Connect with us

Graffiti

Graffiti… APC’s unsteady gait

Published

on

2019: APC fence mending continues as NWC meets Reps leadership

If the All Progressives Congress (APC) is honest enough to admit it, the party will confess it is reeling under the weight of two major problems, the resolution of which will determine its future and staying power. There are indications it has a future, one way or the other; but whether it will hang in there for much longer than its enemies wish it, is not quite as clear. The first problem is a bundle involving the unresolved and convoluted mess that accompanied the June 9 National Assembly leadership elections, the intrigues by some prominent party leaders to position themselves well for future battles they know are inevitable, and the deathly struggle between the party and its legislators over the elections of top NASS leaders. This bundle will test the nerves, patience and wits of party leaders. There are no guarantees the party will resolve all these problems amicably, or build and administer enough safeguards to ensure that whatever crises are evident at the top levels of the party will not course through the less disciplined, less philosophical ranks.

The second major problem is a rather straightforward one. The refusal or timidity of President Muhammadu Buhari to assert himself as party leader has created a vacuum that is being exploited by many party leaders who view his reluctance as an opportunity to foist their own agenda and loyalists on the party. The NASS leadership elections, which produced Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara, showed clearly how different agenda are competing for supremacy in the party, and how loyalists of party leaders are already fiercely positioning themselves for the coming battles and the spoils of war. The APC is an amalgam of three or four parties with different orientations and worldviews. None of the constituent parties had been completely assimilated before APC’s momentous poll victory in March and April was achieved. Nor had the party, before the crisis broke out, built and propagated an ideology as its lodestar, by which party leaders and members were expected to plot their directions in national affairs.

The first problem is truly fundamental, and it goes deep into the foundation of the party’s seemingly intractable crisis. Given the intensity of the struggle to achieve dominance in the party, ambitious party leaders will fight bitterly to position themselves in vantage positions in the coming months, if not years. The struggle is at the moment manifesting in the effort by future presidential aspirants to secure top legislative positions or begin the process of knitting watertight alliances to make their ambitions feasible. However, what is really at play in the APC today is much more than securing top posts and cobbling alliances. Looking at the continuing and increasingly fierce fight for the remaining legislative positions, it is evident that a struggle to control or hijack the party itself has begun. Groups and party leaders are engaged in a fight with current executives of the party to fill legislative positions. The objective seems to be to weaken the party, render it incompetent in exerting influence on the party’s elected members, turn it into a toothless advisory body, and perhaps eventually take it over.

At the moment, the APC is being isolated from its elected members and future presidential aspirants, not by choice, but apparently because powerful elements within the party have begun to defy and countermand the party’s decisions. Previously, it could bark and bite, as it showed when it conducted its first presidential primary last year. The party was in control of the processes, and no one was left in doubt who wielded more influence, the party or individuals. There are arguments that the party has not been clever enough in striking a balance between its enormous power and the needs and desires of its members. The current rebellions in the legislature and among other powerful party members are said to be a reaction to that lack of balance.

The possible overthrow of the current leadership of the APC is, however, a worst-case scenario. It is indeed hypothetically possible for the ongoing struggles within the party to lead to a better balance in the relationship between the party and its members. Current battles may therefore be considered as a teething problem until a consensus on party structure, operations and power relations have been achieved. But it is also possible that, like the PDP, the struggle for party control may tip over into unrestrained instability if no clear winners emerge. One way or the other, the volcanic APC, which is still in the process of formation, must cool down into a shape. It became active barely two years ago before it had time to acquire definite properties. Now, as the ruling party, it has been thrust into the thick of a national economic crisis, and must find ways to grapple with that crisis of monumental proportions, as well as define its own essence and properties in a way that joins party members and leaders in a stable and mutually beneficial relationship.

The second major problem confronting the APC is also huge, but not as complex as the spillover crisis from the NASS elections and the inflammable relationship between the party, its leaders and regicidal legislators. If President Buhari is chary of involving himself both in running the APC and showing his hand in the legislature, it is suggested that the unsavoury effects of former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s meddlesomeness in the legislature could be responsible. Under President Obasanjo, the legislature was cajoled into becoming an arm of the ruling party and a spineless appendage, like most other national institutions of the day. Consequently, the party became a superfluous institution, and the National Assembly a weak, confused and ineffective arm of government incapable of checking the excesses of the executive.

President Buhari is believed to be concerned that both the APC and NASS could be disemboweled by undue interference from the executive branch. Pursuant to this, he has tried to stay aloof from the party as much as possible, and refused to signal openly where his preferences lie in terms of the leadership of the legislature. His aloofness, it is however argued, has led to a few powerful individuals in the party attempting to force their way into special positions in the legislature, and perhaps soon into the party’s leadership. It is, therefore, agreed that a vacuum exists in the party, which a number of individuals are attempting to fill. One of the best ways to resolve the problem, some say, may be for the president to exercise his powers and authority over the party in cleverer and less destabilising ways than Chief Obasanjo executed over the PDP.

Until President Buhari gets involved in APC affairs, the struggle for dominance will certainly continue. Nigeria is not yet a developed democracy. And though the president has reechoed United States President Barack Obama’s declamation on the evils done to democracy and governance in Africa by strongmen, he must appreciate that the current state of Nigerian democracy calls for intelligent interventions. But for President Buhari to intervene sensibly in the APC and stabilise its affairs, he must demonstrate deeper and uncommon understanding of democracy as a concept and Nigerian politics in practice, and reflect in his actions and ideas a vision of where he hopes to take Nigeria, and if possible, also Africa. It is not certain that the president has such perspectives. If he does not, his aides and advisers should help him conceive a brilliant and workable perspective on Nigerian politics and democracy.

Above all, he must demonstrate the push and will to get involved. If he does not, the party that brought him to power will eventually be hijacked by forces whose ways and manners may be inimical to his presidency, while those individuals whose ways and manners he is accustomed to and approves may be replaced by people of suspect altruism and self-centered goals. It is not an option for him to avoid dirtying his hands with party problems and affairs. If he does not, his party could become destabilised. It will clearly not be in the interest of his presidency for his party to engage in interminable battles that will distract, confuse and debilitate him.

–          Idowu Akinlotan 

 Ripples… without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now