CPC: Beyond cosmetic changes
Unfortunately, the latest initiative has fallen short of the expectations of the larger membership of the party across the country who wanted to see a thorough overhauling of the entire national leadership structure of the party. Many members consider such cosmetic effort to be cosmetic, leaving of them and the party’s supporters greatly disappointed. Those […]
Unfortunately, the latest initiative has fallen short of the expectations of the larger membership of the party across the country who wanted to see a thorough overhauling of the entire national leadership structure of the party. Many members consider such cosmetic effort to be cosmetic, leaving of them and the party’s supporters greatly disappointed. Those believed to be the main stumbling blocks to the CPC’s prospects of becoming a truly national party are still in their entrenched positions. The removal or resignation of Alhaji Sule Yahaya Hamma as the Director General of the Buhari campaign organization did not satisfy many, who think that as long as others who have no business being among the party’s leadership, it would be business as usual. There a lot of party apparatchiks, including its National Secretary of the party and other so-called Buhari loyalists who are actually clogs in the wheel of the party, but are still holding on to their party positions.
From 2003, 2007 and 2011, the General Buhari presidential campaign train had consistently run into hitches, largely because he surrounded himself with people whose approach to politics is old-fashioned with no bearing on reality. They have repeatedly misled General Buhari into endorsing wrong decisions. Their perspective of national politics is so narrow that they often assume that you can win election by relying heavily on northern support, where General enjoys a formidable following. Apart from integrity, General Buhari is generally perceived as a national figure with broad appeal and electability. Did they help Buhari do the hard work necessary to win wider national appeal? In fact, even in the north-central political zone such as Kogi, Kwara, Benue and Plateau States, did they do enough hard work to make Buhari gain penetration? They were so carried away by the fact that the northwest has a large population, which they assumed was enough to make Buhari a president.
We have a duty as genuine admirers of the Daura General to tell him the truth which the opportunists around him are not willing to tell him for their self-serving reasons. As an ardent supporter of Buhari, I want to see him as a national figure. These so-called Buhari loyalists should have done more hard work in the southwest, southeast, south-south and the north-central where his strengths were not certain. In fact, even in Nasarawa State, the CPC won because of Al-Makura. Is it not strange that the CPC has only four members in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly while the PDP dominates with twenty four members? Personality factor largely accounted for the party’s performance rather than the hard work that the party did in that State. It is not enough therefore, to blame the CPC political debacle entirely on rigging. Serious strategic errors have been made and the men responsible for these blunders are so arrogantly self-righteous that they seem reluctant to take responsibility for their political miscalculation. Even as they are harming the CPC, General Buhari has remained stubbornly loyal to these opportunists who surround him for their own political advantages.
No strategically guided political party should deliberately destroy its members with electoral value or the capacity to deliver the votes for the party at the polls. Curiously, that was the policy pursued by the CPC. The policy of imposition and substitution of candidates was the beginning of the popular revolt against the party during the 2011 elections, especially the governorship and House of Assembly elections. Kano State was originally a CPC stronghold. Thanks to the naivety of the ideologues around General Buhari, the party shot itself in the foot by the policy of imposition and substitution. Mohammed Abacha is generally perceived as the most popular CPC figure in Kano State, enjoying the support of millions of the ordinary people. He is indeed, the main political asset of the party.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja declared in a case brought before it by Mohammed Abacha that the so-called party “prerogative” cannot and should not replace the will of the voters. Few days to the election, another court declared controversially that the so-called prerogative could displace voter sovereignty. Based on that curious judgment, INEC finally accepted the candidature of Col. Isa, despite the fact that he lost the primaries.
Outraged by the injustice done to Mohammed Abacha, his supporters responded by turning against the party at the polls, paving the way for a PDP takeover of Kano State. The CPC gubernatorial candidate, Col. Isa came third in the election. This electoral debacle should have humbled the CPC national leaders to embrace reality. Instead, they are still behaving as if nothing happened and rather than resigning, they are still holding to their offices. In fact, the loss of the CPC in Kano, Bauchi and Katsina States was the direct result of the misguided political strategy of the so-called loyalists that are holding General Buhari hostage at the expense of the larger interest of the party. No restructuring and reformation of the CPC can ever succeed as long as these ideologues are allowed to continue manipulating the affairs of the party. The entire party leadership should be sacked and a caretaker committee of younger politicians with grassroots support be established to restructure the party. Anything short of this is a mere cosmetic exercise. The current resentment against the party leadership cannot be tackled by cosmetic efforts that don’t tackle the fundamental factors that led the CPC into the avoidable mess it found itself. Elections are not won in the radio studios and newspaper pages; they are won by hard work and the ability to identify leaders with solid grassroots support.
Sanda, a youth activist, wrote in from No. 67, Yahaya Road, Kaduna ([email protected])