APC- A Left of Centre Party

Ask any ranking All Progressives Congress (APC) member about where the party is taking Nigeria, a quick retort would be that the party is left- of -centre in orientation, people oriented and that ureading the party’s manifesto is all that is needed to be convinced. Laudable as some of the measures taken so far by the government are, they still hardly indicate any discernible direction. Certainly, battling insurgency with renewed vigour or causing looters to cough back their loots would always count for so much in this milieu, but they provide no clue to where Nigeria is headed. The party’s manifesto entitled: A New Party for A New Nigeria is a 48 page document printed on glossy paper containing the usual declarations parties seeking power make--revamping education, creating employment, revitalising the economy and returning purpose to Nigeria’s foreign policy. But it reveals very little that Nigerians have not heard before, for anyone looking for a decidedly overt left of centre policies, even by Nigeria standard.

At least the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group (AG) and the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) still remain parties that unabashedly espoused clearly left of centre programmes in the tradition of Social Democratic parties all over the world. In their time they had promised free education, free health and full employment for all and wherever these parties had controlled power the policies were implemented with remarkable success. To be sure, the APC manifesto has something on education, health and employment but it stopped short of promising anything extraordinary. The head start the Southwest had in giving education to its citizen was due to the free education policy. The nearest the APC came to do so is on page 17 where the party promised to “-create a phased Social Insurance scheme to assist certain groups in the population with social welfare payments through a phased programme starting with:-young people under 30 and the unemployed; senior citizens over 70, the disabled and armed service veterans. The party also promised to ensure retirees receive their gratuities on the effective date of their retirement as well as ensuring pensions are paid when due”. It also promised to introduce free daily school meals for all primary school children.

By declaring itself a left-of -centre party it is assumed the APC seeks to follow in the footsteps of established social democratic political parties which originated in the Nordic countries, particularly Denmark and Sweden which instituted social policies aimed at cushioning the harsh effect of market oriented policies. These policies sought to achieve economic equality and equal opportunity for all, principally as a vehicle of creating an egalitarian society and through it build social harmony and eliminate disaffection, the sort that are being witnessed as insurgency, kidnappings and armed robberies that have turned our days into nightmares. Policies of Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt in Germany in the 70s laid down the phenomenal affluence that country is enjoying today. The same can be said of the policies of Bruno Kreisky in Austria and Harlem Bruntland in Norway. The successes of these social democratic policies have been one reason why the Nordic countries are far ahead on many indices of growth, not only are they the most peaceful and therefore habitable countries on planet earth, their school children out -perform school children of the same grade in many countries, including the United States. Their exceptional health delivery system readily ensures longevity for their citizens, thereby making it possible that no one is abandoned but everyone is lent support from the “cradle to the grave”. A mark of their attraction as preferred destinations by the hordes of refugees fleeing war and conflict in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq is their openly caring and humanitarian inclination that exists nowhere else.

The social democratic ethos for bridging the yawning gap between the poor and the rich was underscored during Bill Clinton’s presidency when special programmes targeted at the underclass, particularly poor black and Latino youth and single mothers living rough with no ambitions, and wallowing in a criminal existence were provided education and skills at state expense. The result was that they were reintegrated into society as respectable and bona fide members working to support themselves and no longer depending on the dole and the midday meals as their means of survival. The Clinton/Gore programme that gave hope to the youth in the US should serve as a handbook for President Muhammadu Buhari’s government when fashioning out its own policies to arrest the angst and the preponderance of violence which official neglect and criminal indifference have engendered in the youth, which in turn have driven them to desperation.

APC’s ascendancy as a government party was seen as an opportunity for real quality change from the way Nigeria has been run before now. But one does not see any remarkable signal for change in its social policies, at least as contained in its manifesto. The policies seem tentative and timid when what is expected are bold and ambitious aspirations, in several areas. Perhaps all this indicates an attitude of impatience, as the APC chairman Chief John Oyegun would like to assert, and now that the government is about to enter its implementation mode, policies that seem skeletal and devoid of detail would be fleshed out concretely to make them cover all the ground.

If the party and its government do that then it would have embarked on a project that would be the envy of many nations as it will ensure Nigeria returns to that period when peace reigned and criminal violence was an unheard of thing. In order words, disaffection would disappear, so also would looting of public funds in high places. It has been noted that the insane level of stealing of public funds by public officials has to do with the prevalence of insecurity among public officers; that after several years of service once they leave service their entitlements-pension and gratuities would not be forthcoming. If they are paid at all it would be posthumously. Several years ago the ordeal pensioners were put through before their pensions were paid give credence to this claim. It follows therefore that a radical and far-reaching social policy aimed at enhancing the lives of Nigerians-in and out of service might help in limiting graft in government.

Government has already empanelled an anti-corruption committee to point out the way to go to stop theft of public funds; a similar committee to bring about a new social policy setting far-reaching goals capable of bridging the gap between the poor and the rich is also of utmost necessity. The aim of such a policy should be to lessen disaffection that grows out of the envy and anger of those who feel they have been left behind and acting this by visiting violence on the polity. The policy should make social harmony and inclusiveness as a way to bring public peace its goal.

It used to be thought that anyone purveying these view is against private sector driven economic development. That is a fallacy these days. The Nordic countries known as the bastions of social democratic governments whose policies have created El-Dorados are also viable and thriving market economies that create the wealth to support the social programmes. Impliedly therefore a veritable economic restructuring programme to support the social one is also important. A huge, enabled citizenry put to work by dint of government policy would create a happy and self contented people, as well as creating the market to drive the economy. Right now the APC and its government have merely foisted an unearned label of being a left -of -centre on themselves, they would truly earn the label when through policies and programmes they forge Nigeria into a country with social democratic values.