And the ever-creative Nigerian youths who gave the APC the new
name of All Promises Cancelled when the party disavowed its campaign
promises after assuming power have upped the naming ante by ingeniously
rechristening the party “All Parallel Congress.”
Of course, Melaye’s
claim of 72 state chairmen is hyperbolic.
There were parallel
state congresses in 26, not 36 states. But that is an awful record for a party
that promised not only to drain the Abuja political swamp but also to restore
dignity to the arts of politics and governance in Nigeria and the Kogi
State-born senator, who has been hounded by the system he helped to create,
must be beside himself with joy.
What is even more significant is the fact that most of these gibes which
are drawing good natured laughs from some Nigerians are coming from chieftains
of the party.
Nothing has
ridiculed the APC and shredded its claim to being positively different from the
party it dislodged from power since it birthed on February 6, 2013 more
than the acrimonious and bloody congresses.
The bad blood and
violence were such that an otherwise dispassionate Azu Ishiekwene, Managing
Director/Editor-in-Chief of The
Interview magazine, let his breath out: APC
makes PDP party of saints .
“Offices of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) across the country are still littered with broken
bones, bloodied faces and shredded tallies from the party’s ward congresses
last weekend,” Ishiekwene wrote.
“In virtually all
the states, the ward congresses were marred by violence, with special drama in
Anambra where the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, and a former
governorship candidate of the party, Tony Nwoye, could not even agree whether
what was held was a congress or an imaginary clan reunion.
“It was worse – a
bloody shambles – in Delta State .
One of the aspirants, Jeremiah Oghoveta, was stabbed in the neck by a thug who
fled and left his victim to die.
“Suddenly, the party
that promised change is making the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) look like
amateur thugs. By the fruit of the ward congresses, APC and PDP have shown, yet
again, that they are different branches of the same blighted tree.”
Granted, some
Nigerians were taken aback by the magnitude of the violence but most discerning
observers of the APC politics anticipated that.
To believe,
therefore, that there is any difference between the APC and PDP would suggest
that both political parties are not populated by the self-same Nigerian
politicians. But we know they are and without any overarching ideology or
philosophy that underpins their worldviews, the political parties only serve as
instruments to acquire state power which then becomes an end in itself rather
than a means to promote common good.
So, when APC stalwarts rail against their soul-mates in PDP, they
are only being smart by half, hoping that gullible Nigerians would be
hoodwinked into believing their cynical narrative.
Truth be told, they
are birds of the same plumage, who, despite the different vehicles with exotic
names they hitch a ride on in their quest for state capture, ultimately they flock together.
Politics in Nigeria is
antithetical to altruism.
So, when Ishiekwene,
who rightly noted that the APC “ward congresses were an utter disgrace,”
wonders “if the leader of the APC, President Muhammadu Buhari, would look
beyond the smokescreen in his corner in Daura and find the courage to tell his
party that it has fallen short,” I chuckle.
The president will
not bother because he is both the smoke and screen that pundits like Ishiekwene
want him to look beyond. He will not bother because he is the chief priest at
APC’s altar of malfeasance. President Buhari will not look beyond the
smokescreen because if he does, he will only see himself. He is the alter-ego
of the same tendencies in full parade at the APC congresses.
The president sees
politics as a zero-sum game, where the end justifies the means.
So, why must a
president who subscribes fully to this philosophy call his fellow devotees in
this fiendish political altar to order?
The APC has moved on,
having advised those holding the wrong end of the political stick to seek
redress by availing themselves of the services of the appeal panels.
The outcome of the
APC congresses has proved that there is no difference between the ruling party
and the other political parties, including the PDP. One does not become an
upright and corrupt-free politician because he decamped from one political
party to the other. APC is not a change agent because it does not have the
capacity to be.
Nigerians should
revel in that knowledge. As the 2019 elections draw close, the electorate
should hang their hopes for the country’s redemption on individuals rather than
political parties.
The outcome of the
APC congresses and the mindsets that upended internal democracy so whimsically
and violently should worry Nigerians. Can a party whose members are fighting
this dirty guarantee free and fair general elections? How can politicians that have
scant regards for internal democracy do otherwise come 2019?
This is a wake-up
call.
*Amaechi is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief
of TheNiche,
Sunday newspaper published in Lagos
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