Five issues which show that APC is in trouble in politics

Review… Five issues which
show that APC is in trouble
 in Politics
In from Ripples Nigeria . . .
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has
been in power for almost a year and there are
signs that all is not well within the party which
made history last March when it became the first
opposition party in Nigeria’s history to defeat a
ruling party at the presidential level. From internal
wranglings, to lack of funding, to discontent in the
land, below are five issues which show that the
APC is in trouble.
1. It’s all about the money
The APC is broke. That’s one of the biggest
challenges. Unlike the former ruling party that was
always awash with cash, the leadership of the APC
has been unable to find a sustainable formula to
fund its activities and run its operations. This is due
to President Muhammadu Buhari’s politics which is
averse to footing the party’s bills from government
funds.
Even the national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun,
admitted last month that the party was broke. He
said they were working on plans which will be
launched in a month or two to raise money from
members. A meeting held between the leadership of
the ruling party and the president in January
ended with the president advising the party to think
of ways to fund itself. Buhari does not want the
APC to fall into the same ditch which ensnared the
PDP when it began to use resources of the nation
to fund its activities. But if the party is unable to
find a way to raise money soon, it won’t be long
before party members begin rumbling in public.
The APC is broke. That’s one
of the biggest challenges.
Unlike the former ruling party
that was always awash with
cash, the leadership of the
APC has been unable to find
a sustainable formula to fund
its activities and run its
operations.
2. Faster, faster, Mr. President
Another source of disquiet within the ruling party
is that Buhari has continued with his snail-like pace
in making crucial appointments. Everything about
the Buhari administration takes time and the party
faithful are getting impatient. The president (in)
famously waited six months before inaugurating a
cabinet, which then led to the bungling of the
budget proposal for 2016, as ministers did not have
enough time to settle in and get their priorities
right before the budget presentation deadline
loomed. It did not take long for Nigerians to begin
to dissect the shoddy work done in the budget. The
embarrassment which the administration has
suffered is a direct effect.
Now, Buhari is continuing to delay in appointing
heads of boards of parastatals and federal
agencies. Interestingly, the president’s
sluggishness seems to be affecting APC state
governors as well. Most of them waited until Buhari
forwarded his own list to the senate before they
sent names of commissioner-nominees to the state
assembly. Just like the president, many governors
have still not appointed heads of boards and even
special advisers. This is a big source of concern for
party members. The ‘spoils’ of their March 2015
victory needs to be shared and quickly too.
During the meeting of members of the Rivers APC
with the National leadership of the party, they
lamented over the fact that board members
appointed by former president Goodluck Jonathan
still held sway and were using the offices to
”victimise” APC members. Supporters of the party
who worked for the party’s victory last year
expect to be rewarded, and so far that is not
happening. A key point to note is that a presidential
committee on the reconstitution of federal
government boards headed by the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr.
Babachir David Lawal, is yet to submit its report.
There are some who argue that the delay by Baba
Go Slow (as Buhari is often called) in making the
board appointments is because of the infighting
within state chapters of the party. However that
argument holds little water, as ultimately
appointments are discretionary and President
Buhari has the final say. If there is one thing he
has shown in the last eight months, it is that he is
not beholden to anyone.
The president’s sluggishness
seems to be affecting APC
state governors as well. Most
of them waited until Buhari
forwarded his own list to the
senate before they sent
names of commissioner-
nominees to the state
assembly
3. There’s a rumble in the jungle
Another challenge facing the APC is the internal
war among its leading chieftains. All has not been
well ever since Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara
emerged as senate president and Speaker of the
House of Representatives respectively. The two
men were not the popular choice of the party
leadership, President Buhari, and APC national
leader, Bola Tinubu. However with deft politicking,
romance with the PDP and the support of former
vice president Atiku Abubakar and some state
governors, they pulled off an upset win.
Read also: Buhari building a sectional economy -
Fayose
It was thought initially that Atiku would be
announced as the chairman of the party’s board
of trustees, but his candidacy has suffered a
setback due to his support for Saraki and Dogara.
There is now mutual suspicion between the
different power centres in the party. The Bola
Tinubu camp is believed to favour former interim
national chairman of the party, to be named as
BOT chairman. As a result of the stalemate, the
party has no BOT.
In January, APC chairman, Odigie-Oyegun, was
asked why the BOT has still not been constituted,
he said, “There is no issue surrounding that. It’s
just that there has been so much to do and the
president wants to personally participate in it. A
date has been scheduled for all organs of the
party to meet.”
4. Where’s the common ground?
Another challenge for the party, which is similar to
the above is the fact that since July 3, 2015, the
APC National Executive Committee (NEC) has not
met. At that last meeting, Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande,
and even Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, were
absent. They were believed at the time to have
stayed away in protest against the election of
Saraki and Dogara, who both attended the meeting.
Buhari frittered away a lot of
goodwill initially by failing to
take some early tough
decisions and the government
has not shown that it has
enough imagination to rescue
the economy from the
doldrums.
The NEC is supposed to meet every quarter,
according to the APC constitution. However no
other meeting has held, two quarters later. There
are speculations that a meeting of the NEC will hold
by the end of the month. It is believed that the
stalemate within the party will be resolved at that
meeting but it will take a mighty effort from all
stakeholders involved to meet at a common ground,
or else the party leadership must be ready to pass
off one of the warring factions. We await.
5. There is fire on the mountain
The final – and biggest – challenge facing the APC
is that the stars do not seem to be aligned in their
favour. These are hard economic times: oil prices
have crashed, the naira is exchanging in the
parallel market at about N330 to a dollar at this
moment, and the government has been unable to
ramp up quick wins to assure citizens that it
understands what it is doing. Buhari frittered away
a lot of goodwill initially by failing to take some
early tough decisions and the government has not
shown that it has enough imagination to rescue the
economy from the doldrums.
Of all the challenges the APC faces, this more than
any others will determine its fate as a ruling party.
If the party has all the money in the world to run
its activities, and is at peace with itself, all that will
mean nothing, if Nigerians are not happy with it.
They will do well to remember that.
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