Iam one of those who embraced the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Any rational and objective Nigerian will attest to the fact that the coming together of major opposition political parties in the country to form the APC increases competition in the political arena.
It also widens the political space and offers Nigerians an alternative among several political competitors and actors in the country.
It also strengthens the need for politicians to choose an ideology. Our politicians have been bereft of an Ideology and this has done our political culture no good.
And because politicians in Nigeria have no ideology, they have reduced the art of politics to a plaything. When such politicians eventually capture political power, they fall short of expectations by failing to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people who elected them into office.
Therefore, the coming of APC offers Nigerians two broad political platforms. This will compel politicians to lean on the two major parties in the country, either the PDP or the incoming APC. In the words of PDP national Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the more political parties, the merrier it is!
While other opposition parties such as the All Nigeria Peoples Congress (APC), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress For Progressice Change (CPC), fully came into the merger to form the APC, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) came into the coalition in bits and pieces.
The two arrowheads of APGA in the South East, Governors Peter Obi of Anambra State and Rochas Okorocha of Imo State differed strongly on joining the merger of opposition parties. While Peter Obi and co objected for reasons best known to them, Okorocha of Imo State quickly leapfrogged into the arrangement. The political altercations and brick bats over the merger issue as it affects APGA between Peter Obi’s faction and that of Okorocha will not be relevant in this piece. It will be a gist for another day.
Today majority of Imo APGA are part of the APC. The Okorocha APGA enjoys full recognition and status in the APC, a development which compelled APC proponents to “allocate” seven slots to the party in the yet to be formed national executive of the APC, the same number of slots accorded to other merging political parties.
This is an indication that despite the division in the ranks of the party concerning the merger, APGA, either Obi’s or Okorocha’s is vital and important in the calculations of advocates of the merger. Kit serves as a route for the party to find a foothold in the South East geo political zone.
In my piece titled “2015: The Right Political Platform To The Presidency” published in this column sometime last year, I canvassed the need for APGA to extend a handshake across the Niger if it intends to be a major player in the nation’s political firmament. Then, the merger of opposition parties in the caountry was not on the front burner of national discourse.
I wrote in that piece “APGA is a political platform to seek for political attention and recognition at a time Igbos needed a voice to echo its relevance in the dynamic and intricate politics of Nigeria. It will not be out of place to say that APGA is Late Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu’s political tool to bring Igbos together to locate its place or role in the Nigerian political firmament at a time Nigeria was coming out of militarism and finding its feet in the new democratic space”.
I continued “The political situation at that time made APGA a mere rallying point for Igbos. This has served its purpose and has presently outlived its usefulness. It therefore underscores the fact that a regional party with ethnic bias such as APGA cannot be the right platform to actualize the national aspirations of a people. It is a party built on Late Ojukwu’s image and clout and with the Igbo leader resting peacefully in his grave; APGA has lost the willpower to be relevant in the nation’s political space. The party is weak structurally and bedevilled by internal crisis that is almost tearing it apart. With two States in the South East in its domain without a single Councillor from any other part of the country, the party cannot be said to have a national outlook or posture to take an Igbo to Aso Rock in 2015 in a nation with diverse ethnic plurality”.
Therefore, it is worthy of commendation that the party has realized the need to expand its political tentacles beyond the shores of Igboland. What is paramount is that APGA, either in bits and pieces and or totally has seen the relevance and importance to hook up to the national grid of national politics in the country. The advantages of this act outweighs the disadvantages
I tell those who care to listen that regional political platforms are advocates of ethnic and tribal politics. And because ethnic driven political parties do have ethnic colourations, such regional political parties can never capture power at the centre in the country. Our political history has given credence to this fact.
In the first and second republics, proponents of ethnic political parties such as Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo never succeeded in their quest to govern the nation because they operated from the platform of a regional political party. Because of the diverse and ethnic configuration of the nation, such tribal or ethnic based political parties have ceased to have a place in the polity.
In most African countries, political parties that cruised to power did so because they have spread and national outlook. It has happened in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. In Nigeria, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) held power at the centre in the second republic, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have held sway since the return of democracy in the country in 1999.
With Imo APGA fully coo pted into the APC, it does not remove the fact that the party in the State needs total overhauling and reformation. I must admit that those who pioneered APGA in the State must be disappointed how the party has fared since political providence smiled on it in 2011 when it captured the Imo governorship seat after it displaced the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Before Okorocha came into the APGA boat, it was perceived to be a rag tag party, clueless and disoriented but had the political nerve and crushing ability to win elections in the State. It later metamorphosed to become a threat to other parties in the State as it randomly won elections, but fell prey to electoral vices such as rigging and various forms of political manipulation.
The entrance of Rochas Okorocha and APGA’s eventual ascendancy to political power in the State in 2011 was considered a boost to the party as many expected that capturing political power will give it the inpetus to be virile and become a dominant party in the State. Many anticipated that the party was on the upswing.
Sadly, the reverse is the case. The party has rather stumbled from one political calamity to another. It has lost two crucial elections to the PDP- the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise Federal House of Representatives re run election and the Oguta House of Assembly seat. APGA was floored by the PDP in these elections.
Some notable members of the party such as C.C Nwaka, (the then State Chairman) and Barrister Iwuagwu left the party out of political frustration. The leader of the party, Chief Martin Agbaso is also said to be on his way out of the party after things fell apart between him (Agbaso) and Okorocha over the jpros contract scam saga.
We also heard the vibrations from the Ejike Uche/ Tony Mgbeahuruike group who disapproved of the merger and wanted to keep the APGA flag flying in the State. Before then, Senator Chris Anyanwu who joined APGA after a running political battle with the PDP aligned with the Peter Obi APGA after her convoy clash with that of Okorocha last December.
Other influential members of the party mainly those who aligned strongly with the Agbaso group have also lost out of the political equation of the party. They are either in the cooler or completely out of the scheme of things in the party. In what can be described as classical hijacking of the APGA structure in the State, those who presently call the shots in APGA in the State are members of Okorocha’s Agenda group who came into the party as a political bloc before the 2011 governorship election.
An analyst after carefully analyzing the battle of supremacy in Imo APGA said it was not the party that went into an alliance with the APC but the Rescue Agenda group, the political structure Rochas came into APGA with. Another school of thought further contend that what is left of APGA in the State is its carcass as Okorocha has stifled it and made it politically impossible for anyone aside himself to inherit.
This present state of the party in the State raises a fundamental question. What is Okorocha’s overall purpose to dissect APGA in the State and take it into the newly formed APC?
If the purpose is not in tandem with the core objectives of other opposition parties in the merger arrangement which is to erect a virile, strong political party able to take power from the PDP, but to fuel his (Rochas) presidential ambition, then what happens to Imo APGA if he (Rochas) f ails to clinch either the presidential or vice presidential ticket of the party? I wonder?
