By Chido
Onumah
As the merger of the country’s major opposition parties
crystallized a few months ago into a mega party known as All Progressives
Congress (APC), I received an email from my friend, Richard Mammah, who wanted
to get my opinion on the new party. “Is the new mega party in Nigeria a
marginal improvement over where we are coming from?” Mammah asked pointedly. My
immediate response was emphatic: “It is (if it succeeds). It is important
that genuine democrats and progressives find a way to key in as soon as
possible”.
Since then, there have been debates
(among progressives) about the desirability of “joining” the new party. Expectedly,
the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) responded to news of the merger with
disdain. “No merger will succeed against us in 2015” was the party’s
official position through its former national secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola,
who spoke to journalists in Abuja. Oyinlola dismissed the merger as “gang ups”.
“We don’t think we
are threatened by what we would call gang ups”, said the former governor of
Osun State who was sent packing by the court in 2010 before he could complete
his second term. “In those days when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and
Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) closed ranks, it was called an accord. When the
Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP) did the
same, they called it gang up.
“Honestly speaking,
ganging up is an indication of some weaknesses. Why can’t a party stand on its
own and contest elections if it is sure that it would be acceptable to the
people? You don’t need to gang up. If you are ganging up then you don’t have
the strength. The only true national party today that cuts across every nook
and cranny of the Nigerian federation is the PDP. Gang up has never succeeded;
it will not succeed.”
Oyinlola’s diatribe was upped by Governor Sule Lamido of
Jigawa State who described
the opposition parties as “inventions of the last two years”. “They are the
invention of pain, agony and anger”, Lamido said, adding, “They thought PDP is
like them. We have political party history from 1998 when they were not in
existence. Those who were talking in ANPP, ACN and CPC were formally PDP
members that were flushed out in the field by the party (PDP).”
Bamanga Tukur,
the national chairman of the PDP, in his now infamous reaction to the merger described
his party as the “Messi of Nigerian politics”. “If you go for a contest, you
have the striker. You know Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentine football star)?
PDP is Messi in that contest. They (opposition) are no threat at all. It is
better, it inspires PDP to action. In that contest, tell them Chairman said PDP
is the Messi”. Football lovers in the country must feel insulted and incensed by
this laughable comparison.
Of course, the PDP is
grandstanding and its disdain for the APC is borne out of fear more than
anything else. I can understand the position of the
Oyinlolas, Lamidos and Tukurs. It is one that demands no response. For them, there
is no meaningful job other than being in the corridors of power. And that has
to be done by any means necessary. I felt differently, however, when I read a
response on the merger from a much younger former colleague, Ohimai Amaize, who
“joined” the PDP by way of political appointment about three years ago.
In his piece,
“The APC, is it a merger or ‘maga’?” Amaize asked, “What is the core ideology
of this new contrivance? What is its blueprint for Nigeria’s regeneration? An
existing manifesto or some consultants are still working on it? When will it be
ready? Perhaps, a few months to the next general elections! And this is part of
the problem. Contrivances don’t work”.
According
to Amaize, “The assumption by some of our youth that Nigeria will be transformed
simply because some ‘big guns’ within the political class have assembled under
the toga of a new opposition party remains nothing but an illusion. The notion
that a group of recycled politicians uniting against the ruling PDP in the name
of ‘opposition’ will present an already-made change, is at best, a hasty
journey to a land of frustration. It is not that simple. There is nothing like
already-made change. Nirvana does not exist. We must humble ourselves, bury our
pride and work under existing political platforms no matter how educated and
enlightened we think we are”.
Amaize
admonished Nigerian youth to be wary of the APC. “When this new opposition
party was being formed, what was its agenda for the youth?” Amaize wondered. “Is
there any or will it hurriedly cook up one within the next few days? Which of
the pro-APC youth activists on Twitter can confidently tell us the youth agenda
of their new party? How many of my fellow Twitter busybodies were consulted to
share their ideas for this merger before it was hatched? None! Because as far
as they are concerned, you are not important in the scheme of things and do not
exist”.
These are
legitimate questions from a very “concerned” young Nigerian knowing Amaize’s
antecedent before he joined the “transformation” wagon. However, the analysis shows
a shallow and opportunistic reading of history. It presupposes Amaize is
“happy” with the way things are in the country and if ever there is any talk of
change, it can only take place “under existing political platforms”. And by
this I am sure he means the PDP.
Of all the arguments in support of the emergence of APC, or
what the response of genuine democrats should be to the new party, two stand
out. In
his piece “APC and the continuing crisis of Left politics in Nigeria”, Adagbo Onoja
concluded that, “As
long as there is no Left party or a broad based democratic coalition in
Nigeria, comrades would have no options than spread to whichever platform they
find space to continue the struggle in whatever ways possible”.
In his article, “Reflections on
party combinations”, The Guardian, March 7 & 14, 2013, Edwin
Madunagu noted: “The
announcement of a merger of the leading opposition parties in Nigeria is a
development which no serious political formation or tendency in the country can
ignore or dismiss with cynicism of the type: ‘they always do this whenever a
major election approaches’”.
“Yes, ‘they’ always
announce coalitions, alliances, mergers, working agreements, etc, and the more
uncharitable commentators may also remind us that they almost invariably fail
to achieve their minimum post-announcement objective, that is, to actually
deliver a living (and not a still-born or mortally sick) child”, Madunagu wrote. “When
we have granted the cynics and pessimists their due, we may still insist that
we are confronted with a development, which rules out the option of ‘Siddon
look’.”
These two arguments
speak for themselves and capture, to a great extent, what the response of
radical and progressive elements, particularly youth and students, should be
with regard to the APC as we head toward 2015.
To be continued.
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