APC, PDP and the widening restructuring debate

The two leading political parties in the country, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its main rival, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) have been at each other’s throat in recent times as regards the definition and ownership of the word restructuring. Associate Editor, TAIWO ADISA, examines the new rush to own the all-important word.

AS the clamour for the restructuring of the country increases, reaching what could be described as the peak last week when different forces and voices in the agitation for the restructuring of the country converged on Ibadan, Oyo State, focus will now shift to the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government.

Will the Federal Government and the ruling APC now change its posture to the call for restructuring, having seen the rising agitations on the matter especially from Southern Nigeria? This has remained the main question ever since the well-attended Yoruba Summit, which brought together key champions of the restructuring cause from the South-West, South-East and South-East.

In trying to answer that question, however, political observers have begun to draw inferences from the recent tango between the ruling party and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the calls for restructuring, concluding that the back and forth between the two parties confirmed that it had become imperative to pay attention to the restructuring clamour and that it might become a major campaign plank ahead the 2019 election.

The two major parties had, in the last few weeks preceding the meetings of the Southern Leaders Forum held in Abuja and the Yoruba Summit held in Ibadan, where advocates of restructuring coalesced and insisted on the need to restructure the country, traded words over the sincerity or otherwise of the two parties on the restructuring debate.

While the APC had come down heavily on the PDP for being disinterested in the restructuring of the country, citing how it governed the country for about 16 years without doing anything in that regard, the PDP lambasted the ruling party for “the sudden resurrection of its interest in restructuring,” after several denials by its leadership that it did not promise restructuring while campaigning to unseat the PDP.

Though the APC had, about two months ago, appeared set to address the restructuring question, setting up a 10-man committee headed by Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, to articulate its position on restructuring, the party’s earlier unfavourable resolve on the matter seemed to be taking the better part, as the committee was yet to come up with any effort.

For the two leading political parties in the land, the idea of restructuring was a no-go area at the start of this administration. Loyalists of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) saw the idea as a distraction to the new government and a sing-song of those that lost out in the 2015 election, while members of the PDP also appeared  unenthusiastic about the rising calls for restructuring at the start of the debate.

Though the APC had devolution of powers as one of its campaign agenda in the 2015 election race, the party sidelined that thinking as it made efforts to brand advocates of restructuring frustrated politicians. Similarly, the National Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, could not come clear on the party’s idea on restructuring at the start of the current campaign, even as some observers have maintained that had the PDP been interested in the restructuring of the country, it would have seen to the implementation of the 2014 National Conference report, which has become an important document in the hands of current agitators for restructuring.

El-Rufai and the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun were on the frontline of those who opposed the strident calls for restructuring at the early stages. The Kaduna governor described proponents as political jobbers, while the party chairman said that his party never promised restructuring on the campaign train in 2015.

But the advocates remained resolute and unbending. Southern leaders took over the stage with frequent meetings and firm declarations. Elder statesmen such as Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Professor Ben Nwabueze, frequented the meetings as they added historical and constitutional backgrounds to strengthen the agitations.

Also, the nation began to witness a lot more camaraderie among governors of South-East and South-South, who also repeatedly released communiques along the line of restructuring. With that persistence, proponents of restructuring started winning more converts and it wasn’t going to take long as the APC and PDP joined the fray in a bid to own the restructuring agenda.

The APC was the first to do a volte-face on the issue, raising the el-Rufai committee to put together its thoughts on restructuring, noting that its constitution, which accommodates devolution of powers, is a variant of restructuring, an effort the PDP criticised as deceptive.

Matters got to a head in the aftermath of PDP’s non-elective convention of August 12, as verbal exchanges between the two parties took over the horizon, with the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, carpeting PDP for its disinterest in the restructuring of the country.

In return, the PDP criticised the ruling APC for failing Nigerians, noting that the ruling party had made it easy to reclaim power in 2019.

According to Abdullahi, though the issue of restructuring had become the most critical issue on the agenda of Nigerians at the moment, PDP did not believe in it, a development which he said would work against the PDP’s plan to reclaim power.

“Restructuring is the main issue for Nigerians right now. Nigerians have concluded that the status quo is not working for them and they want some structural changes that would enhance effective governance; that government operates for the good of the people. But the PDP has shown it does not believe in restructuring. It is not in their manifesto,” Abdullahi said.

Abdullahi added: “PDP never believed in restructuring, for that alone Nigerians won’t vote for them come 2019. They held two National Conferences and it was never on their plans. It is not in their manifesto and it cannot be in their plans towards 2019. Nigerians want a country that will work for them and they know the PDP cannot provide the kind of government that would deliver. APC remains the party to beat by a wide margin in 2019.”

In response to Abdullahi’s submissions, the PDP declared that the APC has shown its penchant for jettisoning campaign promises, saying it believed in restructuring unlike the APC.

A statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, refuted claim by APC’s spokesman, which suggested that PDP never believed in the restructuring of Nigeria.

Adeyeye submitted: “This sudden resurrection of the ruling party’s interest in ‘restructuring’ after several months of denial by the chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun; Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, some governors elected on the platform of the party and other senior party officials that the APC did not promise restructuring in its manifesto and during the campaigns in 2015, is the latest in a series of deceitful ploys designed and being implemented by the party to hoodwink Nigerians ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“As the word implies, restructuring is a process of re-arrangement, re-organisation or re-formation of the manner or way in which something (in this case governance) is done. As used in the Nigeria’s political lexicon, restructuring refers to the modification of the system of governance to guarantee the socio-economic and political growth and development of the Nigerian people.

“It is imperative to inform Nigerians that our party is not against the restructuring of the system of governance in the country in a manner that places Nigeria firmly on the path of growth, development and prosperity.

“Indeed, our party’s commitment to constantly seeking solutions to the challenges confronting the Nation caused us to amend our party’s constitution to include the equitable devolution (decentralisation) of power for greater functionality, national integration and rapid economic and social reconstruction, amongst other things. Examples can be found in Preamble 2(b) and (e), Section 7(b) and (f), and many more provisions of our Party Constitution.

“It is against the backdrop of our party’s commitment to restructuring the system of socio-political governance in Nigeria for better functionality and efficiency that the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan summoned a national conference to recommend amendments to the Nigerian constitution. This conference submitted a report with several proposed amendments to the Constitution which the APC-led Federal Government has refused to implement more than 2 years later.”

The PDP said that the APC deliberately boycotted the 2014 national conference confab, saying: “It is imperative to point out that APC was the only political party which refused to attend the National Conference in 2014. It is also imperative to point out that APC’s refusal to participate at the conference was predicated on a narrow and selfish interest. In light of the above, we reiterate our support for the restructuring of the system of governance in the country to ensure more functional and efficient governance at all tiers of government,” the party said.

But the APC hit back, noting that the PDP’s definition of restructuring was narrow, inappropriate and aimed at misleading the people. He said that his party was ready to welcome the PDP to the restructuring debate as “latter day converts.”

Abdullahi said of the PDP position: “It is indeed amusing that after being in power for 16 years, PDP is just waking up to realise that its constitution prescribed restructuring. If this is not political opportunism, we wonder what is. We understand that PDP needs desperately to return to reckoning; and realising that restructuring is the new political currency in Nigeria, it is now latching on and even claiming to be an apostle!

“If the PDP now believes in restructuring, we welcome them as latter day converts. But the appropriate behaviour would be for them to respect the efforts we are currently making to deliver on our party’s manifesto on restructuring. It must interest the PDP that we have dusted up the reports of their national conferences from the shelves they had left them to gather dust and those reports are now forming part of the work we are doing with our committee, which they have tried hard to denigrate.

Abdullahi added that the ruling party had, all along, believed in the restructuring of the country, saying “it is at the very heart of our party’s manifesto as explicitly stated in Section 3 (1) thus: We will devolve more revenue and powers, such as policing to States and Local Government so that decision making is closer to the people. We pledge to bring the government closer to the people through fiscal and political decentralisation, including local policing.”

But the PDP would not take things lying low as its Head of Publicity in Abuja, Chinwe Nnorom,  fired yet another salvo, accusing the ruling APC of being clever by half in its criticism of PDP’s  support for restructuring.

Reacting to APC’s claim that it was using the restructuring campaign as a launch pad for return to power, the PDP in a statement issued by Nnorom said the APC was only trying to manipulate Nigerians.

According to the PDP, the APC turned around on the restructuring debate when it saw that the campaigners would not wane, adding that the party had previously repudiated restructuring, which was part of its manifesto.

The PDP added thus: “We wish to emphasise that the APC’s response was another misadventure and inglorious efforts to further misinform Nigerians especially by just quoting a part of the sections of the PDP Constitution that was included in our statement – Preamble 2(b), which of course resonates with the PDP’s endeavour towards economic and socio-political growths; and referred to it as our misunderstanding of the word – Restructuring.”

The PDP stated that other sections of its constitution emphasis restructuring as it raised example of the Preamble 2(e) which states thus ‘to devolve powers equitably between the federal, state and local governments in the spirit of federalism’; and 7(2b) which states that, ‘The party shall strive to promote federalism and an equitable revenue sharing formula” PDP Constitution (As Amended in 2012).”

The statement further emphasised the party’s position thus: “For the umpteenth time, we wish to re-iterate that the PDP is not only interested in functional devolution and equitable distribution of powers between the federal, states and local government levels in the country but we are equally working hard with all our elected representatives across the country to restructure Nigeria for our common good.

But as the two parties continue to trade words, reaching for each other’s jugular on the restructuring debate, a critical mass of Nigerians continues to form on the call for the restructuring of the country, with the Yoruba Summit held in Ibadan being the latest of recent efforts by the advocates of restructuring to force the hands of the Federal Government to consider its stance on the restructuring debate.

With the major parties’ renewed interest in the debate, however, political observers have begun to ask how long the ruling APC could go in testing the resolve of the restructuring advocates and how well the PDP could go in playing its cards to woo advocates of restructuring and a majority of Nigerians who have begun to have more than a passing interest in what becomes of the current debate.

With the two parties jostling to take the centre stage of the restructuring debate, the nation can only be the beneficiary as either way, the polity should be guaranteed of a variant of restructuring at the end of the day.