APC: A grudge too far

At least the patent disconnect between its caucuses in the Senate and House of Representatives over the issue speaks  volumes in respect of how much caution the party should exercise in taking its chances. Even as  the party leadership may not have expected total compliance from its legislators, the fact that the directive was greeted […]

At least the patent disconnect between its caucuses in the Senate and House of Representatives over the issue speaks  volumes in respect of how much caution the party should exercise in taking its chances. Even as  the party leadership may not have expected total compliance from its legislators, the fact that the directive was greeted with a complement of mixed reactions, ranging from equivocation  to outright rebellion, constitutes a wake-up call that all is not well in its rank and file.
The message from Nigerians to the party is clear. Gone are the days when any incontinent political scheme can be hauled at the nation, and be expected to be swallowed by the long suffering Nigerians hook, line and sinker.  Although the party’s spokesman Lai Mohamed had described the directive as ‘well thought’- justifying it as an act of ‘legislative non compliance’, the APC shot itself in the foot as its other  spokesmen are striking different notes on the same issue. An instance is when as if to improve on Lai Mohamed’s feeble reason, the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila hailed the directive by clutching on perceived inherent weaknesses of the budget as his alibi. Would it then mean that but for the grudge the APC may be nursing against the PDP, its ‘revelations’ about the budget would not have see the light of day?  
From the fore going is clear that the party’s operations are largely tardy, hence it  successfully betrayed a grudge-driven mindset of its leadership. And this is unfortunate for it, even if the hawks within its fold think otherwise.
Seen in proper perspective, the directive suffers from at least two major flaws. Firstly it is coming against the grain of public expectations from a newly registered political party that should offer the nation an equally new paradigm in political activism. Given the adopted name of the party – being a congress of progressives, the least Nigerians expect from it is a commitment to the improvement of the society, along the line of enhanced civility.  While the utterances of several of the party’s leading lights may be reflective of national interest, the mood of Nigerians today cannot be assuaged by mere cacophonies of patriotic chants. The time has come for governance to move from the realm of propaganda, to facilitating the citizens’ consummation of tangible derivatives of good governance. That is the new politics that leaders are expected to practice.
Of all the areas that an opposition party (which the APC aspires to be), can bite the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the national budget remains the most unpardonable, unacceptable and therefore inelegant. Even at the best of times from the return of democracy in 1999, it suffers a grinding rite of passage that claims at least the first four months of any year.  
The APC therefore did not need to frustrate the President and by implication the entire nation through questionable initiatives like the one it tried to conscript the Federal legislators into. Rather it could direct its considerable capacities to effect change in the nation’s fiscal regime pursuant to facilitating early budget passage and enhanced implementation of same. The nation’s gratitude to it will flow in torrents and for a long time if it achieves this goal.
Another fault of the directive is the implicit appropriation to itself, of the allegiance of the Federal legislators to their constituents. By virtue of the fact that the legislators were elected individually to represent their various constituencies, their primary obligation is to attract dividends of good governance to their bases. The interest of the party cannot therefore take precedence over those of their constituencies. For many of them, the party was not even there when they emerged as Senators and Honourable members of the House of Representatives. Even for those who belonged to the defunct constituent parties to the APC, the picture is still the same.  The dilemma associated with subjugating loyalty to their constituents to that to the party, is the reason for the discordant reactions of the legislators to the party’s directive. And this is where the main lesson for the APC remains that it is a party only in name, and with a structure that is at best inchoate. More significantly it may already be disappointing Nigerians who expect it to drive the long desired paradigm shift in our polity. If it cannot foster a workable consensus among its legislators in the National Assembly, who literally  operate under a single roof, what prospects can the party offer Nigerians in respect of turning the tables against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the context of the 2015 general elections?
While it is true that the party has just started its membership registration drive, the best that can be wished it is good luck as the exercise is starting rather too late in the day. Expectedly the party‘s offices nationwide will be under siege by ‘troops’ of real and fake experts in media spin techniques, promising to work ‘African magic’ of different shades, all aimed at making Nigerians fall under a spell that will make them drop the PDP and adopt the APC.
How the party handles that will be interesting. But nothing should becloud the leadership’s    appreciation of the unprecedented level of citizen mobilization in Nigeria, which will hopefully provide the backdrop to the turn of events from now to the 2015 elections. Already the APC suffers from the unflattering image that it offers nothing ideologically different from the PDP. This is  because apart from the promise of sweeping the nation clean with its broom,  and parade of bedfellows of contrasting plumages,  the party  is yet to give Nigerians any credible alternative agenda that offers verifiable answers to burning issues like poverty mitigation, unemployment reduction, food security and security of life and property, to name a few. The party can therefore do with a more intrusive appraisal of its agenda for taking Nigeria to the next level, by addressing itself to the expectations of good governance – beyond the aforementioned ones,  that are seen to be missing in the present circumstances of national life.  
Commendably for the APC, by harping on the need for change in the polity it is striking a note that is sweet in the ears of Nigerians. By tying the change to a date -2015, the party is being definitive about its sense of mission. But trying to effect the change by hurting all Nigerians – the guilty and innocent alike, is taking its grudge against the PDP administration beyond the terrain of reasonable conduct.
Nigeria and Nigerians deserve better.  
 
Daminabo is a member of the Editorial Board of Daily Trust<[email protected]