The major news item on Television and Newspaper headlines is the INEC registration of the All Progressives Congress APC; the latest addition to Nigeria’s political confusions.
The reporters went to the market interviewing just any one who cared to respond to their question.
Of the many views expressed, the ones that concern me most is the ones that say that it is victory for democracy and victory for Nigeria and Nigeria electorate. How?
Let us begin with victory for democracy, one of those coinages that stands shoulder to shoulder with the Shakespearian “tale told by an idiot”. When the military agreed to hand over power to an elected civilian government in Nigeria after many years of crippling military rule, and infact set up the machinery for same and ensured the election of a president, that was victory for democracy. when a president died in office and people were sentimental about the process of filling the vacuum created other than the dictates of the conutrys constitution and suggested that a man from the same geopolitical zone with the late president be elected to “complete” his tenure and the national assembly shunned all sentiments and crazy innuendos and went ahead to ensure that the constitution prevailed, that was victory for democracy.
When electoral cases move from the tribunals set up by democracy to resolve the contentious issues and progress to the appeal court and ends at the supreme court with the loser instead of resorting to violence but simply says that court is the highest court of jurisdiction in the land and promises to accept and abide by the rulings, and end the matter there, that is victory for democracy.
When the military promises to hold itself in check and restrict herself to the constitutional duties of the defence of the territorial integrity of the country and pledge allegiance to the democratically elected government of the country, that is victory for democracy .
However when the very people responsible for the constant confusion and heating up of the polity characterized by incessant and endless jumping from one political party to another and from one alliance to another chose to give a name to one of the alliances, this is not victory for democracy. It is simply a camouflage.
In all sincerity I salute the political maturity, sagacity and morality of Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the National Chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party ANPP.
He has maintained consistency and decorum in all hs political manifestation right from his days in NRC.
Unfortunately restive members of the ACN from the South West zone, a people known for their political mobility to be polite, otherwise it is jumping from one party to another, here weaved Ogbonnaya Onu into an alliance hoping that his silvery hair, Shakespeare would say, would guarantee them good name.
Let any one mention any other member of the newly formed APC who not belonged to at least two political parties in the past ten years.
All they do is jump into political party, seize the leadership and make gain in whatever form and when it is time to be subjected to discipline, they zoom off to a new place. Then when they make noise about their new place people will call it victory for democracy. What is the ideological leaning of either the APC as a political party or its components. Are the people in APC, there, out of a marriage to fight the PDP or because there is a natural affection between them. We know those who must be president at all costs or they keep moving.
We know those who claim to be leaders but cannot subject themselves to good leadership.
By the volume and quantum of noise made by the APC members and the dust raised, all eyes are now on the APC to see how they survive the after effects of the 2015 general elections should their party fail to win the presidency. That is with the hope that the other APC African Peoples Congress does not upset them at the law court.
Ordinarily there is nothing wrong with strategizing to win election but when strategy is rooted in a culture or restiveness and rascality it becomes worrisome. Who is sure that these men will not one day find themselves in the PDP without really planning for it.
I recall some time in the past when a popular and flamboyant politician quit his party, the then NCNC and went into what was then called Dynamic party DP. and called a press conference to declare that for him it was forward ever and backward never.
When he moved from there to another party, as usual it was forward ever as usual. When unfortunately he moved back into the NCNC again, a clever journalist who was at the press conference where he declared forward ever and backward never accosted him, all he did was to quickly and smartly announce that his policy of forward ever and backward never was still being maintained.
He further added that the only difference was that he was moving forward in a circle in which case he was bound to come back to where the movement began without deliberately moving back. If it were now some people would call the movement “victory for democracy”.
For now INEC says that newly 3 parties, the ANPP, the ACN and the CPC are in the merger and so APGA has already been ruled out but worst of all is the feeling of the ACN who actually own the logo that others are joiners while they own the party.
But the scenario in Imo state is a different ball game where the incumbent governor Rochas Okorocha of APGA extraction declared that his APGA party was dead and has no hopes for the future while declaring for the APC. His suspension from the APGA by the leadership may have amounted to his release but how he hopes to play the lone ranger expedition politics into the merger remains another issue for a man who cannot settle for any thing less than the lions share more so when he has a lion’s heart.
Whether he is pursuing the presidency or consolidating his governorship position in an APC setting will play out an interesting political scenario in a drama that all actors are suspicious of one another because of presently expressed disdain.
This may be why all the parties in Imo state are not expressing any worries over the registration of APC. It remains to be seen how the APC will fusion her mutually suspicious members into one magic ward that will win an election here in Imo state.
The APC in Imo draws largely from the ACN and Chief Achike Udenwa and not Owelle Rochas own the loyalty and leadership of the APC now that Chief Ararume is romancing with the PDP.
The poor showing of the ACN in the last general election coupled with the internal problems of the APGA after suspending their incumbent governor and the distancing of the main APGA from the APC renders the party or rather reduced it to a painted leopard.
