Dismantling The Bermuda Triangle in The APC
I am therefore of the firm view that it is better to follow strictly the dictates of our party and national constitutions, rather than put APC and its activities at grave risk. Fortunately, we have already approved a timetable for the holding of congresses and elections. I think these should be allowed to go forward and all efforts should now be geared towards making them a great success.
––President Muhammadu Buhari, calling for constitutionality on tenure extension of executive members of the ruling All Progressives Party.
Ican feel the effort of Mr. President to reconcile the aggrieved members of the ruling party, the All Progressives Party (APC) materialising. That is because he has chosen the correct, though the tough way, to institute internal democracy in the party by allowing the constitution to guide the members and their conducts. This could be the best thing that will be happening in Nigeria since her return to democracy. I think that no party, especially the big ones, has relied entirely on the national constitution to resolve its intraparty squabbles, not to talk of the party’s constitution written by themselves.
With this position of the president to strictly uphold the constitution of Nigeria and that of the APC in the face of all oddities amongst the APC members, the Bermuda Triangle of the party: the President bloc, the Saraki bloc and the Oyegun bloc could be dismantled and united. There could also be a hidden bloc; all will be soothed and positioned for a better contest against the opposition in 2019. It is quite normal in any society that people follow interests. That is why in politics especially, there is no permanent friend or foe. And there is hardly any clean politics just like there is hardly any saint in politics. However, there is always the order of omission, commission and limitation.
Furthermore, with this position of the president, if actually it works throughout the electioneering and election period, it will be hard for the ruling party to lose the forthcoming elections. If the APC strictly follows its constitution, conducts free primaries at the local and national conventions, millions of Nigerians, peradventure more than in 2015, will embrace them wholeheartedly for continuity. Internal democracy has been the problem of the past. That was often the key factor to failure after elections. When things are done wrong from the onset; that is if the foundation is weak, assuredly, all that follows will be wrong.
In the simplest terms, if for any reason which is often personal and against popular acceptance, there is imposition of candidates or incompetent people are just allowed to occupy positions, then the democratic norms and the constitution would be violated. By doing so, the people imposed will display their arrogance and ineptitude when Nigerians will be in dire need for action and performance. It is in connection to these hypotheses that some elements in each side of the Bermuda Triangle in the APC have been operating, looking at one another with suspicion and gloating at, nay plotting for, the failure of the other.
I must confess that I was thrilled at least with the outcome of the APCs meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, March 27, 2018, where the president, I may say for another time, proved to Nigerians to be a leader to trust and support. The earlier onerous decision to extend the tenure of the APC chairman by one year had nearly put the party in disarray. Through a motion at the last National Executive Committee meeting on February 27, 2018, it was unceremoniously agreed to extend the tenure of the Oyegun’s led executives expiring in June 2018 for one year. Independent investigations showed that some party stalwarts had started parking their brooms for burning in preparation to bid farewell to the party, while others were already engaged in serious consultations to head to court. That, indeed, would have spelt a doom for the party.
“I have taken some time to review and seek advice on the resolution”, the president proclaimed. This, unquestionably, is a good quality of a leader. There is no hurry in life.