PDP as a lesson to APC

When the PDP held sway, especially in the early days of its reign and until the early parts of this year, the slogan we heard from those in political command positions at the level of the party and government was that the PDP would rule for 60 years. It was a mistake, as the reality […]

When the PDP held sway, especially in the early days of its reign and until the early parts of this year, the slogan we heard from those in political command positions at the level of the party and government was that the PDP would rule for 60 years. It was a mistake, as the reality is not sixty, but sixteen.
I do not expect the APC to be that arrogant in view of the fact that Nigerians roundly gave the party and its candidates the mandate to lead the nation and most of its states, despite the colossal sums of money expended by the federal state and majority of the tributaries that were under the control of the PDP.
It is on record that the 2015 elections were the most expensive elections conducted ever in the history of Nigeria. Yet, the people collected a large chunk of the money and voted their conscience. This is the beginning of democracy, you would say.
The PDP wasn’t rejected just because of its name but primarily due to fundamental blunders that it had committed in the years that it ruled over the country. Apart from the huge economic scandals as typified by massive corruption by public officers in relation to the failure of basic social, economic and other infrastructure to support life, the alienation of a majority and critical segments of the population in the running of government resulted in bad blood between the party and most Nigerians.
A good example here is the exclusion of what one would call substantial Northern Nigeria and most of the South-West, the two regions that account for about 40% of the total voting power in the country was one blunder which the political and strategists of the PDP erred in. The party thought it could reign supreme by forging an alliance between the South south, South East and some parts of the North, specifically North Central. In its policies and appointments, especially in the last six years, most positions went to the sections where the alliance was forged.
Apart from the very poor management of the national economy, the exclusion of substantial portions of the polity resulted in mass disaffection in those areas where exclusion was felt to the extent that before and during the elections. The mere mention of the word PDP was disastrous to anybody and as Olise Metuh, the party’s publicity secretary said during the week, the campaign organization of the PDP paid more premium in propagating hate speech and attacks on the personality of the opposition presidential candidate which by implication made the party and its candidate more popular and thus a landslide victory at the polls.
My concern this week is to advise and warn the APC as an investor in this project against mismanagement of this very people-oriented victory. We all committed all that we have sincerely to the struggle that brought about this change and would not expect or allow anybody or some few politicians truncate a change that is about to happen in their struggle for access and control of positions and resources within the polity.
The immediate area that the PDP would want to see the APC make mistake is the sharing of positions in the national legislature. Already, very powerful members of the PDP are desperately rooting for the APC to make the first blunder by allocating positions to zones on the basis of personal obscurantism. If this happens, it will create a major and possibly permanent crack in the party that would send wrong signals and eventually reduce the propensity to effect meaningful change in the country.
Already, Turks are on the move trying to cause rift or amplify on the divides within the rank and file of the party. People are already talking about the Buhari group, the Tinubu camp and Atiku loyalists. This is unnecessary, divisive and dangerous.  Please save GMB from all these hassles that are distracting at this crucial time of take off when the pilot requires rapt attention to lift the nation into safety.
In sharing the positions, my honest view is that the parliamentary tradition of transmutation of leadership from minority to majority statuses and vice versa is enforced. This is what happens in advanced and even fledgling democracies and Nigeria cannot afford to be an exception. After all, the results of the elections are a clear statement from Nigerians that they want democracy. I am of the view that building the parliament would further strengthen the nation’s resolve at democracy and open the horizon for a united Nigeria without undue contestations as was the case in the House of Reps in 2011. Leadership recruitment process would have been made easier if the convention is to be applied.
The current minority leader in the senate should assume the presidency of the chamber because his party has the majority in the new dispensation. This will accommodate the obvious peculiarities and cantors of our national political characteristics and reinforce the confidence of the people in the so-called Middle-Belt region in the party and forge an enduring alliance. Already, the leader of the APC in the senate is the minority leader and his party has now formed the majority thus an automatic upliftment. This is in consonance with the tenets of parliamentary democracy the world over.
The APC is advised against selfishness by some personalities within it who may think that since the battle has been fought and won, anything can go. That is not why a lot of us committed our time and emotions to the struggle and would not want to see a few privileged within and around the party hierarchy and the government in waiting take undue advantage to muddle up a national renaissance.
I wish to remind the APC and those elected under it that theirs wasn’t an ordinary victory. It was a mandate truly from the people and the expectations are indeed very high. We do not want to be disappointed right at the beginning. The seriousness with which people will take the government would be to some extent determined by how well it takes off.
It is in this light that the party leadership and the president and vice president-elect must immediately intervene to ensure that National Assembly positions are zoned so as to reduce the tension within the party and the in the polity generally. Silence is often not golden and those legislators elected on the platform of the party that are thinking could go outside the party’s directives must be made to know that the watchword henceforth is discipline. This is one way of showing Nigerians that indeed the era of impunity is gone and that law and order reigns.  
I am worried at the silence of the party in the face of agitations from its members and zones over allocation of parliamentary resources. I think a clear direction has to come, and urgently, too.