The APC At Two: Internal Battles and The Road Ahead By Japheth Omojuwa

Lo, Nigeria’s political titan was born two years ago

It has been two years since the mergers that resulted in the formation of the All Progressives Congress. The APC was formed by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), parts of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP). A crucial chunk of the Peoples Democratic Party, then called “the new PDP” later joined the union to mount the biggest opposition yet against the then-incumbent ruling party, the PDP.

Many, especially the PDP, will find it hard to believe that the APC is only just two years old. Because in those two years, the party managed to achieve what no other party has ever achieved in the political history of Nigeria: defeat an incumbent at the centre.

The APC did that, but its origin story predates that of its mergers that eventually ended in its formation.

The main players in the formation of the APC always tried to form an alliance against the PDP. It almost happened just before the 2011 presidential elections but like many before it, it failed. It should be noted that most of the engagements of the opposition parties pre-APC was mostly around alliances to win the presidential election. The APC was different; it was a merger to form a credible opposition party that’d defeat the PDP at the 2015 elections. The rest is history as the party defeated the PDP on the 28th of March 2015 as its candidate, Mohammadu Buhari was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of Nigeria’s 2015 presidential elections.

Within temptation (for power)

The realities of APC’s young age are already telling. Today, Nigeria’s ruling party – it prefers to be referred to as the leading party – battles itself for control of power. That sounds like a paradox but is not one. The APC have already battled the PDP for power and won; the elements within it have been battling one another ever since, for control over the party, for control of government, and for control wherever control is possible.

The most demonstrative conflict was that of the National Assembly, which pitched several power blocs against one another. In the end, the “new PDP” element of the party held sway, as Honourable Yakubu Dogara and Senator Bukola Saraki emerged winners and became the Speaker and Senate president respectively.

While the battle in the House of Representatives has since ended – at least for now – with the emergence of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as the Majority Leader, that of the Senate rages on. President Buhari was influential in settling the nerves in the House of Representatives, but the Senate is a lot trickier. There is the issue of the deputy Senate president Ekweremadu (PDP) that continues to alienate the current Senate leadership from certain power blocs within the APC, and, increasingly the executive arm of government.

There is also the “cold war” of ministerial and other major appointments going on. It rages across states, most notably, in Lagos.

The APC have conquered the PDP, but the biggest battle on its hands is the disunity within it. It must find a way to settle amicably across the board, or eventually risk the fatal blow that settled the PDP’s hold on power – the implosion from within.

APC, pull yourself together!

As the proxy battles pre-2019 elections rage on, the APC has a responsibility on its hands: to deliver on the promises made to Nigerians as it wrestled the PDP for votes. The party will not fulfill all of them, but there would be no excuses of they fail to deliver the promised change.

The battle against corruption has started on the pages of newspapers, but that was the case during the years of the PDP, save for a period between 2003 and 2007 when some real war on corruption happened. There are expectations that president Buhari will eventually activate his intention on that front. Few people doubt he will take on corruption head-on, most know corruption will fight back.

This is a battle the APC and Buhari must win or at least be seen to be winning. Otherwise, its biggest claim to power would fall even before it started talks of returning in 2019.

The future is here soon enough, and the APC cannot afford to run Nigeria like a two-year-old entity. It must grow and mature quickly. The same maturity which saw the party survive the December 2014 primaries that many, including the then-presidency, banked on to divide them for good, must come to bear in the immediate existence of the APC. If the party does not put its house in order, it would expend more energy in its battles within than it would on the necessities of development that Nigerians voted for and are desperate to see.

Time to show results, not show off

The APC cannot celebrate yet. It can mark the year on the calendar, but this is a time to ask: will it be that political party that eventually delivers the benefits of good governance to the people of Nigeria?

Of all parties, the APC knows best that an incumbent party can lose at the polls if it fails to perform. It would not matter how much was spent on re-election campaigns. It would not matter how many books got published on the “great” work of the administration – I have over 20 books in my library on the “successes” of the thankfully truncated ruse called “The Transformation Agenda of 2010-2015″.

Nigerians do not want to see the successes of the president and the APC on TV and in glossy publications. They want to see these successes on their streets, in their homes and in their lives, before anything else.

Nigeria’s political system was altered for good on the 28th of March, 2015. Our people now know better. They may collect your rice and beans and pocket your dollars, but if you are a bad government, they will end up voting you out. We saw our people generously donate to the APC candidates and the APC. We saw our people volunteer for the APC, we saw our people participate.

It is the one political party that cannot claim to be without at first admitting that it was formed and made by the Nigerian people and their desperation for change. The people trusted the APC with power, and now that the power has been handed over, it is their turn to justify that trust, or be shown the same door the PDP was shown on the 29th of May, 2015.