Home / News / Local / OPINION: My piece of advice to All Progressives Congress, APC by Odilim Enwegbara

OPINION: My piece of advice to All Progressives Congress, APC by Odilim Enwegbara

The series of events being witnessed on the floors of the two chambers of the 8th National Assembly, as embarrassing as the naked eyes can see them, in political reality, they are blessings in disguise. Not only have they quickened the advancement of democracy in Nigeria. These events, no doubt, are strengthening the unity of our dear country Nigeria, which the last presidential election kept in doubt.
Let us just imagine the damage the exclusion of two southern geopolitical regions — the South East and South South — from the National Assembly’s leadership would have done to our fragile unity!
Not only will such exclusion trigger, but will also fast-track the call for secession and self-determination which was growing with the very bad performance of Jonathan. In fact, the South East and South South political elites were already looking for such exclusion of the two zones in order to champion their new trade, who rather than blame themselves, were in search of how to heap all their woes on the so-called North-South West political conspiracy against the two regions.
No doubt, the Buhari Administration would have been the one to be falsely blamed for the political marginalization of the two regions. This is what the ongoing re-engineering of APC is knowingly or unknowingly trying to avoid from happening. And whoever is leading this inclusive re-mapping of APC should not only be seen as politically ingenious and foresighted, but truly a nationalist politician whose belief in the unity of this country remains exceptional.
Such a politician should be praised for believing in the urgent need to do away with ethnic driven zero-sum politics in Nigeria, which the return of democracy in 1999 has not fully defeated. In sum, what is going on at the National Assembly is history in the making for the very reason that it is furthering APC’s transformation from a regional party to truly a national party.
It is only a narrow-minded politician who cannot see how the mere election of a South Easterner as Deputy Senate President, even though it confers little or no serious power and the election of a South Southerner as Deputy Senate Chief Whip, which too has not much political power, have truly saved our fragile republic from an army of ethnic secessionists.
With these two actions, it is now extremely difficult for those who would have used the so-called exclusion of the South East and South South from the APC-led government to garner enough support for their politics of secessionism which they believed they would have used to easily win the hearts of the people from the two geo-political zones.
In short, APC as a party is the winner. Thanks to its internal disagreements, it has knowingly or unknowingly made itself the six-geopolitical zone political party. With such presence of sense of belonging to all in the country, it is difficult for any section of the country to shout marginalization.
Thus, what is going on on the two floors of the National Assembly will eventually lead to an ever better relationship between the executive and the legislature. This is because of the President’s wise decision never to intervene in the affairs of another arm of government. This singular decision of President Buhari not to interfere with the leadership elections at the two chambers truly shows his immense display of political maturity and the uncommon wisdom that comes with it.
Had the President intervened to appease the party’s National Working Committee, and done so by taking sides; and should he have found himself where the party’s NWC have found itself today, which would have meant losing the two chambers to a faction of the party in majority with PDP, no doubt the President would have found himself in hostility with the leadership of the two chambers. This would have meant finding himself in such a strange marriage, where he would have difficulty having his bills and legislative requests passed by the nation’s apex lawmakers.
I think also that the current leadership of APC — which thank God the President has openly made it clear that he is its leader — should quickly soft-pedal in order not to dangerously over push its luck. The danger here is that should the party’s NWC insist on having its way at all costs, there is the possibility that the National Assembly members from nPDP — those who left PDP to join APC — could decide to return to PDP. All they need to present as their reason, as the law demands, is that APC is in such irredeemable crisis.
Let’s not forget that nPDP brought to APC five governors and most Senators and Reps from the North East, North West and North Central. Let us also not forget so quickly that it was their joining APC that dealt the greatest blow to PDP. With the party unable to recover from the devastating exit, the result was what we all saw during the recent national elections, where PDP witnessed an embarrassing loss at the polls.
That’s why, should nPDP ever return to PDP, no doubt, PDP will re-emerge as the majority party in both the Senate and House of Representatives. This will be the last thing APC would like to happen for the effect of such a political earthquake will destroy the APC as a party to the extent it could lead to its eventual disintegration.
This is possible given that the reason why the nPDP was formed was because the former President Jonathan was doing everything to block other party members like Atiku and Saraki from competing against him as the party’s presidential candidate.
In other words, now that Jonathan is gone forever, people like Atiku, Saraki and Kwankwaso have enough reasons to return to PDP as early as possible since he who returns first will definitely be the one to grab the party’s leadership which is currently in tatters. But to control PDP, the returnee leader, should show he has strong political muscles to flex around.
That is why controlling the legislature is inevitable because, suddenly turning PDP from minority to majority in both chambers will give who has done it the controlling power in PDP.
The only good news for President Buhari in all this is that no politician or political party should dream of standing on his way to achieving what he promised Nigerians given his popularity, national figure and the image as a messiah. Any politician who ever does that will be committing political suicide knowingly or unknowingly. This is because Nigerians will bounce on the politician and politically eat him alive.
It is important at this juncture for those of us who strongly believe in the non-negotiability of the unity of this country, to once again express our sincere gratitude to our brothers and sisters who have always gone some extra miles to ensure that the unity of Nigeria is intact by ensuring that all the parts of the country are given their due sense of belonging.
Imagine if the north is sectional, there’s no way the northern political establishment that single handedly sponsored and financed Obasanjo’s presidential ambition in 1999 wouldn’t have demanded the entire political posts for the north. But it’s their same belief in national unity that led to allowing President Obasanjo to bring in the likes of Bola Ige of Afenifere, who even though they were from the same geopolitical zone with Obasanjo, belonged to and voted for AC, a regional party.
With all the sacrifices the north has made and continues to make in protecting and promoting the unity of this great nation, we in the south, should not only be appreciative, but it is time for all of us to work together with the north in the interest of the unity of our nation.

Enwegbara, a development economist writes from Abuja.

About Global Patriot Staff

Check Also

Paving the way to a green economy in Nigeria By Victor I. Fagorite and Ifeoma Malo

A green economy is an economy that aims to reduce environmental risks and ecological scarcities …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *