30th April, 2013
Action Congress of Nigeria crosses a major hurdle for APC’s registration
As early as 7a.m, last Thursday, the Marina and Awolowo Roads, leading to Onikan Stadium, the venue of the special convention held by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, boomed with numerous cars. By the turn of the hour, the mainbowl of the stadium had been filled with party faithful. Despite the huge crowd, hordes of stern-looking policemen and private security guards, with Alsatian sniffer dogs in tow, maintained orderliness.
The event was significant in more ways than one. Aside being the party’s last convention, it was a milestone in its march, alongside other political parties, to merge to form the All Progressive Congress, APC. As a vital requirement under the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, conjugating political parties in a political merger are constitutionally-mandated to, first of all, liquidate, to which the ACN did last Thursday. The event was attended by ACN party leaders, as well as chieftains of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP. They included ACN Governors Babatunde Fashola, Lagos; Adams Oshiomhole, Edo; Rauf Aregbesola, Osun and Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun. Its national leadership, led by its National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; former Presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu; former Ogun State Governor, Olusegun Osoba. Senators and House of Representatives members elected on the party’s platform were also present.
CPC Presidential candidate, Maj-General Muhammadu Buhari, retired; ANPP National Chairman, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu; former Information Minister, Prince Tony Mommoh; former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau and Imo State Governor, Rochas Okoracha, were among opposition party members, who showed solidarity with the ACN at the occasion. Shortly after the programme was kick-started, Akande, in his opening remarks, stated that the need “to provide an alternative leadership for Nigeria”, was a matter of urgency. “We must not entertain any fear or surrender to blackmail, we must be mindful that merger is new in Nigeria”.
The atmosphere was, however, charged by a rousing speech delivered by Tinubu. The scathing speech, titled “Sacrificing the Party To Save Nigeria”, clearly announced the seriousness of the political endeavour, and signposted a wake-up call for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In sync with the purported rescue mission being touted by the promoters of APC, Tinubu stated that history had thrust a responsibility on them, which if unheeded was an “invitation to doom”. In his words: “History is upon us, asking something bold of us. Those who hear must respond to its call because history is impatient. If we fail to act as the situation requires, history will still move forward and its pen will write an unanswerable verdict against us”, he said. He lamented the socio-economic and political problems besetting the country, arguing that “we have come to a place where things must change or we shall all sink”.
He further stated that rather than being an agenda-setter for “economic development and broadly shared prosperity on the African continent”, as well as “having a wealth of domestically produced goods in our manufacturing basket”, to which “we hold virtually empty basket”, Nigeria, “as such, has become a basket case”. Given the multifarious, but avoidable problems plaguing the country, Tinubu vehemently declared it “is not the way of a great nation”. As if that was not enough, the leading opposition figure, directly threw a damming diatribe at the PDP. “The slogan of the ruling party is power, but corruption is the fuel that powers their government. The current way of governance makes nation-building impossible. What it does is make poverty and the erosion of a just society inevitable”, he said.
To underscore the party’s resolve in its professed liberation struggle, he likened their mission to a “brewing storm”, albeit, “a positive storm with positive wind”, which “will change the political terrain forever”. Tinubu told the audience that only a concerted political collaboration, with “like-minded progressives in other parties and organisations” could “rescue Nigeria from the blight of misgovernance”. He enjoined the audience to vote for moving “our party (ACN) into merger with the ANPP, CPC, other parties and organisations to form the All Progressives Congress”.
With those words, ACN, ceased to exist, thereby crossing a major hurdle for the registration of the new party. Following this, a motion for the party’s formal liquidation and its collapse into the APC was moved by Uche Onyeaguocha, an ACN stalwart in Imo State. On his part, Buhari dispelled the rumour that there was an ulterior motive to the merger. According to him, the move was “to build on the foundation we have laid in 2010”, during a futile merger of opposition parties. He said all those who are consistent and concerned with the system of solidifying democracy should know that the only solution was the merger.
Shekarau, an ANPP stalwart, spoke in the same vein, stating their resolve to succeed in 2015. Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ribadu, was optimistic that they were “on a journey to bring up a new Nigeria, bring back security and creation of jobs”. Onu was no less enthusiastic, assuring that “an APC government would be people-centered”. Others, including governors Fashola, Aregbesola and Okorocha similarly gave messages of hope.
While Fashola urged all involved to place the country’s interests over parochial personal and party interests, his Imo counterpart, Okorocha, prophesied victory for APC in 2015. “Iam not a prophet”, he said, “but let me prophesy that APC will win in 2015”.
However, Tinubu’s speech, unexpectedly, turned to be a bomb which the PDP tried to detonate. Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, hit back with doses of venom he could muster. “It is evident that the proposed merger revolves around two personalities only, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Retired General Muhammadu Buhari. Unfortunately, both are political liabilities”. Of the two, Okupe chose Tinubu for more vitriol. He faulted Tinubu’s disparaging assessment of the Jonathan administration’s handling of the economy, governance and security, avowing that he (Tinubu) did not perform any better “as a governor of one of Nigeria’s richest states for eight years”, particularly in budget implementation and workers’ welfare.
Also, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement he made in Abuja, accused APC of stealing its manifesto, a claim the latter denied. Metuh said the APC manifesto “is a very poor imitation, a bland parody of the manifesto of the PDP”. While the remonstration was going-on, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, added its voice for good measure. CNPP National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, said that the “manifesto war” was healthy in liberal democracy, for “it clearly separates the wheat from the chaff”. He saluted the APC “not only for presenting a manifesto that attracted the intense and rabid attention of the PDP, but for making corruption number one on its agenda”.
The APC had said it would tackle corruption and probe political leaders who stole the country blind and mismanaged its economy. With APC’s fulfilment of Section 84, sub-section 3(C), which states that there must be “a special resolution passed by the national convention of each of parties proposing to merge, approving the merger”, its registration seemed to be in full throttle. It is to be expected that the CPC and ANPP would follow suit to consolidate the process, which many believe would alter the country’s political horizon, preparatory to the 2015 general elections.
—Fola Ademosu