From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
After nearly nine years the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over power from the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), the performance of the ruling party and its delivery of campaign promises, have continued to agitate the minds of many critical observers. Not a few believe that the party which came with various promises to Nigerians has dashed their hopes and expectations.
For the majority, the situation has not changed under President Bola Tinubu’s administration which came with the mantra of Renewed Hope. In the estimation of critical observers, there are obvious failure in economic management, security, provision of social amenities, and hike in the cost of living.
In the rating of many Nigerians, the failure of APC in both checkmating the crisis engulfing its leadership and management of resources in the country, reflecting in the excruciating economic woes and hopelessness, have become an emergency.
In fact, in the words of former APC Vice Chairman North-West, Salihu Moh Lukman, “Without being academic, performances of APC, in every respect, have not presented any harmonised vision of development. It is a very disturbing reality that there is no common policy thread connecting governments produced by the APC at all levels since 2015.
“During the merger negotiations of 2012/2013, which produced the APC, the ideological thrust or proposition was oriented around social democracy, based on a commitment to values of collective justice and individual freedom where citizen’s basic needs are expected to be met – food, shelter, healthcare, education, and the ability to actualise human capacities and endowment.”
Highlighting specifics about the failure of APC to deliver on democratic dividends and live up to the expectations of many since nine years in charge, the recent admission by Vice President Kashim Shettima that; “this is the most difficult time to occupy political leadership in Nigeria due to the challenges facing the country.”
The confession, for many, clearly confirmed the magnitude of uncertainty, helplessness and anomie that the ruling party has plunged the country into. And what reasons did Shettima adduce to further exasperate the unpleasant reality the APC-led government has sunk the country into?
Hear him: “The President (Tinubu) chose the option that will save the lives of the people instead of the ones that will lead to a prolonged economic death. We will not resort to blaming the previous administration as leadership is about courage and continuity.
“Before we took charge, the biggest elephant in the room was about fuel subsidy removal. It was an albatross around the neck of the nation for the past 20 to 30 years. We understood why our predecessor decided to remove the subsidy because there was no sufficient budget for it in the fiscal year.
“A year before we took office, Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio had grown to 111.18 per cent. It was an economic death sentence. To be plain to us, our debt service was that if you earn N100,000, you are forced to borrow an additional N11,800 to pay the debtor.
“How do we intend to survive this? It will be long before we become a pariah. We have to jettison the subsidy regime; it was a bitter pill to swallow but we had to do it.”
As Nigerians were pondering on Shettima’s admission, which was an indictment on the APC government and a departure from the usual traditional blame of the opposition party, typified in the eight years of former president Muhammadu Buhari’s consistent attacks on the PDP, the earlier comments from officials of the present administration further confirmed the failure of the APC government.
Only recently, National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, had taken the Buhari-led administration to the cleaners although they are of the same party, in claiming that the Tinubu-led government inherited a bankrupt country from the Buhari administration.
He said: “I assure you that the Federal Government will not rest on its oars in ensuring a robust and viable defence management and security apparatus to address contemporary challenges even in the face of enormous budgetary constraints.
“Yes, we are facing budgetary constraints. It is okay for me to tell you. Fine, it is important for you to know that we inherited a very difficult situation, literally a bankrupt country, with no money, to a point where we can say that all the money we are getting now; we are paying back what was taken. It is serious!” Ribadu painted gloomy pictures of the tragic situation facing the country presently.”
Also highlighting the failure of the party while further dragging Buhari into the blame game was the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun.
Edun claimed that former president Buhari landed Nigeria into the hyperinflation bedevilling it now, revealing that the printing of naira in trillions was carried out without matching it with productivity. He further argued that the eight years of printing money without productivity is responsible for the high inflation confronting the country now.
“We talked about inflation, and you have helped to solve that. Where has it come from? It came from eight years of just printing money not matched by productivity. It is not like when you earn dollars, and you free the naira alongside it, although there is even a better way than that; however, that is still not as bad.
“It is not as if the money is matched by productivity increase in output. It is not. And what happened was that for eight years, the weak were left to their own devices. It is the privileged few that took everything,” he claimed.
Further rising in defence of the current administration that directly or indirectly confirmed the failure of APC, some of Tinubu’s supporters like the former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II and Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, also blamed the Buhari-led APC government for the current economic crisis.
Afenifere, in defence of her son, not only alleged that the “economic downturn” facing Nigerians was caused by the mismanagement of the administration of former president Buhari, but also faulted those criticising Tinubu, insisting that they are still pained by his electoral victory.
“Those sleeping and snoring during the eight years of Buhari APC administration have suddenly woken up. They forgot that these remedial actions should have been taken many years back. The major sins of President Tinubu reside in his daring to contest and win the presidential election,” Afenifere argued
However, the justification of APC’s failure through the blame games and defence will not come to many Nigerians that have borne the brunt as any surprise because according to many political watchers, the ruling party which merged for purposes of electoral victory, was not a truly progressive party.
And instead of accepting criticisms and changing for the better, APC has always adopted buck passing as its trademark in close to a decade of its existence. For eight years under former president Buhari, it put almost the shortcomings his government recorded on the doorstep of the opposition political party, especially the PDP.
Judging by the testimonies from the officials and supporters of the Tinubu-led APC administration, it is glaring that the ruling party under Buhari failed in the economic management, security and several other campaign promises he did not actualise.
But instead of admitting failure, it rather used the PDP as a scapegoat to whip up the sentiments of many Nigerians in justifying why it did not meet their expectations.
The defenders of the Buhari government would repeatedly remind Nigerians how it was impossible to work freely in Abuja during PDP years without bombs exploding and how many Local Government Areas (LGAs) hitherto under the control of militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group, Boko Haram, have been freed.
They would boldly boast how the Buhari government has technically defeated Boko Haram and that they could no longer mount ‘conventional attacks’ against security forces or populated centres.
The party promised national security by increasing the capacity and capability of the Nigerian military, police and other security agencies through the employment of additional personnel, provision of modern equipment, and commitment to professionalism, merit and excellence, in meeting the needs of Nigeria’s growing population.
The unfulfilled promises of the APC government in the past nine years were evidenced in the inability of the ruling party at the centre to fulfill the promise to spend N148 billion in providing an average of 200 patrol vehicles per annum to state police commands and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
As a party claiming to be progressive in ideology, many wonder why the APC delivered on its promises in the areas of rule of law, electoral process, true federalism, education, health, youths, sports, entertainment, social safety net, and economic development policies since it took over after the 2015 presidential election.
There are those who insist that if Nigerians tolerated what many described as eight locust years of the APC, the past one year, under the same ruling party, has been horrendous and traumatic to most people.
From the removal of fuel subsidy and its attendant backlash on the economy to the dollar gaining strength over the naira, the hyperinflation and the high cost of living, the APC-led government has actually disappointed and dashed the hopes of many Nigerians in terms of administering the country.
But those agonising that APC, with big prospects, could disappoint in the governance of the country, would be more shocked that the ruling party equally failed to organise itself, considering the internal crisis within its leadership.
For example, APC may have had a more rapid turnover of national chairmen in the decade of its existence than other political parties. From Bisi Akande, the pioneer chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Governor Mai Mala-Buni, to Abdullahi Adamu and now Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, only about a few of them were not disgraced out of office after spending few years.
How again does one measure the failure of APC when all the organs of the party could not function as they statutorily ought to? Disappointingly, since 2015 when the Board of Trustees (BoT) was dissolved and renamed Elders Council, it has become extremely difficult for the national leaders of the party to constitute the members.
Above all, over the years, lack of internal democracy within the party has become insoluble resulting in one form of crisis or the other festering in the party at the ward, LGA, State and national levels, especially after every major election with many aggrieved aspirants protesting the imposition of candidates accounting for the majority of the cases.
Surprisingly, the stark reality is that after APC emerged victorious in the 2015 presidential election, the ruling party became a mere tool in the hands of the President to the point that he dictated to the party what he wanted to be done and how it could be done. Till date, the President is the alpha and omega in APC and the APC is the President.
Summarising how APC has disgracefully become a failed party, former member of its National Working Committee (NWC), Lukman noted that: “Nigerians expect that APC, being an envisioned progressive party, elected leaders produced by the APC will change and put the country on the pedestal of good governance.
“Integral to good governance is increased accountability based on which elected representatives produced by the APC are expected to be more responsive and representative to the interests of Nigerians. Increased accountability requires the existence of a functionally stronger political party.
“Before the emergence of the APC, virtually all political parties in Nigeria, including the PDP and the opposition parties that merged to form the APC, were simply election platforms. Being election platforms, issues of vision and commitment to ideology as could have been outlined in the manifesto of political parties is simply non-existent.
“With such reality, the culture of impunity and corruption became rampant, and Nigerians were highly contemptuous of political leaders in the country. Largely on account of widespread abuse of office, which is highly manifested by the sad incidences of elected leaders converting public resources to personal wealth, the capacity of governments at all levels to spearhead national development shrunk.
“The emergence of APC raised the hopes of Nigerians about the potential for change. Coming with the slogan CHANGE, part of also what justified the confidence of Nigerians that APC would produce a paradigm shift in Nigerian politics and governance was that the internal debate within the party during the merger negotiations aggregated national debate.
“In many respects, the manifesto of the party and all the campaign promises before the 2015 general elections resonated with the aspirations of Nigerians. Immediately after winning the 2015 elections, the APC began to move away from its orientation of working as an organised group, holding meetings, debating issues, and taking decisions accordingly.”
Assessing his party further, the former Director General of APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) wrote: “Perhaps, largely on account of the towering political profile of former president Buhari, whose popularity was the major electoral strength of APC, gradually and systematically, decisions and initiatives towards managing the APC government began to be personalised.
“Issues of appointments and policy priorities of the APC government became the prerogative of the President. As a result, party leaders who were major stakeholders and equal partners before the electoral victory of 2015 became subordinates of former president Buhari.
“Consequently, most leaders were relegated to being lobbyists for appointments in APC controlled Federal Government. Once that is the case, issues of party management took the back seat. Meetings of organs, especially, the National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Caucus became irregular.
“The NEC, which by the provision of the APC Constitution is required to meet quarterly, for almost a year after the 2015 general elections did not hold. Similarly, the National Caucus, which before the 2015 elections was meeting almost weekly stopped. The BoT, whose membership was established before the 2015 elections was never inaugurated.”
But, in the reaction of another chieftain of the party, who preferred anonymity, the trend of the president taking charge of the ruling party did not start with the APC.
“Don’t forget that a greater number of what constitutes the APC now were formally from other political parties, especially the PDP. How do you expect a total and automatic transformation from them in APC? Most political parties in Nigeria lacking ideology should expectedly be a tool in the hands of the sitting president.
“As for whether the APC has failed Nigerians, it is a yes and no answer because you cannot just wish away the landmark achievements the party recorded in the areas of infrastructural development in the road and railway sectors. But I also know that our party would have done better in lifting Nigerians from the current hardship experienced in every facet of our lives.
“The irony of the situation is that APC has come to stay in power because judging by the way it approaches elections in outsmarting other parties, they don’t have any challenger for now,” the chieftain argued.