With UCHE NNADOZIE
As the governing party, All Progressives Congress, APC prepares for its national convention, part of the issues that plagued that party before and during their recently congresses will manifest and continue to do so for a long time to come. You know, party politics is that way and that is why some of us enjoined Nigerians to get in and practice this politics. Not that you must contest elections, but we must get involved in political parties so as to create the basis for continual development of our political culture. It is that non participation most of the time that makes bystanders but who are mostly ardent critics think that the world is falling apart should there be any hiccup within a party.
Of course, not that hiccups don’t come with electoral baggage, like could be seen from the loss suffered by this party in Oyo state in a bye-election following the death of the speaker of the House of Assembly recently. First, the party is split down the line between the governor of the state and the Minister of Communication. The process of picking their party’s candidate must have opened old wounds which the opposition capitalised on. But that’s what politics is about. Opportunity, preparation and change. It will be naive for APC to think that the opposition party is dead. A party that houses such a large number of disenchanted people must be taken seriously.
But there are deeper problems. The case in Imo is a classic example. When interests collide, the outcome is normally combustible. Outside Imo, there are at least ten states that suffered from parallel congresses. In some of the cases, the governors are the ones in charge. In some other cases Abuja based politicians who are either ministers or National Assembly members have seized control of the party structure at the state level. Sometimes, the issue is beyond money. Its just what it is, that’s how our politics roll. Most often than not, our governors are the sole administrators of any party in power at the state level. With that enormous power, they team up with their brother governors to thwart any ambitious person at the national level. Otherwise you will lose out if there is vote to be counted.
In Imo, Governor Okorocha has been rendered useless, in a manner of speaking. Here is a man who not only rode roughshod in Imo and the rest of the South East, suddenly become such a silly caricature of what he once was. A man adept at the game, within a blink became the game. Those he invited into his house, got acquainted pretty fast and ended up taking over the house, and pushed him out. Now in the cold, he is looking for who to go down with. The same thing that has failed over and over is what he is trying to do. Threats of abandoning the party rent the air. But you will wonder what happened. The answer they say is blowing in the wind.
We have a situation in Cross River and Rivers. A fight between party titans or those with expendable clout. They use their connections in high and medium places to undo the other. In the morning they come in the open to confuse those that don’t belong to political parties. We sit back to enjoy their fight forgetting that we are actually the pawn in the puzzle. This is so because as politicians endure the fight of attrition, it is the cash, the resources of the land that pushes the fight to be intense. If you have well ordered political parties you will get a well ordered society; if you have cataclysmic party, that’s exactly what you will have in the larger country. So when most of us participates, it expands the discussion which may give quality policies and better implementation.
Luckily for APC, most of their national working committee members are not running again. They may be more dispassionate in resolving some of these conflicts. Of course, they may also want to pay back some of those who they think did them in. In the mean time, they will also be in discussions to influence who gets elected into the NWC. Because they will like their interests to be protected even after they are gone. This is another potential source of conflict. The earlier the stakeholders in the party decides to ensure justice the best for everyone.
Like I have said, strife is not a bad thing in our democracy, especially the level to which we have developed. If there is no crisis in the APC, then that means the party is an empty shell. It is a tree full of fruits that attracts stones from passers-by. Yet, we can eliminate this and sanitise our parties in a better way. We can be transparent and accountable to start with. Membership must be open and accessible. Election into party offices should be community based using the option A4 system. Delegates must be known and clear to everyone at every time. Both statutory and elected. Delegates should not be hidden or contrived. Fussy situations must be resolved on its merit, not lumped together.
Party leadership should be decentralised a bit more. Leadership should be about membership, financing, campaigns and policy. Nigeria’s party leadership is usually about making money and settling political scores. These can improve. APC can do better. Will the pack of cards collapse? Its up to members to seize the initiative and use the upcoming convention to make wrong, right.
