Is CPC losing its lustre?
Indeed, there are serious undercurrents of anger and despondency among CPC supporters in Kano State who believe that General Buhari should consider what would be the future of the party without him. It seems mercenaries have taken over the party, turning Buhari into a rubber stamp. By their nature, mercenaries do not believe in the […]
Indeed, there are serious undercurrents of anger and despondency among CPC supporters in Kano State who believe that General Buhari should consider what would be the future of the party without him. It seems mercenaries have taken over the party, turning Buhari into a rubber stamp. By their nature, mercenaries do not believe in the cause but in the material rewards that come with their participation in a movement. To all intent and purposes, the CPC started as a national movement with a promising future. Millions of Nigerians perceived the party as a credible platform to give Nigeria a better political direction. For a movement to succeed, however, there has to be a shared vision. Unfortunately, while General Buhari was seeking power to transform the lives of the downtrodden, not everyone around him had the same commitment. The biggest challenges facing the CPC are surgical restructuring of the national leadership of the party.
In a situation where General Buhari has become a hostage to his friends, one wonders how any changes can be brought about at the national leadership of the party. This is a valid concern and Buhari’s indifference, despite genuine criticisms against the leadership of the CPC, doesn’t help matters. The Kano State chairman of the CPC chapter, Alhaji Dan Azumi Gwarzo, was one of those recently suspended for alleged anti-party activities. His suspension was perceived as rubbing salt into the wounded feelings of the CPC supporters in Kano State who believe Alhaji Dan Azumi is a mere scapegoat.
In fact, one often repeated challenge against the national leadership of the party is for it to explain whether it is a crime for party supporters to freely elect candidates of their choice at the primaries. Rather than taking responsibilities for the miscalculation that led to the losses of the CPC, the national leaders have been pretending as if they were not the cause of the debacle. They are creating whipping boys to divert attention from the fatal roles they played in bringing the CPC into this mess.
Who should be blamed for mismanaging the enormous good of the party, which ultimately cost it dearly? Who was responsible for the tactless policy of substitution and imposition of candidates which forced voters to revolt against those forced on them by the party? Who killed internal democracy and the principle of fair play in the CPC? Which strategically calculative party leadership would frustrate candidates with mass appeal and replace them with those who cannot deliver the votes?
Members of the CPC national leadership, especially the clique described as the “We Group” by Chief Mike Ahamba, a former Buhari staunch loyalist, were mainly to blame for the losses of the party. Their whims and caprices became the official policy of the party; worse still, their interest even became superior to the party’s constitution. Why then punish the wrong people when the main culprits are still sticking to power like a limpet at the national headquarters in Abuja? They are so powerful and so manipulative that General Buhari himself has been reduced to a figurehead. While General Buhari gives the party credibility, they wield the real power to take decisions that no one else can rationally and objectively challenge.
Nobody can deny that the CPC is a victim of excessive idealism, arrogance, complacency and disregard for the will of the voters as evidently demonstrated by the policy of substitution and imposition of candidates. The party is now paying dearly for that miscalculation. Instead of facing the reality of their own misjudgment, the national leaders should not punish the wrong people for their own mistakes or mischief. They abused their power by using the policy of substitution and imposition to bring their own boys into power whether they won the primaries or not.
Do you then blame the Kano State CPC candidates for demanding a refund of the fees they paid as a condition to qualify to participate in the primaries, whose outcome the party national leaders treated with contempt? Why didn’t they simply select the party candidates for elective offices rather than asking aspirants to pay fees for participation in the primaries and at the end, reject those democratically elected as candidates by the voters? This insincerity of the CPC national leaders can only happen in a society with no moral standards, where leaders can punish the wrong people for their own mistakes or misdeeds.
Having apparently lost hope that the CPC national leadership is prepared to step down and allow for a restructuring of the party to make it face future challenges better, supporters of the party in Kano States are wondering whether there is any wisdom remaining in a party whose leaders are impervious to advice and are unwilling to allow the CPC grow without them. The party’s original gubernatorial candidate, Mohammed Abacha who was unjustly substituted by the party leaders, is currently under intense pressure to quit and go back to his original party. In particular, his supporters are insisting that since the party leaders are reluctant to correct their mistakes, there is no basis being with men who think they are infallible. It remains to be seen how Mohammed Abacha responds to this relentless pressure from his supporters who believe that the CPC has lost its main attraction – justice, equity, fair play and internal democracy.
Yusuf wrote from 107, Isa Kaita Road, Kaduna. [email protected]