With less than a month to go before Nigeria’s general election, a political party should not be on the ballot. That is the ruling Congress of All Progressives.
If dignity were of any concern to APC or if he had any sense of character or shame, he would have called or written to the election commission sometime in the last two years when Nigerians began to turn their political attention in 2023 and requested to be removed. of participation.
Because it doesn’t make sense for APC to consider itself worthy of leadership in 2023 just as in 2015 it argued that the Peoples’ Democratic Party was not worthy of leadership.
“In the past, political manifestos in Nigeria were little different from mere platitudes and general statements for which parties could not be held accountable,” the party said at the time. “The APC Manifesto is different. We have clearly stated what we will deliver to Nigeria when elected to office. Our focus is on six priority areas: National Security, Good Governance and Human Capital Development”.
The other areas: Relief: “We believe the Nigerian people need immediate relief from the unnecessary hardships that 16 years of rule by the incumbent government have imposed.”
Recovery: “We believe that our competent management and leadership will ensure that Nigeria can begin to repair its weakened institutions and democratic governance processes.”
Reform: “We believe that APC’s Vision for the Nation will reshape governance in a way that boosts our political economy so that we can begin to walk the path of our best future.”
The party then offered what it called “An Honest Deal with Nigeria”, stating the need for Nigeria to look forward rather than the PDP’s failed policies and practices.
Among others, remember, APC promised three million new jobs a year; health for all; and guaranteed free education.
“It would triple spending on education in the next 10 years, from the current 0.5% to 24.5%.” Triple? Five years later, education spending in the current budget is an abysmal 6.7%!
APC said that it would “immediately increase the share of federal health care spending from 5.5% to 10%, with the goal of bringing it to 15% by 2020.” That was a blatant lie by several miles – healthcare received 4.14% in 2020, 4.7 in 2022, and 5.7 in 2023!
On corruption, APC said it would: “Create a functionally independent anti-corruption agency, with adequate and predictable funding and full powers of prosecution and free from political interference.”
The party stated that it would: “End the immunity of sitting politicians from prosecution.”
In welcoming the APC earlier, after its formation in February 2013, I urged the party to understand that it would be held to a higher standard than the PDP because it had clearly and circumstantially proclaimed itself superior.
To be seen as programmed to serve, rather than serve its members, I said it needed to set and announce clear public standards and show that those standards were higher than partisan politics and the APC itself.
“I challenge the APC to establish these standards in a code of conduct and obligations, and publish it. This will show that the party understands the quality of the challenge facing our nation and that it intends to subordinate itself to it.”
The party not only failed to live up to any of these commitments, but evidence abounds that it has led Nigerians into deeper deterioration than the PDP.
That corruption has soared is amply illustrated in all facets of official life in Nigeria. todayculminating in the party’s 2022 primary that was an open announcement for compromise politics and the rise of Bola Tinubu as its candidate.
Mr. Tinubu is now known around the world, mainly for the opacity of his record and, on occasion, for matters of a personal nature. Those include his template for the perpetual looting of the states by outgoing governors, his conviction for drug offenses in the United States, a whole library of allegations detailed in this scandalous investigative project, or this one. In 2018, in the Vanguard newspaper, the now-deceased Yinka Odumakin outlined in an unforgettable four-part profile the Tinubu Nigerians should avoid.
But remember: During his 2015 campaign, Buhari asked Nigerians: “Let me show you that in our lifetime, you and your country can be proud of this country.”
Eight years later, where is that country? Isn’t it amazing that a man who is, at best, a question mark in any discussion of leadership potential of any kind, should be the proud APC presidential candidate and potential successor to Buhari?
By almost every measure, APC has made being a Nigerian a source of embarrassment and embarrassment. For every mile of infrastructure built, like the Lagos light rail that Buhari commissioned last week, there is an Abuja light rail that he launched just four years ago and is no longer running. For every high school teacher or government employee prosecuted for corruption by the EFCC, there are 30 current and former APC governors and 20 ministers he will not touch. rotting in real time. For every year that APC has been in control since 2015, hundreds of thousands of jobs and businesses have fled and insecurity has traversed the country dozens of times. For every airline APC promised, it shamelessly flies 10 presidential jets around the world.
This explains the turmoil in which Nigeria finds itself. The presidency snatches the EFCC chairman off the streets, fires him from office, but never publishes his kangaroo court report. The APC government decides to sell the assets it supposedly recovered, without disclosing what they are, only to claim that they have been sold, or perhaps quietly returned to their original owners.
It is not surprising that APC wants to stay in power; it has much more to hide than the PDP did in 2015. At that time, and for that reason, it was easy for APC to trumpet CHANGE propaganda, and for Nigerians to buy it.
It is for this very reason that Nigerians must now reject APC in the center and across the country. Unless you really hate yourself or are a masochist, it’s obvious that the same treatment that was applied to PDP in 2015 should now be applied to APC.
By this defense, I do not mean that PDP should replace APC. In previous columns I have argued that they are sides of the same coin, a coin I call ‘APDPC’. They are cynical, conniving, cynical political parties that lack honor, patriotism or courage. Anyone looking for the Nigerian and Nigerian advance should turn it down lest they contract the diseases they have traveled for the past 24 years.
Clearly, who you vote for is your business. But unless you want at least another generation of swimming in sewage, neither APC nor PDP may be your choice in 2023. Instead, use them as a club or curse. Save yourself.
[This column welcomes rebuttals from interested party/government officials.]
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@Sonala.Olumhense
