeka Alex Duru

My colleague and Managing Director, Ikechukwu Amaechi, ate into my thoughts in his writing on the “APC congresses of blood, tears and sorrow”, earlier in the week. In it, he took a measured look at the confusion that trailed the recent congresses of the All Progressives Congress (APC), that saw as many as 26 state chapters throwing up parallel executives.

    That is an observation that should raise concern on any perceptive mind. But it is not as if the developments in APC are coming as surprises to many. No!

   They rather confirm suspicion in some quarters that the party, may, after all, not be the All Purpose Carrier (APC), that would take Nigerians to their democracy destination.

   Though the party had at its formation, advertised itself as an alternative to the then governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and had cashed in on the disillusionment in the land to hoodwink unsuspecting voters, it was apparent that what was being packaged and sold to the citizens was simply, a dummy, given the character and antecedents of its facilitators.

   It merely took the eventual victory of APC at the polls and inauguration of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for the characters and various tendencies in the party to unfurl. That was when it became obvious that aside the drive to acquire power, and purely for its sake, the party has no precise agenda for even itself and the country.

   The crisis that arose among the entire organs and membership of the party in distribution of offices and positions, was all that APC needed to send advance information on the dangers ahead. That, incidentally, has remained the case with it, three years after.

This is why the incidences of indiscipline in the party that manifested in 26 state chapters producing 52 executives, should not come as a surprise to anyone following developments in its fold. For the APC, therefore, the untidy state of affairs, falls in line with its schedules.

    In that case, the temptation may be strong to gloss over the situation and allow the party carry on with its style and live with the outcome.

But being the governing party which, in that case, has the responsibility of supervising the conduct of the 2019 general elections, ignoring the antics of the APC or entrusting the future of the country at its whims, may be too risky a game to gamble with.

Truth be told, APC is currently in tatters. The party has consistently displayed absolute lack of capacity to manage itself. For such an organisation to be left with the task of supervising an election that has a lot in shaping Nigeria’s future, should entail more than a passing glance from Nigerians.

      All hands, as they say, should therefore, be on the deck. What the chieftains of the ruling party are subtly showing Nigerians, is a picture of things to come in 2019.

Unless men and women of goodwill begin to exercise pronounced interest on the state of things in the days ahead, there may not be 2019, election wise.

Former President, Goodluck Jonathan had in the run-up to the 2015 general election, stressed that his ambition was not worth the life of any Nigerian. He also went further to demonstrate magnanimity in electoral defeat. That was in the spirit of seeing election as a game, where there are winners and losers.

    But the body language of APC leadership and membership at various levels, does not suggest an adherence to this noble principle.

What the party has exhibited in its rancorous congresses is rather an amplification of the remark credited to the erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo, in which he was said to have vowed that victory for his party in 2013 election, was a matter of life and death.

This is the lesson and danger of the outcome of APC state congresses. For a party that rose to power on the mantra of change, APC has on this and other matters, left most of its supporters immensely disappointed.

    But is the circus show over? Put in other way, has the party learnt its lessons? Have Nigerians seen enough of its shenanigans? Not many would answer in the affirmative. And that is where the problem lies.

Perhaps, more odious displays from the party would be seen in the build-up to its June 23 National Convention and after. And where would these leave Nigeria? That is the big question.