All Progressives Congress (APC) is the gathering platform of the opposition. It makes sense to act as salt to democracy. The CPC, ACN and ANPP make it up. Some have wondered how this gathering could produce a fit and there’s some rationale in the wonder. In it, we have extremists learning to moderate, though in previous tests on moderation they failed serially. We have mercantile politicians who amassed wealth via governance and must remain in power to protect it. We have the motherless babies – no mother, no father, just looking for shelter if only it can keep living. Out of this myriad, how’s an identity going to be carved? Politics is about identity that births doing. If the PDP has a problem, it is this too. Like a roadside banana, every passer-by plucks and goes away; at least, it has an identity: pluck-I-pluck, oil runs. It’s not enough to oppose a ruling party, it’s the content of the alternative; is the way it’s showing better? When the difference isn’t clear, no clapping, please. Indeed, of more worry is the innate instability trait. With what do you moderate an extremist? How do you tell a chopper not to chop and how long can you keep the lost?
Don’t get it wrong, this is the worry of watchers. Critically examining the make-up of the party, you notice interesting things. There is a political-block development. CPC is north, ACN is west, ANPP is north; where is the south-south/south-east in an originally tripod arrangement? Before rushing to register, did the movers think this through and its consequences too? What they’ve done is a 3 minus 1 formation and expect stability. In their late realisation, they began angling for personalities from the other block just to complete the numbers and make it look pan-Nigerian but it’s clear where the locus of power is. Besides, the recruits can be used as tools of instability as need may demand. How clever is this or do you say, ‘it doesn’t matter’? OK!
Read also: Sending money home
This column has often maintained that Nigeria is not America, is not England; it is Nigeria with its sensitivities. Where you come from matters; what you do comes later. To think otherwise is to sit yourself down and tell yourself, ‘sit down, today I lie to you’. We know that ‘what you do’ is right, but we’re not there yet, and to know is not to be there. Don’t forget that ‘where you come from’ is institutionalised. How? Ask the quota system, ask the zoning formula. So if you’re doing politics and start with an imbalance, you’ll end in imbalance.
The other is the grand entry of lethargy in national politics. The struggle between the components can easily give way to inaction, especially when it matters most. Just last week, there were rumblings about the distribution of national offices. If this is it, what would it look like when policy issues are involved? If one is for and the other against, who takes it and how long would the nation wait, especially when extremism powered by block interest is involved? I ask because what affects a ruling party affects the nation as a whole. These are issues that should worry Lai Mohammed who’s skilled in seeing mote in another’s eye but blind to the beam in his eyes. I worry because of the quality of criticism coming from there. You don’t criticise for criticising sake. You mustn’t reply to everything; you mustn’t take all that your opponent says to the darkroom where negatives are developed. The danger is, you may stray off unconsciously. They got to the point of being accused of covertly supporting Boko-Haram just because they lip everything. It makes the job look like an amusement. What the public is interested in is: how far can the APC go to convince all that it is an alternative – or more precisely, a better alternative? To the extent I know, this hasn’t happened. All that is done is keep ears on the ground, trap what the opponent is saying, then fire! fire! That’s not the job; it’s cheap and takes the salt away.
Better alternative is it, not a gang-up. The problem with gang-ups is they collapse soon after. The north, east and west ganged up, some would say came together, under the leadership of Zik to get power from the colonialists; three years later, they fractured and six years after, they went to war – things fell apart, the centre still struggling to hold. That’s the trajectory of this opposition and it’s worrying.
What they should do now is look more inwards and bridle more. Its present posture is that of Acute Pain Contour in endless internal wrestling. It’s APC too but not the preferred one.
Onyegbule, PhD, is the Consultant-in-Chief of Conflict Out- Peace In Consult.)
