Found this article written by a well meaning Nigerian.Nawa ooh!come to think of it my Good Gorvernor is in that party.Owelle do something!(shouting)
Written by OluwaJajaYomi.
I will start off by reminding us all of what the
APC is and how it came about because though it
is easy to assume that everyone knows and
remembers, I may be wrong. APC is the All
Progressive Congress. The APC is a very new
political party, barely two years old (since
February 2013). That period was when the
Nigerian politosphere witnessed the result of
(secret) talks, consultative meetings and
visitations. Indeed, what may have started out as
a rumour in some quarters, disbelieved and even
moved by some, became what we have in Nigeria
(and maybe Africa) as the biggest opposition
party. For the record, the parties that formed APC
were the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC),
the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and (a faction of) the
All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
The Reaction of Nigerians
Because a merger of this proportion had never
occurred in the history of Nigerian democracy,
Nigerians greeted the APC with goodwill and
enthusiasm. Being Nigerians, we saw the APC in
such a good light and received it in a manner akin
to how an old (previously) unfertile couple
receives their first child. We placed the APC in a
class of its own, on a pedestal far higher than we
could ever place the ruling People’s Democratic
Party (PDP). Even though the ACN had always
had the broom-in-hand logo, we saw it as a
symbol of the good things to come, the answer to
our prayers, and the hand of our ‘messiah’. One
of the reasons why Nigerians lavished so much
love on the APC was because we thought we had
had enough of the PDP, to a lot of us, our cries
of help had reached Heaven and the Almighty had
graced us with a redeemer. Another was because
even though it was in infancy, the first word it
spoke was “change” and that was exactly what
Nigerians wanted. Though the party was still in
infancy, those of us who were neither at the
merger-agreement-signing meeting nor members
of the party wrote the objectives we hoped the
party would stand for, we had several lofty
aspirations and strategies for the party but little
did we know that we were building sand castles
tornadic troposphere. We were so wrong.
The Rise of the APC
It did not take long for our juvenile political party
to rise to prominence and of course, because it
was a merger of four political parties of varying
degrees of influence, we did not expect any
different. The founders and pioneer members of
the APC began to take their gospel of change to
the corners of Nigeria. From the North to the
South, the crevices of the East and even to the
uttermost part of the West, the resounding gospel
of change was reverberating. It was on the lips of
the young and old, the male and female and in
fact, it seemed as if even the birds of the air lent
their sonorous voices to this gospel, this mantra,
this doctrine, this dogma. It did not take long for
Nigeria to witness the highest occurrence of
defections, one like never before. Politicians of
every tribe and tongue were ‘porting’, those with
political relevance and those without alike. As
they ported, they took their structures with them,
the political landscape of Nigeria was changing
and doing so very fast. APC was in the words of
many, “a moving train”; you either join it or get
crushed. Though the PDP may deny in order to
save face, they became very jittery. Around this
season, there was some turbulence in the PDP;
some governors and serving members of the
National Assembly were aggrieved with the way it
was being led by the then Chairman, Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur. Because there was now an
alternative and because (as it was said that) the
leadership of the PDP did not heed their call to
change for the better, personal interests
(disguised as motives for the good of the people
they serve) triumphed over voice of reasoning and
other virtues that had helped them overcome
similar challenges in the past. This led to the
defection of five sitting governors and over a
hundred members of the National Assembly. For
some time, the APC made up majority of the
House of Representatives. Alas, it was a done
deal, the APC had overthrown the PDP. This
victory was as short-lived as the memory of
someone who suffers from amnesia.
The Undoing of the APC
For a while, Nigerians were happy that “good”
was triumphing over “evil”. What did we know? It
is imperative to note that almost a hundred
percent of those who ported from the ruling party
to the APC were aggrieved politicians. An
important question to ask at this point is the
cause of this widespread aggravation. To a large
degree, the aggravation was a direct consequence
of a clash of interests in several quarters;
interests of the powers that be. So since a lot of
these self-serving politicians could see no way of
achieving their selfish goals, they sought a
platform upon which they could. To them, the
APC was this platform. The PDP tried to reason
with them but their minds were made up, like an
about-to-die dog, they had lost their sense of
smell (reasoning). To this effect, they
unconsciously purged the PDP of selfish
desperadoes while carrying their baggage of
venom to the new party. They received a hero’s
welcome in the APC, why would they not? They
were serving government officials with
unfathomable amounts of money at their
disposable. To the APC, they were assets,
investors, stakeholders whose (stolen) funds
would be used to propagate their gospel. If it had
not been for the greed of the APC, they would
have seen the downfall they were bringing upon
themselves. How can a party with all these selfish
people prosper? How can you have all these
desperadoes in what place and not expect an
eruption?
At this point, the veil over the eyes of innocent
Nigerians began to fall off. Nigerians started to
ask questions. Nigerians were concerned about
the gospel of change they had been made to
believe and the plausibility of its promises. A lot
of people who bothered to think could not see
how a party that claimed to be different could
take on all these mercenaries of gloom, these
messengers of retrogression and still claim to be
progressive. Indeed, questions began to fly but
answers were not forthcoming. The APC and their
sympathisers tried to chant the mantra in order to
solicit sympathy solidarity but Nigerians were no
longer buying into their deceit.
Another undoing and maybe the biggest of all
was that the APC failed to categorically state the
principles by which they stand. Nigerians
desperately wanted an alternative, any alternative
(even if it was just a little bit better than what the
ruling party offered) but were disappointed. Very
disappointed. Instead of the APC to peddle
gospels of hope, better life, better commitments
to providing the dividends of democracy, workable
strategies to defeat the scourge of corruption,
poverty and other evils that have plagued us as a
people, they went about denigrating the ruling
party. They spared no effort in lambasting the
government at every opportunity. They would take
every negative occurrence, blow it into
unbelievable proportions and use it as a weapon
to attack the government. They would go to such
lowly levels of conjuring lies and spreading
falsehood through the media platforms they
control and their other rumour machines.
Nigerians wanted a messiah but here we had
wolves in sheep clothing, hypocrites, lies,
scammers and thieves.
APC As It Is Now
Fast forward to the present day, Nigerians are
now wiser. An average Nigerian is now aware
that the APC poses an even greater threat to the
progress and development of Nigerians. As a
people, it is now clear to us the once celebrated
merger was just a marriage of convenience to
seize power from the ruling government either by
hook or crook. We are just a few months to the
February 2015 elections and the APC has started
to confirm our fears, to give us irrefutable
reasons for which to doubt their credibility. In the
last few days, a lot of major stakeholders in the
APC have goofed terribly; made statements that
are not just unguarded and crude but potent
enough to completely kill the political party.
Let me start by calling up the statement made a
few days ago by a Chieftain of the APC, Chief
Audu Ogbeh, at the formal declaration of 2015
Presidential candidacy of General M. Buhari. The
Chief stated in clear, simple and easily
comprehensible terms that the Bring Back Our
Girls campaign (BBOGc) was a creation of the
APC. Even though this shocked some people, so
many others were not the least surprised. As a
reminder, the BBOGc was created in the wake of
the Chibok Abduction Saga. Like the APC,
Nigerians accepted and praised the initiatives and
its organisers for standing up to speak for the
downtrodden. However, the sympathy and
solidarity Nigerians showed to the BBOGc
dissipated when we saw that some people in the
opposition had hijacked the cause. Madam Oby
Ezekwesili on several occasions refuted
allegations that the BBOGc was sponsored and
did not shift from her position that it was borne
out of goodwill and humanity. If only she knew
that her efforts would be rubbished in coming
weeks, she would have been less garrulous. Such
a nice woman, one whom we adored; how art the
mighty fallen? The Chief’s statement has come at
a bad time and has been noted. He has shot
himself, and the APC in the foot.
As if to make matters worse, our very own
General M. Buhari, an epitome of uprightness,
righteousness and incorruptibility boldly stated
that he obtained loan in order to purchase a
nomination form for his presidential bid. He may
have had the intentions of playing a victim, one
who is sacrificing so much for the love of the
people but instead, he has raised several
concerns in many quarters as to the motive of his
action. The presidential nomination form of the
APC costs a whooping twenty-seven million, five
hundred thousand Naira (₦ 27.5M). The questions
Nigerians are now asking is how he plans to
repay that loan, who gave such outrageous
amount to a man for such a purpose on loan,
what collateral did the General use to obtain the
loan and many more. If he wins the election in
2015, how much will he earn per annum and how
many years would it take to repay such loan?
Does he have a godfather? Whose interest will he
serve in order to service and repay the loan? Is he
incorruptible as we have been made to believe? I
hereby call on the General to answer these
questions.
There are many more blunders but I shall mention
just one more. Why does the APC take after the
PDP they condemn? The structures, organisation,
strategies and blueprints being flaunted by the
APC are mirror images of those already being
used by the PDP. For instance, PDP decided to
adopt the President Goodluck Jonathan as its
consensus candidate and there are already talks
of a presidential candidate consensus
arrangement in the APC. The constitution
governing the APC can be said to be plagiarised
from that of PDP. The structures of PDP that
were taken along during the defection season are
the ones being used by PDP. The development
strides and achievements taken and made by the
defected politicians when they were in APC are
the ones being boasted about by the PDP. Why
all these? Why does the APC lack originality and
creativity?
The Potential APC
Having said all these, I must say that the APC is
not totally dead. There is hope for them but this
hope comes with a price they must be willing to
pay. They must shake off the dirt they have
carried as a result of frolicking with garbage and
position themselves for reform. They should
preach their gospel of change to themselves, get
converted by it, get baptised in it and then
manifest the gifts of a new spirit. They should
refrain from engaging the services of online
bullies and go for credible image laundering
companies that can win back the love Nigerians
once had for them. Their chieftains must guard
their mouths jealously and if possible, always
read from or recite a script previously written by
someone knowledgeable and competent. Time is
short, it is ticking and if they want to remain
relevant, the time change is now.
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