WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
Administering a political party is a very critical and sensitive business considering the fact that the political parties in turn indirectly administer a nation when it is in power, and literally put checks on the ruling party when in opposition. The extent of organisation of an effective political party would always relate to the performance of a government elected on the platform of the party and others.
In developed nations, we see shrewd party administrators and not core politicians handling the management of political parties. A good example is the Democratic Convention Chairman of the Democratic Party in the US; an absolute party technocrat, not a public office-seeking politician who is given a sensitive party position as a political compensation.
That is the major reason why our parties fail in Nigeria; and the reason why we are not seeing effective quality contributions to real time governance from the political parties. The erstwhile almighty PDP went under for the same reason; the party had the reach, the population, the grassroots control and coordination, but unfortunately was headed by carrier politicians who see every political office as an opportunity for more politicking. The ruling APC is already taking the same path and it would only be a matter of seasons, except there is a conscious and proactive administrative readjustment.
The All Progressive Congress was born differently from the status quo political party evolution; being a union of once considered serious but limited several parties, and has gone all ahead to become a dominant force that shakes the entire nation again and again with victories across the states and the center. These victories were not a game of luck, but results of permutations by astute democratic elements and leaders of the party who believed more in sacrificial contributions than building political empire for themselves at the expense of the party.
Unfortunately, that is not the same APC we have today. The party has ended up in the hands of political jackals as NWC leadership, who only see the party as an opportunity to serve self, make money, reward cronies and make road for personal political growth. The current realities of the party say more about why the party cannot be seen in a position to aid the effectiveness of the nation’s administration via useful and constructive contribution to government direction and policies. The Adamu Abdullahi-led APC National Working Committee, was absolutely a square peg in a round hole, and has done nothing right for the party since the NWC came onboard.
The sins of the Abdullahi Adamu and Omisore-led APC NWC are too many to let go except we are not serious about revamping the lot of the party and resetting it for an effective party administration into the future.
Of all the reasons, why the Adamu-led NWC can no longer sit on top the party NWC is because it is impracticable that he would work harmoniously with a president he did everything possible and within his power as the party national chairman to stop, not only from picking the party ticket, but also from winning the election. It was obvious the handwriting was everywhere on the wall; Abdullahi Adamu wanted any other candidate but Tinubu. Definitely, his actions as the party national chairman would continuously hamper the success of the Administration if allowed to continue in the office.
More worrisome was the regime of corruption that characterised the leadership of the erstwhile chairman. Things got worse; not a single candidate who was not anointed by the party chair and his cronies got the ticket from the last primaries without a fight; the President included. The tickets were all for either the highest bidders or the anointed candidates across the country.
We ended up creating enemies within and for the party, leading to grievances that the NWC did nothing to resolve till date. No effective reconciliation moves or conscious attempts to redress members’ grievances. Eventually, a party that boasted about a 40 million membership base from its recently conducted membership registration had to struggle to win a presidential election with just about 8 million Plus votes.
The party spent money to expand the party membership base just about a year ago, collated useful data from across over 170,000 polling units nationwide, and yet the data rest on tables – probably idle ones – at the party national secretariat without any form of utilisation. The NWC saw no need for grassroots mobilisation via call centers to boost the members’ turnout for the election. We ended up witnessing massive voters’ apathy that almost cost the party recorded victories in many states and even at the center. Who did not know APC was only lucky and had the spectacular folly of PDP and its flag bearer in the just concluded presidential election to thank for its victory. Had there been a united PDP before the election, if Atiku Abubakar had done the needful, the outcome of the presidential election would probably have been different and in favour of PDP.
What happened to APC in Borno State, for instance, was an eye opener to the nationwide challenge the NWC created for the party as a whole. Members as well as aggrieved contestants rebelled against the party to the point that the latter managed to win a state that has been a perennial strong of APC. The party struggled to win the February 25th presidential election and gave the opposition the leverage to think it can turn the governorship election against the ruling party. What did we do in response? We knew where the problem came from and we knew we had to get back to our voting base and pacify the stalwarts. Within a gap of a few days, we set up a call center, turned out the party register for the state and started reaching out to the registered members. And it worked, after expressing their grievances, and receiving assurances of changes; the outcome was the governorship election saw the party winning by as much as above 500,000. If only the NWC had been innovative, and used the data at its possession for campaigns, we would not be talking of contestable margins in the just concluded presidential election, even dealing with a combined force of PDP, Labour Party and any other.
Do we all remember the Osun state saga, how APC lost the election as a ruling party; not because its popularity has eroded in the state, but because the NWC was bent on having its way in the state. The National Secretary wanted to take over the party, definitely to pave the way for him to contest in 2027; the NWC ended up conniving with the opposition to win the election. One of the tools employed was that uploaded APC Election Day agents were filled up with PDP members and we ended up having PDP agents standing as APC agents on the Election Day. Where does it happen that the first thing an elected governor does after victory is to robustly thank and appreciate the opposition for helping him? Indeed, Omisore, Adamu and Aregbesola did help him sail to victory in Osun state. We lost the state because the NWC was bent on having its way in Osun state.
Because of the selfishness of the NWC, we went into the election as a divided house. So many internal grievances, court cases and litigations against the party and an NWC that was not bothered to do anything to reconcile its aggrieved members; the President, immediately after the primary ordered that all candidates who lost at the primaries should have their ticket monies returned, yet the NWC, despite having received 32 billion naira from sales of primary forms, chose to disregard the direct order, as well as refused to set up a committee for reconciliations.
What did the NWC do with the 32 billion naira received, the earning of the party? That remains unaccounted for till today. Contractors who printed the primary elections documents are still being owed by the party despite the much available funds at the disposal of the NWC. There has even been the allegation of the NWC members paying themselves a sum of two hundred million naira each immediately after the convention was conducted without any recourse to the party NEC approval. This was said to have been shared more than once. Whereas, party contractors were left begging while they were busy appropriating the party monies for themselves at the behest of the chairman.
While all these are not forgivable, more worrisome is the issue of the illegality surrounding the composition of the NWC perpetuated by Abdullahi Adamu. Firstly, the power given to the NWC by NEC expired June 2022, and rather than calling for a NEC meeting to do the needful, he refused for reasons best known to him. Yet, he went ahead to expand the composition of the NWC outside the provision of the Party Constitution. The amended Party Constitution as submitted to INEC and registered with the National Library only contains two provisions that allow increased participation of women and the physically challenged, but Abdullahi Adamu smuggled into the committee the position of Deputy Organising Secretary, Deputy Financial Secretary and Deputy Publicity Secretary; a clear aberration unknown to the Party Constitution.
These are academic cases of leadership disaster with deleterious effects on the party if nothing is done to correct it. We however have Hope Uzodinma, the current Governor of Imo State and Nuhu Ribadu, the new National Security Adviser to the president to thank for reportedly intervening to save the face of Adamu and Omisore by giving them a soft landing. But notwithstanding, the party’s finances under their watch should be investigated properly as an important measure to bring sanity to the party. The party’s money is not for a few individuals to take at will but belongs to all the members of the party of which proper authorisation particularly from NEC must be adhered to before expending it either in part or in whole. You may all recall, the arms fund scandal, aka Dasuki-gate under Goodluck Jonathan whereby it was alleged that money meant for arms to prosecute the war on terrorism was shared to individuals without proper authorisation. We later saw how the individuals who received the money were traced to recover the money. Same should be extended on APC finances under Adamu by tracing all the individuals who allegedly took the party’s money to return it.
So many things went wrong with Adamu at the helm of affairs of APC of which only some have been highlighted above; and now is yet time to correct the errors and reposition the party for an effective and efficient party administration. What has to be done are few but would require sincerity of the new party leadership to steer the party in the right direction.
I am of the opinion coming from a vantage and an outcome of a thoughtful observation that we have gone beyond the period when critical party leadership positions are used to settle or pacify politicians who lost elections or handed out to career politicians who see it only as a political instrument to boost their individual growth. If we are serious, we must embark on a journey where astute party administrators, party technocrats with no eyes on elective offices are engaged to run the party for effectiveness. That is what is obtainable in developed nations and with serious minded political parties. You would not see the chairmen of the Democratic Convention in the US, for instance, getting himself involved in elective position politicking. Their business is party organisation, party population and election winning planning.
Arguably, APC is the only party, not just in Nigeria, but in the entire West Africa region to have embarked successfully on a polling unit members’ registration drive. The party currently boasts a forty million membership base; what do we do with this available valuable data? It is about time we get a data handling office that turns the party data into an effective election-winning tool for the party in the near future and beyond.
APC as a political party, under a Democrat president, has yet another great opportunity to emerge as a case study of an evolving strong political party for others across the continent and beyond to learn from. It is all in our hands to put our house in order and become the great party we are capable of and aspire to be.
GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!
