APC: Many more rivers to cross

Aliyu Musa

APC: Many more rivers to cross

If those who are singing ‘Uhuru’ imagine that the battle was won the day four main opposition parties in Nigeria agreed a merger then they need a serious rethink. Fact is it is far from ‘Uhuru’ and rolling out the drums is not only too premature but completely childish at this point.

To begin with, the All Progressives Congress, the mega party that is the result of that conflation by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA, a section of which has disputed its participation in the merger), must realize it represents a major danger that cannot be ignored. And like every serious risk those it threatens would not mind crushing it even before giving it a chance to have a first breath of life.

In a previous article I recall mentioning some of the problems the mega party needed to fight from within, like avoiding internal wrangling about positions. My point was predicated on the belief that those that have worked hard to make the merger happen might want to be rewarded with covetable positions or at least have a say in who becomes what. But if APC must survive and even outlive the ashes of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) it must do things differently.

One way to be different, again, is to make sure they equitably dispense the dividends of democracy to the people whose mass backing they badly need. And the surest way to do so now is through their members currently occupying essential positions like state governors and parliamentarians, whose actions should from now on be people-driven.

But more importantly at this stage the APC needs to seriously consider how it can survive the many hurdles awaiting it as it buckles up to tackle the PDP. A few of those hurdles are already becoming clearer. It must be able to get itself a stamp of approval from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through registration. But this is turning out to be an acid test, thanks to INEC increasingly becoming an arm of PDP.

Prior to the elections of April 2011 many of us thought with highly ‘credible’ people like Professor Attahiru Jega running INEC the days of electoral frauds were numbered. But we have since found out how wrong we were and that INEC’s extravagant biometric voter registration was a nightmare we certainly don’t want to keep reminding ourselves of.

Irrespective of the criticisms lavished on APC and some of its stalwarts it remains one of the best things to happen to our democracy in recent times. A strong opposition party in any working democracy is a shadow government that serves as an alternative if the incumbent fails to perform and gets booted out by the electorate. But this is hardly realizable if the opposition is in disarray, which has been the case since our return to civilian rule in 1999. And that is why PDP can afford to mess around with Nigeria and Nigerians and still get rewarded with ‘re-elections’ on all occasions there are elections.

But for the first time the ruling party now feels genuinely threatened and would stop at nothing to defeat that threat. What is more baffling is that it is applying clearly fraudulent tactics like making sure APC does not get registered and INEC is amazingly playing along.

Let’s assume it is true that one African People’s Congress has actually submitted its application to INEC for registration should that be enough reason to decline APC’s bid? Are parties known by their names or acronyms? All Progressives Congress is doubtlessly different from African People’s Congress and any suggestion that the mega party should come up with a different name to enable it scale this registration hurdle will only confirm how hard the PDP is working to frustrate any fair contest and it is further conscription INEC to make its plan a success.

Time and again in the past PDP leaders arrogantly bragged about ruling till eternity. But that confidence has now evaporated into thin air. Despite thinking too lowly of Nigerians and believing they can get away with almost anything including granting amnesty to people that have stolen public money with relish this PDP government should be wary of self-destruct moves like the one they are currently pursuing against APC.

APC is an idea whose time has come and there is no stopping it. The earlier they realize that the better for everyone.