The bid to register a new political party to be called, Peoples Mega Party, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ahead of the 2019 general elections is in top gear. ANDREW OOTA looks at the challenges APC had during its formative years and, the similarities with their proposed PMP.
It started on May11, 2013, when some aggrieved members of the then two, out of the leading opposition political parties, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP and the Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, held two separate national conventions to formally approve a planned merge with the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, that later gave birth to the All Progressives Congress, APC, which is today’s ruling political party.
It is important to stress that the two separate conventions, which were for the purpose of considering and approving a merger of other political parties and groups, were equally to deliberate on the issues of a new constitution, manifesto, flag, logo and slogan of the new party as well as the tricky issue of interim leadership for the new party.
Suffice to say that while the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, had its convention at the Trade Fair Complex, Gusau , Zamfara State, the then General Muhammadu Buhari’s led Congress for
Progressives Change, CPC, a platform on which he ran for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2011, was held at the Eagle Square in Abuja.
This was a follow-up to an earlier convention held in Lagos by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which paved way for an application to the INEC for registration.
It is important to note that the conventions of the ACN the ANPP and the CPC was equally a follow -up to an earlier discussion between former governor of Lagos State and leader of both the ACN and the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu and the then leader of the CPC, General Muhammadu Buhari, for the need to build relationships and alliances as far back as 2010.
The discussion and resolution to form a mega party that would defeat the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, LEADERSHIP Weekend gather, was not tasted in the 2011 general elections due to lack of time to tidy all ends to avoid loopholes that could be used by political enemies to scuttle the move to confront the PDP, therefore, it was suspended till 2015.
In 2013, soon after the three separate conventions of the Action Congress, All Nigeria Peoples Party and the Congress for Progressives Change; there was an implosion within the ranks of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, which saw two factions, one headed by the Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha and the other by the former governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano.
The beneficiary of this development became the APC with the governor Okorocha’s faction pitching tent with the party.
While political watchers and different schools of thought saw the coming together of the four political parties as a threat, the then ruling party saw things differently. For the PDP, it was not just a marriage of convenience, but also an unholy alliance that was dead on arrival.
It is worthy of mentioning that beyound dismissing the APC as collection of jokers by the likes of former Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affair, Dr. Doyin Okupe ; there were other serious hurdles before the APC, where some elements within the PDP, quickly put together a new political party and without wasting time, submitted an application to the INEC for registration as a political party.
It would be recalled that the INEC, in an effort to defend its guidelines for the registration of new political parties, hit up the polity when the Commission stated that the procedure was on first come, first serve bases.
The Commission, under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega, argued then, that the APC was not known to the it and stressed that there was already a group with the name African Peoples Congress, APC, that had submitted its documents for registration as a political party, meaning that the coalescing of opposition political parties to form the APC acronym must be changed to avoid confusion.
The then chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, My Kayode Idowu, made it known to newsmen that the African Peoples Congress was first to approach the electoral body for registration as a political party.
The pressure was then turned on the Commission from all directions, while some condemned the Professor Jega-led INEC of sabotage and acting the President Jonathan script as well as the then ruling party, the P D P to abort the birth of the new political party; others accused the Commission of descending into the politics arena and, even questioned why the Bola Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari-led APC would not be registered, having satisfied all the requirements for registration as a political party.
The INEC had no choice than to jettison its logic of ‘first come, first serve’ and did the needful, when it confirmed in July, 2014, that it had registered the All Progressives Congress, APC.
A statement signed by the secretary to the Commission , Abdullahi A. Kaugama, said the applicant-parties: the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change ,CPC had met all statutory requirements for their merger application.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approved the application by three political parties – to merge into one, to be known as the All Progressives Congress,” the statement said.
The individual certificates of the applicant parties were therefore withdrawn, and a single certificate issued in the name of the All Progressives Congress.
The statement read, “the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approved the application by three political parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – to merge into one, to be known as the All Progressives Congress.
“On considering the application, the Commission found that the applicant-parties have met all statutory requirements for the merger, and has accordingly granted their request.
“Consequently, the Commission has approved the withdrawal of the individual certificates of the applicant-parties, and the issuance of a single certificate to the All Progressives Congress.”
The newly registered APC then a got a major boost when seven governors elected on the platform of the then ruling PDP and other stakeholders ,walked out of the party’s national convention in Abuja, to form the new PDP.
This culminated into their defection into the APC when it was obvious that creating a faction within the ranks of the then PDP was not enough to right the wrongs, therefore they needed a platform that was solid.
According to the then Adamawa state governor, Murtala Nyako, who also defected to the APC, the PDP and its leadership had disappointed Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora, by the high level of impunity and injustice in the party.
His words, “no Nigerian no matter his level in the society today is comfortable with the way and manner the country is drifting. The image of the country is completely eroded at the international level and yet the PDP-led government and its operators are in Abuja making noise”, Nyako fumed.
In the same vein, the Kwara State governor, he said that the PDP could no longer “meet their aspirations.” He spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Femi Akorede.
Also, governor Chibuike Amaechi said he joined the APC because President Goodluck Jonathan failed to address issues raised by the G-7 governors.
Speaking at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa and in a broadcast, assured that the APC would protect the interest of all Rivers State people, adding that the state had suffered untold neglect in the present dispensation.
“Rivers State must know that for me to have taken that decision, I had looked at the general interests of Rivers people. I was not elected to lead Nigeria, I was elected to lead Rivers State and I had looked at the interests of Rivers people and have seen that these interests were not protected in PDP. I have seen the fact that we are losing our oil wells in Etche, in the Kalabari areas and that the more they continue to pilfer these oil wells, the more we will continue to lose our wealth,” he said.
Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso then Kano State governor, said the governors met and decided to meet with the APC leadership and that after the meeting with the APC leadership, it was important to take a position and the position was for the good of democracy and for Nigeria move forward.
“We can’t continue the way we are, where we are. The picture painted by the PDP was as if we were begging to come back to PDP and issues were not being looked into, issues were not being resolved and it’s important that we resolve it one way or the other”.
He disclosed that part of the agreement reached with the APC was that the governors would be the leaders of the party in their respective states.
Although the governors said that there was no merger initially , they admitted a declaration of intent to merge.
This development was tactically supported by former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, who described the development as healthy for democracy, and that it was democracy in action.
For the then PDP chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, it was equally a welcome development. “We cannot ask anyone not to leave the party if he so decided. After all soldiers go, soldiers come. If anyone leaves the PDP, many more people will join, it happens every time. All the same, I seize this opportunity to say to others who want to remain to stay back and join the process of re-building and reforming PDP, “ he said.
The result of these series of events was that the PDP was overwhelmingly defeated in the 2015 general election to the extent that the party accepted and respected the decision of Nigerians, which was loudly pronounced.
The lessons to learn from the coming on board of a new party, barely a year before the general elections in a highly populated country like Nigeria, is that it would be out of place for any one to assume that no new party can win elections , but above all, the APC and the PDP must realise that as time moves on, particularly , if the ruling party does not cover its tracks and gets carried away with its victory and refuses to provide the needed leadership, then it should expect an implosion such that could cost her victory in the next elections.
Observers believe that the problem of the PDP was lawlessness, impunity, bad governance, corruption and cluelessness; what that means is that there would certainly be reasons for some elements in the APC to team up with some aggrieved PDP members to form a mega party.
For some keen watchers of Nigerian politics, the current crises rocking the PDP has already set the stage as some top members of the party are said to had met to discuss how to form a new party. The alleged plan for a new party, when it was first muted, was said to be spearheaded by the former governor of Kano State and former Education minister, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, ex-Governor of Jigawa State Sule Lamido and erstwhile Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Muhammed, former deputy governor in the old Sokoto State, Ahmed Muhammed Gusau. Others are former governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, former governor of Cross River State Donald Duke, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, Senator Ibrahim Ida, Adamu Maina Waziri, Ibrahim Idris, Aminu Wali, Abba Dabo, John Odey , Aniete Okon as well as former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani.
Others believed to be in the thick of the plan for a new party includes embattled President of Senate, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
Although there were denials, recent developments in the polity are indications that the implosion would begin from the PDP, following the emergence of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as acting national chairman of the PDP, because there are fears that even if , Senator Sheriff is expected to hand over to a new chairman after the party’s national convention, he would either install a candidate of his choice or work around the party , through the governors to retain the subsisting zoning arrangement to his advantage, giving his wild financial war chest.
Just a week ago, the National Executive Council/National retreat held by the promoters of the yet-to- be registered party, the Peoples Mega Party (PMP), the National Coordinator, Chief Perry Opara, told the delegates that the mission of the new political platform is to provide a very focused and patriotic body devoid of negative traits of impunity and confusion.
“The major people who are in the party are former members of the PDP who disenchanted by the high level of corruption, high level of impunity and high-handedness in the PDP, have decided to form something very new and they are of the opinion that they should hand over the party to younger elements who are less corrupt and who can fight for the interest of the people.”
Opara, who is a close associate of the estranged PDP chieftain and former Presidential aide, Alhaji Ali Ahmed Gulak, said that apart from the bigwigs from PDP, others from even the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, Labour Party as well as the All Progressives Grand Alliance are desirous of pitching their tents with the new party.
But not long after Opkara’s remarks that Labour Party came out to deny being part of the proposed Peoples Mega Party ,PMP and threatened to sue the Protem Chairman of the PMP, Chief Perry Opara, if he refuses to desist from linking LP to his party.
The National Chairman of LP, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam said it was wrong and fraudulent for Opara to link the the party with his movement when there are no reasons to do anything together.
According to him, “I want to assert that no registered Labour Party member has shown interest in joining him and will have anything to do with his (Opara) movement. We are warning him not to drag us into this. He should show remorse and stop linking us to his agenda otherwise we would take him to court and formally write to INEC about this.
“The manifesto of the Labour Party cannot be the same with Opara and the PMP that he wanted to register. We have identity, ideology and LP members don’t fleet about like ants looking for where to perch. So he should withdraw his statement. Labour Party and its members are not desperate politicians, we are not for sale. Our party members are loyal, focused, reliable and committed to the cause of the party,” Abdulsalam said.
The trend in Nigerian politics usually begin with denials; court actions follow in some cases, and then season of defections. But what is instructive is that with the wave of change in 2015, no political party, ruling or opposition, should take a baby party for a joke, and the only way to survive it is to perform and keep campaign promises.
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