APC: Behold the big merger!

Aliyu Musa

In 2011 long before the votes were cast it was clear that the People’s Democratic Party, based on its power of incumbency, access to huge resources and chaotic apposition, would have an easy win. But many of us only held on to the hope that there would be a re-run if the monstrous ruling party failed to garner the constitutionally required percentage of the votes across the country.

But the PDP was not (and is still not) a party to be taken for granted. It had been in power since the return of the country to civil rule and was poised to return at all cost. It’s an alliance of all the big players in previous Republics, especially the corruption-ridden one that was sacked in 1983. It was therefore expected to deploy all the expertise it could boast of to recapture power, regardless of what millions of Nigerians thought.

One big reason for our hope was suddenly dashed when, following the collapse of the merger talks between the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressive Alliance (CPC), it was reported that the PDP had entered into a secret agreement with the ACN to enable the former’s victory in the South-West. It was therefore a mere confirmation when the results showed PDP leading in all but one of the states in the region, including Lagos where ACN leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a two-term governor.

The second glimmer of hope was in the North, where it was hoped General Buhari’s mammoth support base was a guarantee for CPC’s victory at all levels. But the party had been riddled by controversies. Many of its aspirants felt unfairly treated and were either secretly working against the party’s victory or heading back to the party they had decamped from. In states like Kano, Bauchi, Katsina, and Kaduna, for example, such disputes were to immensely contribute to CPC’s dismal performance at all elections but for the presidential one, where the former General’s popularity remained unthreatened.

Another major factor was the readiness of some Nigerians to, in the absence of an ideal opposition party, return the PDP to power. But what many forgot then was a party that was in power for 12 years but was only able to make life worse for everyone but a select few could not be trusted with power anymore. Many even deluded themselves that they were giving a good man their vote not a bad party. Again, they failed to realize that good people could become evil if they were in overwhelmingly corrupt environments and in the company of bad people. What we have seen since then clearly vindicate those of us who thought otherwise, irrespective of what we were dismissed as.

Now that the much-talked about, long overdue mega party is here lessons should be learnt from our past mistakes. We need to learn not to elevate our individual interests over and above the general good. If what we are working toward is a better Nigeria, which we hope to bequeath to successive generations, then no sacrifice is too much.

To begin with, let the leaders of those parties that have now merged to form the All Progressives Congress accept that in the interest of all they would not come back to insist either contesting on the platform of the party or impose a candidate. Let it be made clear that all candidatures would be unanimously agreed and supported.

In its very first press statement the APC listed tackling corruption as one of its remits. No doubt corruption is a major problem, but to tackle it would require a major effort, including purging selves of corruption. I have just read a friend’s comment, questioning the reference to people like Tom Ikimi as progressives. Truth is the term progressive is very relative and anyone could pass for one depending on how it is pictured. It is, however, left to those who claim to be progressives not to abuse the name.

Whether under the nomenclature progressives, reformists or conservatives our politicians are overpaid and over-pampered. Now that we have a mega party that claims it would put the interest of Nigerians first and “stop the increasing mood of despair and hopelessness among our people”, it should give us some hope by ensuring that those under its platform lead by example.

Rather than paying themselves jumbo wages and allowances when they claim there’s no enough money to pay a minimum wage of N18000 let the progressives reverse this unfair trend. Let them take home less and give the people more. And that more than anything else would bring the message home.

Postscript:

This piece appears in the Blueprint newspaper of 8/2/13.