As I asked last week on these pages, what is the president or the party doing to assist the APC in states where it is not in government?
The above topic was what trended on ekitipanupo this past week, and with elections coming very soon in both Edo and Ondo states, I expect that an APC, riven down the middle, no matter the pretences, should be able to learn one or two things from our discussion. By the way, ekitipanupo is an Ekiti intellectual roundtable with about 2000 members, home and Diasporan. As is my wont when I use issues on panupo in my articles, contributions, except my own, will not be attributed. The discussion came up shortly after the Ekiti State governor commissioned some projects recently and the Panupo Back Office (BO) came up with this question: “Does this (group) photograph depict a governor under siege as the APC internet political activists and e-platform radicals/revolutionaries would like us to believe? Responses came furiously and in tens. The first, from a university lecturer, surmised that crowd sponsorship cannot be equated with popularity and was followed up by a party loyalist who posited that the state governor would go to any length to rent a crowd even if the crowd would later fight over money.
From that point on, the discussion became far less emotional as contributors drove the discussion to a wider platform with a view to extrapolating far more important conclusions, especially as it concerns APC, not only in Ekiti but nationally. Wrote the next contributor: “President Buhari is not an infantry politician like Atiku, Kwankwaso, Tinubu, Amaechi or Oshiomhole. The leadership of APC, he continued, is weak at both the state and national levels as its leaders appear deficient in loyalty, discipline, co-operation, trust, focus and team work and the party is, therefore, intrinsically weak. He asserted that there is an urgent need for a review of the party’s alliance/consolidation memorandum since the party does appear cohesive. He opined that the nPDP elements in the party have since, mentally returned to PDP, their natural habitat, even though still physically present and while the CPC group is carrying on with the aura of a conqueror. The name of the game within the party, according to him, is scramble for power and pecuniary benefits. He contended that President Buhari does not have a grip on either the party or on national institutions thus signifying that he is really not in control. He, however, believes that all these problems could be sorted out if the different power centres within the party would willingly work together.
Then came one I would describe, with due respect, as an iconoclast. Aligning with the Back Office, he asserted that there is no way the APC can tackle the state governor if it remains in disarray as it presently is. He believes that from what he could observe, one of the defectors from the PDP would most likely clinch the party’s gubernatorial slot because they are working harder than those who consider themselves owners of the party in the state: a situation which he hazards, will be dysfunctional, as it could polarise it on the long run.
My contribution was concerned more with addressing some of the issues already raised by the earlier contributors namely: what the BO described as ‘APC internet political activists and e-platform radicals/revolutionaries’, the state of the party in the state and the apparent lack of encouragement or assistance from the party, especially the presidency since, unlike the president, the state would be facing an election long before the President and therefore does not have the luxury of time.
I therefore began by saying that the earlier contributors made a lot of sense and that what strikes me the most is that in spite of the high rankings of some of the Ekiti leaders in the party’s national architecture, this has not translated to party activities or effectiveness back home. I observed that given the rapprochement that party leaders have achieved, post the last governorship election, it is curious that party affairs are still as lukewarm as they are, reduced, almost exclusively, to the yeoman’s efforts of the Publicity Secretary. Since we can only logically compare like with like, I referred to happenings in Rivers State where, although the party leaders remain actively engaged in the state, Governor Wike not only completely rules the roost, APC members in Ogoni land are being asked to leave town, and for their safety, I am informed, some have, indeed, voted with their feet. That is in a state where the party could leverage on its national leaders.
As I asked last week on these pages, what is the president or the party doing to assist the APC in states where it is not in government? In case the APC leadership has not realised it, the security services, especially their leadership, are still very beholden to the PDP people who ensured they made tonnes of money when that administration lasted. That is one reason PDP governors are calling the shots everywhere. I was, for instance, completely flabbergasted when the President handed over to Mr. Mike Okiro, a well known PDP sympathiser, the responsibility for recruiting the new 10,000 police men without appreciating the fact that this would give PDP an undue advantage come 2019. Even if Okiro is Chairman of the Police Commission, is his chairmanship a traditional inheritance? Or are Nigerians now not well aware of the diabolical roles EFCC alleged that another member of the commission played in then President Jonathan’s publicity efforts towards winning the last election?
Truth be told, APC leaders and loyalists in Ekiti who, had they benefitted from their exertions towards the Buhari victory, would now have been busy propagating the party ahead of the next governorship election, are today busier on the internet, especially on WHATSAPP groups that have since mushroomed, discussing politics online but hardly engaging with the grassroots except when they had to spend their personal money on party members who see them as rich people and therefore run to them for financial assistance on various issues. There is presently considerable dissatisfaction, if not unhappiness, amongst a people who have given their all to the party. This is one more reason President Buhari must now dissolve boards, send PDP people who are still most probably in the majority home, and extend some democracy dividends to persons he will come to rely on in another three years for either his, or his party’s victory. If party leaders who have access to him don’t tell him these things, we owe him a duty to let him know. As I also said here last week, I am not unaware of the economic straits Nigeria is in, but these people deserve the government’s appreciation. The president could very well reduce both the number as well as the sitting allowances but he just has to do something. Indeed, since he has no way of knowing this, many of his party members people look up to in their communities are fast turning to a laughing stock because not a few of them spent their own money for the party during the campaigns.
It can bear repetition that the Southwest has not been particularly well served by this government and just like most Nigerians are currently dissatisfied with the situation, though this is not the president’s fault, there is every need to proactively attend to members in states like Edo, Ondo and Ekiti where elections are due before 2019. Indeed, members in all the states of the federation deserve to be appreciated and compensated. Otherwise, the current situation of anomie will not bode well for the party on the long run. PDP is presently, eagerly re-strategising, setting up reconciliation committees and going the rounds of the nPDP members, who have actually left the APC in spirit, to source their 2019 Presidential candidate. They are also furiously working towards making their party chairman, a man for whose membership of the merger parties, Metuh once described APC as a Janjaweed party. Only God knows what exactly is driving them but the APC cannot be too careful. One way of checkmating the PDP, in addition to giving Nigerians dividends of democracy and making Change real, is to ensure that APC members are not treated like a wet towel.
NATION
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