DANGER SIGNALS FOR APC – by Frank Ofili
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The All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently standing on a dangerous tripod of two of its legacy parties (ACN and CPC) and the recalcitrant undisciplined prodigal son of their cousin, the renegade PDP decampees.
Within this political spectrum, the ACN faction, led by Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is controlling most of the states. The PDP decampees led by Atiku Abubakar through a proxy in Bukola Saraki holds sway in the National Assembly; while the CPC appears to be in charge of the Federal seat of government, with a few ACN bed fellows here and there. A splinter faction that broke away from APGA to join the coalition is so far a disinterested onlooker in the current scheme of things in the party.
There seems to be signs suggesting that the APC is currently being confronted by the realities of its own inherent contradictions. The loud sound of silence emanating from the party over some recent developments in the polity is ominous and tendentious. It is either the party leadership is keeping a grudging distance from Aso Rock or Aso Rock itself has left the party behind.
Nothing else satisfactorily explains what now appears to be a tactical withdrawal of the party from current political space. The hitherto deafening sound of its vuvuzela appears to have gone ominously quiet like the drumbeats of a defeated army since Lai Mohammed became Minister of Information. Even Osho Baba of Edo State has suddenly lost his voice. From all indications, something untoward is in the offing, even as the signs point to an impending implosion.
I am wondering how two major developments could currently be playing out in the polity and the party that promised Change is not only maintaining an eloquent silence but in fact doing nothing. I am yet to read a statement by the party officially asking its member (?) Senator Bukola Saraki, to step down as Senate President in the face of his on-going trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for false asset declaration. Before now, I had also wondered why there was no official directive from the party’s high command to its members in the National Assembly to sacrifice a part of their remunerations as did President Buhari and members of his cabinet as a sign of good faith in identifying with the government on reducing the cost of governance.
What has given rise to this recoil by the APC? Has the party abandoned its own baby midstream? Has it left National Assembly politics to President Buhari who himself has wisely steered clear of the happenings there?
The second major development over which the party has kept mute (some may say it is early days yet) is the ongoing controversy surrounding the purchase of some 108 Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs by the Senate leadership, at double price, for its members. When the news of this insensitive purchase broke, I was hoping that the APC leadership would direct its Senate members to reject the Greek gift. How could a party that rode to power on the mantra of CHANGE, and which has its members as the presiding officers of both chambers of the National Assembly, keep quiet over this brazen attempt to rubbish its government’s anti-corruption war and make nonsense of the party's prudence promise?
No one, including APC leadership, would disagree that the unspoken truth about the SUVs is that they are in fact a bribe from Senate President Bukola Saraki to the Senate members so as to keep him on the seat regardless of the outcome of his CCT trial. Juxtaposed with the fact that Saraki rallied PDP members of the senate to become Senate President against his own party’s wishes, this SUV gift can only be a reward for PDP senators and an invitation to tender to APC senators. Which is exactly why it is surprising that the same party is now keeping mute over Saraki’s overt attempts, through the SUV bribe, to divide its rank and file in the National Assembly.
It is also noteworthy that aside Senator Babajide Omoworare, the APC has so far not officially spoken a word against the attempt by the Senate to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act. Saraki is being tried under both Acts. Opposition to these bills has so far come from the media. It is curious that a ruling party that had publicly made a promise to fight corruption has so far failed to publicly decry this surreptitious attempt to decriminalize it.
It is instructive to note that President Buhari had sent two Executive Bills to the National Assembly seeking to strengthen the anti-corruption fight. The Bills are (1) The Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill 2016, and (2) The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill 2016. These bills are believed to be part of government efforts to improve Nigeria’s legal framework to combat corruption. Till date, these Bills have not seen the light of day. Yet the APC is supposedly in control of both the government and the National Assembly.
What has given rise to this recoil by the APC? Has the party abandoned its own baby midstream? Has it left National Assembly politics to President Buhari who himself has wisely steered clear of the happenings there?
Indeed, one is now tempted to ask if the APC leadership has now allied itself with Saraki? Saraki's attempt to decriminalize false asset declaration ought to present opportunity for the party to galvanize the people against any attempt from any quarters to truncate its Change agenda. Sadly, nothing of such is happening. The party members in the Senate remain willing accomplices in this unholy scheme insofar as they have not mobilized against the Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP Delta North) bill seeking to amend the CCB&T Act.
The President's so far successful foreign trips present another opportunity for APC to deploy a countervailing strategy against whatever negative image the 2016 budget controversy, the lingering fuel scarcity, incessant power outage, insecurity and other challenges facing its own government. But alas the APC as an organized body appears to care less. No attempts whatsoever on the side of the party to sell the Presidency's efforts in tackling these challenges. The situation is not helped by the fact that this government has a lamentable communication team. Why has the party’s hitherto efficient propaganda machinery suddenly become lame in the face of the obvious lethargy of the government’s communication team?
My guess is that the APC high command is finding out, to its chagrin, that President Buhari was not merely verbalizing his promise not to do "business as usual". He meant to keep that promise, especially given the dwindling revenue fortunes of the government. Nothing underscore this better than the President's recent charge to the APC leadership to look inwards for funding as he was not ready to reinstate the financial funnel that usually runs from Aso Rock to ruling party coffers as had been the case over the years.
It would appear that the APC’s formal response to the President’s admonition was Ashiwaju’s recent misdirected devastating verbal attack on Ibe Kachikwu over the latter’s innocuous comment that he was not a magician as to guarantee disappearance of fuel queues overnight given all the issues that are at play in the oil and gas sector. Looking back now in retrospect, no one will disagree that Kachikwu was right. The oil and gas sector needs a comprehensive surgery as is envisaged by the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill which the National Assembly has so far practically kept in the cooler.
Rather than turn its back against its own baby, APC should do well by using its numerical superiority in the National Assembly to ensure that this bill is passed. The party is in real danger of being a one-term party if its leadership continues to shy away from ensuring that the culture of “money-for-hand-back-for-ground” politics is discountenanced in the National Assembly. Nigerians will not shy away from changing the Change party if their expectations are not met.
Finally, as Senate President Bukola Saraki himself has proven that he remains a closet PDP chieftain, Aso Rock itself must also have more than a cursory interest in the happenings at the Dome. Anything short of this will spell danger for APC and the government. This is as I see it.
