Is APC Unable To Manage Victory?

APC National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun and PDP Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus

The All Progressives
Congress, APC, is in a profound crisis. The signals coming from the party are justifiably worrisome. It is uncertain whether the party can survive the four years mandate Nigerians have given it.
The APC recently defeated former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to produce President Muhammadu Buhari in a keenly contested election in March. It also produced majority of the state governors and lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly in the general election.
The vision of the party as articulated by the founding fathers is to provide Nigerians with a better alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which ruled the country for an unbroken period of 16 years.
But the current palpable tension in the National Assembly which has degenerated to physical assault upon an alleged undue interference by the APC is an indication that the ruling party may not accomplish this dream after all. It may also be an attestation that their first rallying point was to capture power; and since that has been achieved, they find it hard to hold on.
Like the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, managed the Tambuwal saga in 2011, which is similar to the current situation in the Assembly, the APC in this case looks not ready to handle its own crisis thus, making it appear unprepared for leadership.
The bone of contention is the appointment of principal officers of both chambers of the National Assembly. Senate President Bukola Saraki on June 25 announced the names of principal officers in contradistinction to his party’s preference. He took this action despite peace moves to douse the tension that arose from his controversial election and Dogara’s as Senate President and Speaker of the House respectively.
In the House of Representatives, however, an attempt to toe a similar part as their Senate counterpart resulted in a free-for-all before Speaker Yakubu Dogara could begin the day’s business.
It is indeed sad that APC has become like a salad bowl with every group insisting on maintaining its color; this has been proved right by current developments in the party. At its formative stage several individuals moved in with different philosophies and interests other than those the founders of the party had. With such huge collection of diverse persons, it is practically impossible for them to co-exist without crisis.
Some analysts say the development in the National Assembly is in virtually all parliamentary democracies globally; others agree but think they exist in different degrees. However, what makes the difference is the subject of the brawl. Whereas in advanced democracies such crises are triggered by differences resulting from ideological issues, here it is more often than not based on political positions or greed.
But the crisis in the APC, happening barely a month after inauguration, makes it particularly unfortunate. Because of this some Nigerians think that the Assembly might have started on a wrong footing and blamed President Muhammadu Buhari and his party for declaring to the world that they would not interfere in all the operations of the Assembly.
But is it the pronouncement by Buhari, and the APC that has led to the current crisis or it is the attitude of some recalcitrant members of the party who have taken delight in submerging their party’s instructions on the platform of opportunism?
For the Senate to fail to heed the suggestion contained in the letter from the APC national chairman stipulating those to be selected for the principal offices in the Upper Chamber is an indication that tougher times await the APC government.
Contrary to what some persons think, the current crisis hasn’t so much to do with the election of both Saraki and Dogara as Senate President and Speaker respectively as the party has come to terms with the reality of their emergence. But having ‘defeated’ the party with their rascality and strong quest to take over leadership, both officers appear to be trying to maintain their blocks by spiting the APC.
However, some Nigerians have pointedly blamed the APC for being responsible for the crisis in the party. They buttress this position with the attitude of some key party leaders. For instance, they say, the President, soon after the election had been won and lost, detached himself from the party when he declared at his inauguration that he “belongs to everyone and belongs to no one”.
They understood Buhari’s statement to be a direct reference to members of his party. This is arguable and may be understood in sundry ways. They have also claimed that Buhari, in another statement, affirmed his readiness to work with anyone who emerged as leader/principal officer of the National Assembly and concluded that this might have emboldened the Saraki and Dogara groups to flout the party’s directives on the election of principal officers.
But how does Buhari’s stand to work with whoever emerged as principal officer in the National Assembly be an incentive to scoff party edict? One is yet to see the correlation. But it is correct that the APC might have indirectly encouraged both Saraki and Dogara to take their respective positions by failing to discuss with the duo on how it wanted the zoning to go.
Nevertheless, an area the party failed to look at is the contradiction that arose from the primaries. Those who lost at the party primaries were improperly managed and left to lick their wounds. This might have resulted in the bickering and re-alignments noticed in the party after all.
The APC’s inability to look at the permutations that brought up Sakari and co by the PDP was another factor that got it into trouble. In the permutations, the nPDP insists on having equal share of the spoils of their electoral battle since they also contributed five governors as the defunct ACN group which Tinubu leads. By this assertion then PDP group claims a superlative role in the electoral victory of the APC and insists on having a large chunk of the spoils of the political war.
This argument bandied by the nPDP is divisive and untenable. What happened to Niger, Jigawa, Katsina, Bauchi and Kaduna etc. that were captured by the APC? Were those states part of the nPDP or do they constitute any of the blocks that make up the APC? It is incorrect if the PDP claims that it brought about the success of the APC in the last general election. The truth is that the political calculation favored the north and the voting went accordingly.
The present development is a good omen for the APC because they took the characters that joined them from the PDP and other parties for granted; now it is playing out and they have to look inwards. This is a party that is made up of so many strange bedfellows so much so that even the national working committee is not in charge of the party any more than the powerful interest groups that operate outside it.
As Nigerians await Buhari to commence real leadership of the country, political analysts have said the prolonged APC crisis in the National Assembly may be the clog in the wheel of the new administration if not properly handled, as the situation is likely to become messier in the nearest future.
Already, the PDP has benefitted from the crisis in the APC with its member, Ike Ekweremadu, emerging as Deputy Senate President, the number two position in an APC-dominated Senate. And the PDP is set to draw more blood from the APC if the latter fails to put its house in order.

Arnold Alalibo