APC’s Registration and the Emergence of Opposition

But first, those who remain sceptical, in spite of the continual and continuous assertion and affirmation of the difference in the character and capacity of Attahiru Jega as an INEC Chairman with the desired integrity to turn around the electoral structure and history of this country must by now be substantially confounded. In the testy […]

But first, those who remain sceptical, in spite of the continual and continuous assertion and affirmation of the difference in the character and capacity of Attahiru Jega as an INEC Chairman with the desired integrity to turn around the electoral structure and history of this country must by now be substantially confounded.
In the testy period of waiting for the registration of APC and the indeterminate conundrum that emerged from that, and with particular reference to the role of INEC in it, so much tongue-wagging has taken place. Most unjustifiably ludicrous perspective of this is the cynical insinuation that Attahiru Jega and the INEC that he leads have been put in the oily pocket of the dominant, ruling party. When INEC declined to register, or seemingly prevaricated in the registering of the merging coalition, the rifest rumour in town is that Jega has been pocketed, or at best compromised with his trivial escapism of hiding behind a finger– an alibi of nomenclatural  knottiness. Oh, the name APC belonged to another body and the merging party could not use it. It is disingenuous, unimaginative, and so on. Some more philistine commentator concluded that Jega must be praised for going this far in feigning independence, but, alas, the game is up! So far so good. In the end, those who paid the piper must call the sing-tune! Good bye to INEC!! De ja vu—ala Iwu, at least!!!. Without any attempt to gloat over the vindication of Jega, which we knew will happen, it is a happy happening that the INEC has lived up to its original bidding by registering the merging parties as APC.
Yet, this is the least edifying aspect of the whole scenario. The very act of the merger, taking this nation out of the alliance bracket of party politics; you must go back to all the Four republics of party political democracy in this country—from the First Republic and the NPC/UPGA alliance, to the Second Republic’s NPN /APP/ ANPP loose fusion to the dissolution of the various strands in the military-democracy of Babangida, dissolving into the two part, middle-road ideological chemistry of ‘a-little-to-the-right and ‘a-little-to-the left bankruptcy of the IBB transition, all through the foetid Third Republic and this forth democratic experience; this merger is an exciting experience. At least, for once, there is a possibility of the evolvement of a robust opposition politics. The nausea of political arrogance of the ruling party—that it will rule for eternity, unchallenged, unchallengeable—must recreate itself into potential heave for a sigh! For the first time, registered political parties have agreed, consciously and without duress, to dissolve their identities and merge into a single political party, with a single Manifesto, if they will, a single flag, floating majestically in the political air, a single election programme and, in the end, a single party allegiance under collectively chosen, structured party leaders and an elective structure.
Similarly, joyful is the simple song and story of the emergence of a strong opposition party that transcends ethno-national boundaries and one which is ready to shun sectarian scaffolds and religious bigotry that have been the bane of the fledgling democracy of our nation. In other words, opposition politics is potentially imaginable, attainable and tangible in Nigeria, such that the dominant party, with its hegemonic tendencies, must be jolted back to life out of its characteristic complacency and criminal cavalier, to confront the possibility of being really thrown out of power. What is more? Given its present level of internal chaos and incoherence, there looms a real possibility of the PDP receiving a real electoral challenge come 2015. We are familiar with the praxis of magical re-alignments in the face of possible oppositional routing of quickly sinking its internal differences to re-assemble and re-assert power through polls manipulation, or at least recently through marvellous surreptitious manoeuvring. Yet, what has happened through this historic merger, and the jettisoning of fragmented and tenuous politics of individuation is that Nigeria’s democracy stands a chance of growing, maturing and stabilizing. There is also the positive and exciting anticipation of the collapse of ethno-national politics in which, since the First Republic, every region, every zone and every group produces its own party. Hence, the dominance of NPC in the North, AG in the West and NCNC in the East—with their various anomalous internal dissensions by the Talakawa /NEPU in the north, UPGA in the West and APP in the East which typified regional politics. But, for all practical political purposes, the trend that developed in the 1990s, with the emergence of the Muslim-Muslim candidacy in the SDP in the election that Babangida cynically annulled may have re-emerged and geo-political partisan politics may have committed happy suicide.
However, all these may amount to sheer bush-fire unless certain factors of politics are rapidly nipped in the bud. First, the perennial disease of the vacuity of sustained and concrete party ideology (remediable in the evolvement of a sound, well-articulated, envisioned and organic programme of action,) must be killed. Clear party ideology, strengthened by clear programmes—people-oriented around employment, education, health, infrastructure and cultural renaissance—must become manifest and established. Secondly, the merging constituents must be guided by national interest, clear focus on dethroning the dominant party, and a dissolution of the protagonist ego in which strong characters only agree to come together with the easy dissolution of resolve when the issue of power-sharing comes to the fore. For instance, how easy is it to resolve the palpable power-mongering penchants and the strong power obsession of the leaders of the ACN and CPC—Bola Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari recently reveals the inevitability of his running for President. Tinubu’s ACN expresses its conviction that a Northern Christian must be thrown up for President, given his alleged ambition to become, at least, a Vice-President.
What, if we may ask, is ennobling in the character of the leadership of APC to reveal a drastic difference between its strategy of deployment of power;  its touchable undemocratic disposition in governance in the states under its member-parties control from the contempt of the PDP for a democratic culture? The argument is this; the ACN and the CPC at least do not practice internal democracy in a way that puts them ahead as clear alternatives to the PDP. How will they nurture a fledgling democracy to maturity in a way that garners for them popular support than the failing governance structure and praxis of the dominant party today?
In the end, how will the CPC handle the problem of personality egotism and power mongering that is so crucial to the success of its effort to dislodge the ruling party or at least give it a good run for its money such that will grow the much-desired opposition politics in our country today? This is the million dollar poser in the emergence of political merger in the country today.