Are CPC leaders learning any lessons?

Instead, their whims and caprices became the official policy at the expense of the party constitution. Despite his integrity, General Buhari is unfortunately irresolute in putting his foot down and checking the excesses of the idealists around him who play chimerical politics, which was ridiculously detached from the reality. Rather than respecting the will of […]

Instead, their whims and caprices became the official policy at the expense of the party constitution. Despite his integrity, General Buhari is unfortunately irresolute in putting his foot down and checking the excesses of the idealists around him who play chimerical politics, which was ridiculously detached from the reality. Rather than respecting the will of the people, the leaders of the CPC introduced the so-called party prerogative, which was designed to overthrow voter sovereignty or freedom of choice. Freedom of choice is the heart of democracy; once you take it away, democracy dies automatically. Hiding behind the unjust and undemocratic policy of imposition and substitution of candidates, the party ill-advisedly removed validly elected candidates at the primaries and replaced them with their own anointed candidates.

The sudden exit from CPC of Mr. Mike Ahamba, an ardent Buhari loyalist, sent disturbing signals that all was not well in the party. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria regretted the impunity of what he described as the “We Group” which has hijacked Buhari’s mind and frequently persuading him to endorse wrong and potentially damaging decisions at the expense of the party. In His frankest interview after his exit, Mr. Ahamba said he personally met Buhari to warn him of the danger the activities of this clique posed to the future political interest of the CPC. According to him, the General was indifferent and at that point he said, the decision to quit became inevitable. Of course, General Buhari attempted to persuade Ahamba to return, but the Senior Advocate followed his convictions and stuck to his guns.

Do the CPC leaders have any moral justification to castigate their PDP political opponents for injustice and then embark upon the policy of substitution and imposition? This is one of the moral contractions in the CPC. The replacement of Mohammed Abacha after validly winning the primaries largely accounted for the defeat of the party’s anointed candidate, Colonel Lawal Ja’afaru Isa (retired). How do you rationalize a situation when a candidate who won 144,000 votes at the primaries replaced by his opponents who got only 78,000 votes? This was exactly the situation in Kano State. In fact, about 30 CPC House of Assembly candidates in Kano State withdrew from the 2011 election in protect against the injustice done to Mohammed Abacha who is the pillar of the party. His grassroots credentials are so formidable that if the election was held a hundred times, he will win again and again. Former Speaker Aminu Bello Masari had no chance against his incredibly popular rival, Senator Lado Danmarke in Katsina State. And the former Speaker, despite all media hype, knew this reality. Senator Lado is the life and soul of the CPC in Katsina States. Just like Mohammed Abacha, he is firmly rooted in the hearts of the ordinary people.

The CPC gambled away its chances in Kano State because of the conviction by the party leaders in Abuja that they could ride roughshod over the voters’ sovereignty without any consequences. The outcome of the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in Kano State had sent a clear message to those who thought their whims and caprices could replace vote sovereignty. Ignoring future court cases against the injustice they did to the victims of substitution, the CPC leaders may now be embarrassingly but privately forced to reflect on the consequences of impunity. In Katsina State, the sacked lawmakers have no sympathy because they were beneficiaries of injustice. And the most disturbing aspect of the CPC crisis is that the clique around General Buhari cannot win any election in their words. They are only interested in dropping Buhari’s name for private advantages. Now that the CPC is reeling from the shocks of their wrong advice, the clique around General Buhari should be honourable enough to abdicate any leadership positions they currently hold. The Nasir El-Rufai Renewal Committee must tell these people to their faces that they are part of the problem and therefore, must quit their jobs for any meaningful reform and restructuring to be carried out in the CPC leadership structure. General Buhari should not sacrifice the future of the party for the sake of protecting a coterie of opportunists who have no electoral value to the party. They have no political following of their own and, for this reason they have no business holding the party at their mercy any longer.

Malumfashi, a political activist, wrote in from No. 79, Blantyre Street, Wuse II, Abuja. ([email protected])