The Centre Can No Longer Hold

The All Progressives Congress has been stuttering since May 29, 2015, when it was declared winner of the keenly contested election between it and the Peoples Democratic Party. But it’s easy to make a logical case for the APC. It was an amalgam of strange bedfellows, who came together for the sole purpose of sending the PDP packing. But what was supposed to be its foundation – a sound ideology assisted by planning and development focus – was hardly a concern. Not many paid attention to it. PDP’s 16 years was too much to deal with. The reviled former President Godluck Jonathan did not only expose the inadequacies of his party, he also made mockery of its successes over the years by not being able to make hard choices in times of crisis. Thus, the consensus to chase the PDP away was a done deal and so it was defeated. But who could have thought that APC actually learnt nothing from the misfortune and abuse of power by the PDP? Sadly, it is what it is: an even more disappointing adventure. With President Muhammadu Buhari’s vanishing mystique and his body language virtually insipid, the APC is becoming a shadow of itself –rudderless and disappointing – save for the remainder of the incumbency weight it still savours. However, with the developments so far unfolding, APC’s 2015 victory appears cursed and the indicators are manifesting as it approaches 2019, write Olawale Olaleye and Tobi Soniyi

The one thing no one could hedge a bet on as far as the pending implosion in the All Progressives Congress (APC) is concerned. That it would implode is a fait accompli. Even more pathetic was that the leadership was somewhat arrogant about its failings. They have clearly learnt nothing from the misfortune of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2013, knowing full well that it was such poor leadership that eventually paved the way for their victory. And to think the journey towards 2019 smacks of déjà vu, evidently patterned after some of the events of 2013 and 2015, the party is walking into ditch with its eyes wide open. The emergence, in the week, of a splinter ruling party, the reformed APC, is a major pointer to what to expect in 2019. There is no denying the fact that the grounds had been prepared for this event some months back. What was left behind was the opening from possible reconciliation in the event that the party leadership and the presidency were disposed to closing ranks.

But with this development, the journey towards the 2019 elections has begun, sadly, on a tottering note. Suffice it to say that some of the events leading to the 2015 elections threatened the peace and unity of the country save for the leadership disposition of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who openly confirmed that his ambition was not worth the blood of any one Nigerian.

Curiously, the events certain to usher in the 2019 elections share closely with those that shaped and defined the 2015 elections. But what cannot be said of this present leadership as the nation journeys through the difficulty of another election cycle is her disposition to the peace of the nation especially that Nigeria has lost more people to criminal herders than the PDP did to Boko Haram terrorists under her. And that would form the real debate around the 2019 polls.