APC: There was a manifesto

In Nigeria, associations, masquerading and, registered as political parties keep amusing me.  According to Wikipedia, a political party is a group of people who agree on some proposed policies and programmes, and who come together to contest elections, win and hold power in government with a view to promoting the collective good of the people.

The British philosopher, Edmund Burke laid out what he described as the basic definition of a political party as “a body of men united for promoting, by their joint endeavours, the national interest, upon some particular principles on which they are all agreed.”

Readers will pardon my little knowledge of politics if I say I do not see any political associations in Nigeria that can truly pass the tests of these definitions. On the contrary, they will pass with distinction in the opposite. I see them as associations of people united in greed and avarice to promote selfish and any interests other than national.

Depending on the situation at hand, Nigeria’s political associations deceive; they play on the intelligence of the people. They whip up religious or ethnic sentiments, they latch onto (in) security issues, or onto other social problems, which they created, and they do more, all in order to win votes and power.

Very sadly, the latest of such irritating behaviour came from the least expected quarter: from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

During the month of July, two disturbing news came up; one from the party directly, and the second from an organ dominated and led by the party. The first was the report that the APC has set up a committee to be chaired by the Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai to “articulate its (APC) position on the nation’s restructuring.”

According to a newspaper report, “the party said it was uncertain as to what Nigerians meant by restructuring of the country, hence the decision to set up the committee to come up with the party’s own definition on the concept of restructuring.”

The second was another report, this time, from the Governors’ Forum, dominated by APC Governors, and headed by Governor Yari of Zamfara State. According to the report, the Governors’ Forum set up a six man committee “to explore the option of actualising state police in the country.”

I felt taken aback by these news from the APC. This is because I thought these issues are already clear in their manifesto. Please, read the manifesto. Under the first caption: ‘Highlights in the Constitution’ the very first item on the list read thus: “Initiate action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true federalism and the federal spirit.”

And the next caption on ‘National Security,’ the third item on the list read thus: “Begin widespread consultations to amend the Constitution to enable States and Local Governments to employ State and Community Police to address the peculiar needs of each community.”

Even though the Party Chairman, Odigie-Oyegun, was quoted as saying that the party never mentioned “restructuring” in the manifesto, then, if these are not part of restructuring issues, I wonder what they are. Besides, the cores in the APC manifesto revolve round restructuring either of political or of socio-economic features in the polity.

There are two significant points to be noted here. By now, more than halfway into their tenure, a political party and its government in power should have gone far with the implementation of these programmes as enunciated in their manifesto. This has not happened. The worse is that one cannot but conclude that the APC was unserious about its manifesto. It seems that the party just put these statements together to mesmerise the people. It appeared that they never did any homework about it, that they never did any thinking about it, much less about its implementation.

Otherwise, how is it that the party is now just to search for the definition of restructuring as meant by Nigerians? Also, how is it that the party is yet to explore the option of actualising state police, when all these were categorically stated as part of the programmes they would pursue in power? You do not say you want to pursue a programme when you are yet to have a clear definition of it, or when you are yet to be definitive about your position, or when you are yet to explore other options.

It is very sad for these to have come from a body with such intellectual and egalitarian claims as the APC. It shows the bankruptcy of our systems. A manifesto is a pact between a political party or its candidate and the people. In more enlightened societies, it is a binding document. It is, therefore, a disappointment that nobody from within the APC could remind the party that there was a manifesto!

I can predict the likely outcome of the Mallam Nasir el-Rufai committee. Simply put, the pretence and deceits will continue. The committee will report that there is the “urgent” need to listen to the people and restructure the country. The committee will further recommend to the government in our usual tall, high-sounding English, to proceed “most expeditiously” to set up a body of the “true representatives” of stakeholders in the Nigerian project to collate the wishes of the people, review and study the entire situation and make recommendations to the government.

The el-Rufai committee will feign ignorance of the fact that we have had four of such similar path-finding committees and reports on national issues in the last 30 years: the Cookey Political Bureau Report (1986); the Constitutional Conference Report (1994); the National Political Reform Conference Report of 2005 and the National Conference Report (2014). The committee will still recommend a new committee or conference, not for anything, but to provide jobs for their foot soldiers.

We agreed that the last six of the 16 years of PDP rule was inexorably leading us to disaster, and we voted for change! Alas, to our astonishment, we woke up to find the PDP governors of yesterday as the APC ministers and senators of today, while the PDP ministers and senators of yesterday are today the APC governors.

There are no people-oriented political parties in Nigeria. The existing political associations have neither morals nor principles; their members have no shame and no qualms. They are propelled and driven by everything else but altruistic motives.

No wonder, our country remains in a quagmire, a sad spectacle, a tragic study. Who will save Nigeria?

Daramola, a Civil Engineer, lives in Ilesa, Osun State.